I’ve often found in my experiences with puzzle games that they tend to be either simple and cute or so complex that they leave your brain screaming for mercy as you try to solve that last puzzle. Braid turned out to be neither, instead deciding to subtly redefine how platform games such as the original Super Mario Brothers can be designed. The game follows Tim, the protagonist who must run, jump and avoid monsters all to save the Princess he adores. Oh, did I mention he can also rewind time?

Braid is a traditional platform game — in the sense of leaping across obstacles to proceed from a starting point on the left of the level and reach an ending point on the right. Braid allows you to control time to solve various puzzles and collect puzzle piece items to be used at various points in the level to assemble a picture fitting the theme of the story for that specific area. In addition to the story thematically having a focus in each level, the puzzles themselves also have a specific gimmick that must be mastered to obtain each and every puzzle piece in the level.

Braid begins with the simple ability to rewind time in the first level, so if you accidently drop on an enemy and die, you don’t get, “Game Over.” Instead, you simply hit a key, rewind the action like you would a video and try again from a few seconds earlier. Perhaps you’ll repeat your mistake, but maybe you’ll learn from it. Or maybe rewinding was crucial to solve the puzzle you’re working on. Each successive level builds on this idea of controlling the flow of time and using it to solve puzzles. Sometimes there will be an object immune to time manipulation, or you receive a bubble ability that slows the flow of time of objects contained inside. All of these gimmicks build on each other until the final level, in which Tim finds the princess held captive by a knight and he must race to the end of the level to save her when she escapes from her captor ... only for the player to realize the true story of the game.

The thing that first struck me about Braid was how familiar it began to feel as soon as I started to play. It was very easy to understand the concept of jumping from platform to platform, avoiding enemies or jumping on top of them to defeat them. It was only until I actually bumped into an enemy and the game told me to hold down the rewind time key that I realized that there was going to be an entirely different feel to the game as I played. The idea of having no true way to lose the game really shocked me and was a very welcome change for a platform game. It struck me that there was so little in the way of instruction that the game drops you in this world and lets you just play. Narrative itself is done by small books before you enter a level, adding onto the story in small pieces that the player can digest as they go through the level. Where so many videogames seem like they try to spell out everything to the player, it was a nice change to have the game encourage me to figure everything out on my own — puzzle and story alike.

As with most puzzle games Braid has the unfortunate flaw that it has relatively no replay value. Once you’ve figured out the trick to a puzzle, it’s very easy to simply replicate it and move on. It was also excessively frustrating to be required to solve every puzzle in the game before being allowed to finally get to the last level. There was a point where I had two puzzles I hadn’t completed that were keeping me from being able to finish the game. I had to look up the solutions online to finish. I found myself wishing that there was some sort of wiggle room for extremely hard puzzles and an extra little reward for the people who solved everything.

Braid is a gem among a sea of indie games that has really redefined how platform games can be played and merged with puzzle games. I really was drawn in by its simplicity and how the game told you to just go play. While it had moments of utter frustration with the most difficult puzzles, the game itself was short, sweet and enjoyable to play through in a few hours. Anyone who enjoys puzzle games with simple controls and a short play time should pick up Braid and enjoy the surprises it delivers.