With the entire internets spooging over this game in a collective display of self harm, not to mention friends insisting that I play it, I figured I should give it a go.
What can I say but... based on the demo it is fucking terrible.
Braid plays like the first blueprint drawn up for self-conscious indie-game idea #1, with no further refinement and consideration. A needless homage to Super Mario Brothers which seems to believe a revisionist take on the central themes and mechanics of that game make for an intelligent meditation on the narrative meaningless of your average video game.
Not a bad idea, but the thousands of flash movies out there featuring Mario sprites already do a considerably better job, with far more intelligence and humour, than the pained, earnest take on the platforming genre here. With the high value benefit of not needing to play a trudgingly dull platformer to begin with.
Braid plays like Manic Miner, but without the fun. It brings to the 'party':
- basic joyless controls
- faux-philosophic musings about striving for the unattainable ('rescue the princess' if you can believe it)
- HD visuals with pained A level art character design
- time control puzzles apparently nicked from Blinx
The title screen doubles as the game's first level, with the player beginning the game by wondering off the edge of the screen. Apparently this pushes the envelope for XBLA games, as strictly you can't dive straight in to the game after loading, and is one of many thoughtful touches the developer strived for that sets Braid apart from the rest of XBLA. Hang on, wait a second... oh that's right, just fuck off.
Braid is a big fat bag of pretentious game-wank. It suffers from Collossus' Shadow in the most severe case yet seen. No matter how good the later time puzzles may be, first having to cope with the explosive pretentiousness of this game is more than any man should be expected to do.
The background artwork is nice, though.
I guess somebody was gonna say it eventually - personally I'm torn between wasting my time collecting puzzle pieces on Braid or brining the Heroness on VJ, which this has made me long for again!
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When's 'Wii Carlton' coming out?
Did I just hear Heroness?
I wanna play VJ again aswell....if you do, I'll start again aswell. I need to update my YouTube page with something, there's fuck-all else out at the moment (nothing you can bring Heroness with anyway).
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I'll try the demo, but that N+ aberration didn't seem to understand what fun was either.
Show me a quality platformer made outside of the land of the rising giant reptile and I'll try it.
Speaking of the Japanese giant reptile - look at this mask I just got delivered today;
My life is now complete. They even chose to leave out breathing and eye holes, so when you put it on you can totally go into one without any concern for your own or anyone else's safety.
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You still have to breathe? That's so feable of you.
Heroness rejects breathing as a concept.
I'm down to 3 minutes of breathing a day.
No holes? Thats insane. I guess you can mod it right?
As for Joe, I think getting back into it is a really good idea. I still have so far to go to feel that I am any good at the game and nothing has touched it since. Cube has been criminally ignored by mean lately - may even get back into P.N.03...
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When's 'Wii Carlton' coming out?
I'm well up for getting back into Joe or PN03 Spags - let me know when you do and we'll start a topic and I'll start getting some more vids done.
I've seen a Goji-san mask in action on YouTube, it definetly increases your awsums;
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=EOlcqQUdfQY
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=zX9ZLvCYS1k
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=q4rm8H8-E_E
It's true actually Jibbs, breathing is totally for mortals - I'll have to wean myself off it.
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That second vid is killing me. I NEED TEH GOJI HEAD!1
I'll dig out my cube tonight.
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When's 'Wii Carlton' coming out?
I think your being a tad harsh with the game, Papercut. Though I do agree with some of your points especially about the pretentious nature of the story but the actually gameplay mechanics are all pretty solid and the game is enjoyable enough as long as you consider your playing a 2D scrolling puzzle game and not a platformer.
You mentioned Blinx, and certainly the rewind/fast-forward time mechanic in Braid is very reminiscent of that game but Braid is far more polished and enjoyable then Blinx is, and does the whole time-space thing more competently (I particular like the ability to create a time bubble in later stages).
