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This thread has been linked to the game 'Braid'.
Braid is the debut game of Jonathan blow. It is a puzzle/platforming game that has won praise from critics and has been stated by many as XBLA game of the year in 2008.
The story is about a man named Tim, who sets out to rescue a princess. The story is told through a series of paragraphs of text within text books. These paragraphs hint at what gameplay mechanic is used in each level.
This is why the game is considered pretentious by many players. The text book method of storytelling isn't necessarily a good way of doing it. It feels completely disjointed from the gameplay and to see the text narrative as a metaphor for the levels you play is a bit of a stretch for most people to believe.
To complete each world, you need to collect all the puzzle pieces and put them together once you are in the world hub.
The game has references to Mario, with "goomba" style enemies to bounce off and when you reach the end of each level you hear "the princess is in another castle". That said, it is questionable whether this is a platforming game, as you aren't punished for your mistakes and you can rewind and try again.
The different time mechanics in each world keeps the gameplay varied and interesting, although there are occasions where you are solving the same puzzles with different time powers, which hints that mr blow may have been running low on ideas. However, this was only done a few times and the puzzles are interesting for the most part.
Although, there are narrow minded gamers who will state that the game mechanic is just a rip off of Prince of Persia's time rewind, Jonathan Blow was smart enough to take the idea to new places. He made it so that only certain objects and creatures were affected by time manipulation, forcing the player to use it in more interesting ways.
The first example of this is "The Pit" which has a "key" which glows green. This means that the key isn't affected by time rewind when it is in your possession, which means all you have to do is grab the key and rewind out of the pit with it.
The second world is one where time moves forward when you move right and moves backward when you move left. Other time manipulation powers are a time slowing ring and my personal favourite - the ability to create a doppleganger which repeats an action when you reverse time, allowing you to do two things at once.
The art style is unique and because it isn't trying for a realistic look, it makes the graphics timeless, unlike Final Fantasy 8 which attempts at realistic graphics look poor by todays standard. The music is classical piano and harp music, such as "Downstream", "Lullaby" and "Romanesca" which are now some of my favourite songs in gaming, which I enjoy as much as music from Zelda and Final Fantasy series.
The negatives are that there are occasions where you have a key to open two doors and trying to open the wrong door will cause your key to break and start the level again. However, it is always the door that is the longest to get to or hardest to reach.
Also to get the alternate ending, you are supposed to collect 8 stars. You aren't told where these are hidden and completing the second level will stop you from being able to get one of them, forcing a second playthrough. Also one of them requires you to wait for almost 2 hours to reach, whilst doing nothing, which I don't think is very fun or clever.
I did give up on a few of the puzzle pieces, but I slapped myself in the face when I saw the answers, because they are all logical and should be concluded with rational thought.
The ending has a strong, surprising twist and I thought it was a great way to end, but unfortunately the developer decided to throw more text books at you to conclude the story and I have to say it did leave me feeling cold. However, I don't care much for story and the gameplay in Braid is fun and unique.
This was my first indie game and I'll never forget it. I'm sure It'll always be in my top few favourite games and I highly recommend it.
10/10
The story is about a man named Tim, who sets out to rescue a princess. The story is told through a series of paragraphs of text within text books. These paragraphs hint at what gameplay mechanic is used in each level.
This is why the game is considered pretentious by many players. The text book method of storytelling isn't necessarily a good way of doing it. It feels completely disjointed from the gameplay and to see the text narrative as a metaphor for the levels you play is a bit of a stretch for most people to believe.
To complete each world, you need to collect all the puzzle pieces and put them together once you are in the world hub.
The game has references to Mario, with "goomba" style enemies to bounce off and when you reach the end of each level you hear "the princess is in another castle". That said, it is questionable whether this is a platforming game, as you aren't punished for your mistakes and you can rewind and try again.
The different time mechanics in each world keeps the gameplay varied and interesting, although there are occasions where you are solving the same puzzles with different time powers, which hints that mr blow may have been running low on ideas. However, this was only done a few times and the puzzles are interesting for the most part.
