Braid, via Apple Store

 I downloaded this game from the Apple store many years ago. I came across it on an older laptop while trying to get another, older, 32-bit game to run on Steam. It is somewhat similar to Super Mario Brothers, in that you are a character navigating a side scrolling adventure. Since I am a casual gamer, I never finished the game. I think it became too difficult for me. Since I remember so little about it, I decided to delete its preferences and start from scratch.

The game starts with “Braid” in fiery letters and a silhouetted boy to the left, standing on a bridge. White wording saying “use arrow keys to move” appear on the bridge and disappear. A contemplative violin or cello plays in the background. As you move right you enter a building with five rooms, four of which are dark, but the first room has light… and a door. The door takes you to a room full of clouds and six green books on pedestals. The title “2. Time and Forgiveness” is at the top of the room. As you pass each book, text appears, and we learn that the boy’s name is Tim. Tim needs to rescue the “Princess” from a horrible, evil monster, and she was captured by this monster because of mistakes he made. Each book talks more of mistakes, lessons learned, how people are hurt, and the effort to forgive. The fifth book poses a what if: What if you could learn from a mistake, remove the damage the mistake caused, and proceed wiser without having hurt someone? There are four doors after the green books, but only one is open. You enter.

This door, along with the others take Tim into a green, natural area where the sun is shining, and more lively violin music plays. As you progress, you encounter instructions for play, collect puzzle pieces, and avoid meatball-shaped bad guys and spiky, fiery pits in the ground. Soon you learn that if you die, you can use the shift key to rewind Tim in time and bring him back to life. Then, you can try a new approach to conquering the obstacle or villain that had bested you.

As I play, I remember what I enjoyed about Braid: exploring each level and jumping on bad guys while trying to collect puzzle pieces. I also enjoy trying to figure out how to get some of the more remote puzzle pieces, such as jumping on a bad guy to bounce higher in the air, or jumping on two bad guys consecutively, to bounce even higher. I also came across some of what made me lose interest in the game, and that is the difficulty level of some of the scenes.

The first difficult scene is on “The Cloud Bridge” level. Two of the four puzzle pieces are more out of reach and require more strategy to attain. I enjoyed trying to solve the puzzle of how to get each one, but the execution, timing the rewinding of time along with the timing of running, climbing and jumping, can become tedious for me.   

Here is a screenshot of that first difficult scenario: there is a giant frame between two high platforms with a meatball guy on one. I’m guessing I’m going to need to jump on him to reach some of these high pieces. The frame has puzzle pieces scattered on it, so this is where you piece together the actual puzzle pieces Tim has been collecting.

I thought I might see something on the puzzle pieces that looks like the platforms in the game but I don’t see anything like that. Then, I think that maybe just using the outside edge of the puzzle pieces might provide a flat surface for Tim to walk across. I try this by linking two pieces and then putting another flat edge next to it, so I can jump from one puzzle platform to the other. I hit escape and try it, but Tim just jumps through the pieces. I come back to the meatball guy and think I will try to put the pieces a little lower in the frame because the meatball guy hits the frame like curb and turns around. I try moving the piece lower, but he still turns at the end of the platform, so I decide to move on to the next world. I progress through the next levels getting the puzzle pieces I can but miss another hard piece.

Once done with the levels I go back to the cloud room with the 6 books again. This time all four doors are visible at the right of the screen, but two have numbers above them. One has a 2 and the other a 1. I think this means these are the puzzle pieces I have left to find. I enter the door with 2 and make my way to the puzzle area. This time I have collected two pieces that look like a platform and I’m able to jump across and get those puzzle pieces! Overall, I really like this game, I just don’t have the free time it requires of me to try to complete it!