Braid addendum

Good psychopathic bunny. Nice psychopathic bunny.

With apologies to Little Big Planet, which I didn't really play all that much, Braid was the most innovative and, dare I say, important game of the year. An Xbox Live title that gained a bit of controversy for it's (oh noes!) $15 price tag, Braid is a puzzle/platformer that has you manipulate time in interesting ways. Each level provides its own mechanism, and you can choose which order to tackle each challenge. Really, it's something like a cross between Prince of Persia and Super Mario, only not at all (if that makes any sense). Learning the rules of each world is the greatest challenge, and some of the puzzles are head slappingly easy once you realize you've been doing it wrong the whole time.

So, the game itself is great and fun and interesting. A lot of Live Arcade games are. What makes Braid particularly important is that is simply doesn't feel like an Arcade game. It blurs the line between what you'd expect from Microsoft's downloadable service and a full scale retail game. Its beautiful, water color-esque graphics, haunting musical score, and existential story simply isn't found anywhere outside of your local Gamestop (and really, not there either). Despite the fact that it cost somewhat more than most Arcade games do, I think Braid set the bar for what we can and should expect from the service on a more regular basis. We've acually seen an uptick in quality across the baord this year, with games like Penny Arcade Adventures, Castle Crashers, Geometry Wars 2, and of course Braid. I've always liked the Arcade portion of Xbox Live, and I hope these games inspire publishers to think outside of the "casual" box when creating games for the service. And, yeah, I'm gonna hold my breath. All night long.