Although, there are narrow minded gamers who will state that the game mechanic is just a rip off of Prince of Persia's time rewind, Jonathan Blow was smart enough to take the idea to new places. He made it so that only certain objects and creatures were affected by time manipulation, forcing the player to use it in more interesting ways.
The first example of this is "The Pit" which has a "key" which glows green. This means that the key isn't affected by time rewind when it is in your possession, which means all you have to do is grab the key and rewind out of the pit with it.
The second world is one where time moves forward when you move right and moves backward when you move left. Other time manipulation powers are a time slowing ring and my personal favourite - the ability to create a doppleganger which repeats an action when you reverse time, allowing you to do two things at once.
The art style is unique and because it isn't trying for a realistic look, it makes the graphics timeless, unlike Final Fantasy 8 which attempts at realistic graphics look poor by todays standard. The music is classical piano and harp music, such as "Downstream", "Lullaby" and "Romanesca" which are now some of my favourite songs in gaming, which I enjoy as much as music from Zelda and Final Fantasy series.
The negatives are that there are occasions where you have a key to open two doors and trying to open the wrong door will cause your key to break and start the level again. However, it is always the door that is the longest to get to or hardest to reach.
Also to get the alternate ending, you are supposed to collect 8 stars. You aren't told where these are hidden and completing the second level will stop you from being able to get one of them, forcing a second playthrough. Also one of them requires you to wait for almost 2 hours to reach, whilst doing nothing, which I don't think is very fun or clever.
I did give up on a few of the puzzle pieces, but I slapped myself in the face when I saw the answers, because they are all logical and should be concluded with rational thought.
The ending has a strong, surprising twist and I thought it was a great way to end, but unfortunately the developer decided to throw more text books at you to conclude the story and I have to say it did leave me feeling cold. However, I don't care much for story and the gameplay in Braid is fun and unique.
This was my first indie game and I'll never forget it. I'm sure It'll always be in my top few favourite games and I highly recommend it.
10/10
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Braid is the debut game of Jonathan blow. It is a puzzle/platforming game that has won praise from critics and has been stated by many as XBLA game of the year in 2008.
The story is about a man named Tim, who sets out to rescue a princess. The story is told through a series of paragraphs of text within text books. These paragraphs hint at what gameplay mechanic is used in each level.
This is why the game is considered pretentious by many players. The text book method of storytelling isn't necessarily a good way of doing it. It feels completely disjointed from the gameplay and to see the text narrative as a metaphor for the levels you play is a bit of a stretch for most people to believe.
To complete each world, you need to collect all the puzzle pieces and put them together once you are in the world hub.
The game has references to Mario, with "goomba" style enemies to bounce off and when you reach the end of each level you hear "the princess is in another castle". That said, it is questionable whether this is a platforming game, as you aren't punished for your mistakes and you can rewind and try again.
The different time mechanics in each world keeps the gameplay varied and interesting, although there are occasions where you are solving the same puzzles with different time powers, which hints that mr blow may have been running low on ideas. However, this was only done a few times and the puzzles are interesting for the most part.
Although, there are narrow minded gamers who will state that the game mechanic is just a rip off of Prince of Persia's time rewind, Jonathan Blow was smart enough to take the idea to new places. He made it so that only certain objects and creatures were affected by time manipulation, forcing the player to use it in more interesting ways.
The first example of this is "The Pit" which has a "key" which glows green. This means that the key isn't affected by time rewind when it is in your possession, which means all you have to do is grab the key and rewind out of the pit with it.
The second world is one where time moves forward when you move right and moves backward when you move left. Other time manipulation powers are a time slowing ring and my personal favourite - the ability to create a doppleganger which repeats an action when you reverse time, allowing you to do two things at once.
The art style is unique and because it isn't trying for a realistic look, it makes the graphics timeless, unlike Final Fantasy 8 which attempts at realistic graphics look poor by todays standard. The music is classical piano and harp music, such as "Downstream", "Lullaby" and "Romanesca" which are now some of my favourite songs in gaming, which I enjoy as much as music from Zelda and Final Fantasy series.
