Nocturnal Nick

Braid has, over the last few hours, changed my perception of 2D platformers. I went into it a little late last night expecting some interesting time-based puzzles. The game places you in control of who I can only assume (from text placed in books around levels) is Tim.

There isn’t an obvious background story, just a typical “Tim searches for the princess” platformer, though there are definitely subtle undertones of something more. Whether you walk away from this thinking whoever made it was on drugs, or was being really deep (or both) you’ll walk away with a definite feeling of achievement.

As for the deeper meaning, it has been interpreted (not entirely my credit) to be a metaphor for the discovery and testing of the nuclear bomb. Without going into it too much, there are a hell of references, but they are all so subtle to those (such as myself) that aren’t familiar with the intricacies of that particular piece of history. This surprised me as I was able to get through the whole game without picking it up, I was just plain confused.

Anyway, VERY well worth the $9.99 or 1200 microsoft points!

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