From a gameplay standpoint, my biggest complaint is that for a puzzle game, it’s all on the easier side. Most of the puzzles are pretty straightforward as long as your attentive and even the most difficult puzzle just required some experimentation. I mean really with the mechanics on offer I was hoping for some proper mind-fuckery but even the concluding puzzle wasn’t really that challenging.
There's no doubt that Braid is extremely overhyped and doesn't quite deserve the overly high praise that it’s getting from the press but to completely dismiss it would be unfair because if look underneath the somewhat pretentious veneer, there is a pretty good game.
There's no doubt that Braid is extremely overhyped and doesn't quite deserve the overly high praise that it’s getting from the press but to completely dismiss it would be unfair because if look underneath the somewhat pretentious veneer, there is a pretty good game.
Yeah, there may be.
The problem I had was the clunky nature of the whole thing, coupled with the overwhelming pretentiousness, made me want to run a mile.
Also, based on the demo, I didn't see any of those cool puzzles, just a completely ordinary my-first-indie-game project. Did I miss anything, or is the demo a pretty poor representation of the game?
I'm having a pretty good time with the game so far; it's nice & distracting for a few hours - all things considered it's the music I love the most.
I am finding the 'second coming of the platform puzzler' chat hysterically funny though; gotta love internet hyperbole.
Downloaded the demo... its not my cup of tea on any level...
The first actual puzzle thing I stumbled across was the "Hunt" level... I'd say the game is more akin to Donkey Kong '94 in its level approach... however, the Hunt level was grade A super terrible level design... a proper game, one designed by people who know what they are doing wouldn't have a one way street puzzle design like that.
So the crux of the puzzle was that you had to jump on one of the hedgehogs to bounce to the top of the level, but there was a finite amount of hedgehogs and they were being tallyed off on a door at the top of the level... as such if you got it wrong, instead of waiting around for another hedgehog, you had to, very 1980sy Amstrad way reset the level yourself but going through a door and so on...
Or I suppose you could use the rewind thing, which totally stinks... thats such a limp wristed liberal aren't games better now because you don't get pwned by a spike... there is NO FEAR playing this game, no edge, its a swimming pool full of blamonge kind of game, where the only fear is how fat and lazy you'll get eating the contents.
Or I suppose you could use the rewind thing, which totally stinks... thats such a limp wristed liberal aren't games better now because you don't get pwned by a spike... there is NO FEAR playing this game, no edge, its a swimming pool full of blamonge kind of game, where the only fear is how fat and lazy you'll get eating the contents.
I take your point, but there are a number of puzzles in the full game that use the rewind feature as an integral technique - it's not just there to cover or erase mistakes, but in part as a puzzle-solving tool also.
Saurian I'm demanding full length photos with Goji Mask and Slippers XD
Can't pass comment on the game as I've not played it. It can't be all that bad though can it? I mean EDGE liked it
I like the game. It kind of has the sensibilities of an Amiga platform/puzzle game but with modern production values. I also like pretense, so I guess I'm a little biased.
Oh and speaking of VJ. I had dinner with a marketing chap from Capcom Japan the other night and he asked me which property I thought Capcom should revive next. I don't think I need to say what my answer was. Not that It'll have any effect though...
They've raped Viewtiful Joe already!
I think we've all forgotten the spin offs already right?
I still shudder at the DS game... ooooooo narsty...
I hear that!
They could never bring Viewtiful Joe back, without the same team led by Shinji Mikami I simply don't want to know. While the orginal was a work of genius - Viewtiful Joe 2 was totally apologetic, they completely re-focused the game towards puzzles to appease all the whining dickheads. It was a horrible mis-match due to the fact that the raw fighting mechanics of the game worked wonderfully, it's such a shame that the actual stages and enemies don't mesh with what you can do at all (from a fighting point of view).
Plus they've done a "Sonic" and shoehorned in LOADS of characters, so now Joe's whole fucking family, his friends and his cat are part of it.
The DS game was an absolute joke and the less said about Red Hot Rumble the better. Our only hope of seeing more of this style of game is to pray that Platinum's Bayonetta and Madworld don't play it too safe.
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