The negatives are that there are occasions where you have a key to open two doors and trying to open the wrong door will cause your key to break and start the level again. However, it is always the door that is the longest to get to or hardest to reach.
Also to get the alternate ending, you are supposed to collect 8 stars. You aren't told where these are hidden and completing the second level will stop you from being able to get one of them, forcing a second playthrough. Also one of them requires you to wait for almost 2 hours to reach, whilst doing nothing, which I don't think is very fun or clever.
I did give up on a few of the puzzle pieces, but I slapped myself in the face when I saw the answers, because they are all logical and should be concluded with rational thought.
The ending has a strong, surprising twist and I thought it was a great way to end, but unfortunately the developer decided to throw more text books at you to conclude the story and I have to say it did leave me feeling cold. However, I don't care much for story and the gameplay in Braid is fun and unique.
This was my first indie game and I'll never forget it. I'm sure It'll always be in my top few favourite games and I highly recommend it.
10/10
The story is about a man named Tim, who sets out to rescue a princess. The story is told through a series of paragraphs of text within text books. These paragraphs hint at what gameplay mechanic is used in each level.
This is why the game is considered pretentious by many players. The text book method of storytelling isn't necessarily a good way of doing it. It feels completely disjointed from the gameplay and to see the text narrative as a metaphor for the levels you play is a bit of a stretch for most people to believe.
To complete each world, you need to collect all the puzzle pieces and put them together once you are in the world hub.
The game has references to Mario, with "goomba" style enemies to bounce off and when you reach the end of each level you hear "the princess is in another castle". That said, it is questionable whether this is a platforming game, as you aren't punished for your mistakes and you can rewind and try again.
The different time mechanics in each world keeps the gameplay varied and interesting, although there are occasions where you are solving the same puzzles with different time powers, which hints that mr blow may have been running low on ideas. However, this was only done a few times and the puzzles are interesting for the most part.
Although, there are narrow minded gamers who will state that the game mechanic is just a rip off of Prince of Persia's time rewind, Jonathan Blow was smart enough to take the idea to new places. He made it so that only certain objects and creatures were affected by time manipulation, forcing the player to use it in more interesting ways.
The first example of this is "The Pit" which has a "key" which glows green. This means that the key isn't affected by time rewind when it is in your possession, which means all you have to do is grab the key and rewind out of the pit with it.
The second world is one where time moves forward when you move right and moves backward when you move left. Other time manipulation powers are a time slowing ring and my personal favourite - the ability to create a doppleganger which repeats an action when you reverse time, allowing you to do two things at once.
The art style is unique and because it isn't trying for a realistic look, it makes the graphics timeless, unlike Final Fantasy 8 which attempts at realistic graphics look poor by todays standard. The music is classical piano and harp music, such as "Downstream", "Lullaby" and "Romanesca" which are now some of my favourite songs in gaming, which I enjoy as much as music from Zelda and Final Fantasy series.
The negatives are that there are occasions where you have a key to open two doors and trying to open the wrong door will cause your key to break and start the level again. However, it is always the door that is the longest to get to or hardest to reach.
Also to get the alternate ending, you are supposed to collect 8 stars. You aren't told where these are hidden and completing the second level will stop you from being able to get one of them, forcing a second playthrough. Also one of them requires you to wait for almost 2 hours to reach, whilst doing nothing, which I don't think is very fun or clever.
I did give up on a few of the puzzle pieces, but I slapped myself in the face when I saw the answers, because they are all logical and should be concluded with rational thought.
The ending has a strong, surprising twist and I thought it was a great way to end, but unfortunately the developer decided to throw more text books at you to conclude the story and I have to say it did leave me feeling cold. However, I don't care much for story and the gameplay in Braid is fun and unique.
This was my first indie game and I'll never forget it. I'm sure It'll always be in my top few favourite games and I highly recommend it.
10/10