Braid

Man, this game has totally caught me by surprise. I mean I had read all the rave reviews from last year, so I figured it was going to be good, but somehow it was totally not what I expected. The game itself is interesting enough. It's basically a puzzle game disguised as a platformer. In each of the 6 worlds, you manipulate time in a different way to reach puzzle pieces. There were more than a few times where I got stumped for a bit, but it was a nice brain teaser.

Anyway, the real reason I wanted to make a post about this is because of the story. Man, if you ever want to talk about games as art, this has got to be exhibit A. It's kind of an interesting take on the whole Mario rescuing the princess thing. What's cool is that it's all pretty abstract and there's a lot of potential meanings that can be gleamed from it. I thought the way the final level was set up was really ingenious although it was kind of depressing. And apparently there's secret stuff to go back and unlock after you beat the game to which adds some tidbits to the story. The game is totally different from anything else I've played. I feel like I've just read a good book or seen a thought provoking movie or something. I think that's one of the first times that's happened for me with a video game. I'd suggest checking it out since it's on sale, but if you do, you really have to go into it with an open mind.

EDIT: I read someone's synopsis that they came up with after collecting the hidden stars (it seems really freaking hard so I won't bother), and I must say it is totally not what I expected. It's cool to see such a completely different explanation. Check this out of you play and beat the game, otherwise don't click on it!!! http://www.rllmukforum.com/index.php?showtopic=190136%C2%A0 I just want to have it bookmarked in case one of you do play it. Here's another good one: http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/xbox360/file/943284/53842