With amazing visuals and interesting gameplay, Braid is a great game. The background paintings and animated characters are bright and beautiful, and the sound track is a mix of well-picked orchestral songs. Braid also boasts some very original, very cool puzzles mostly dealing with the manipulation of time.

However, Braid has plenty of shortcomings. First, the storytelling. Before every chapter the story is told through several long and cryptic text passages. Despite being written with compelling words, they are hard to follow - I had to look through forums to have the messages explained. Also, several levels are recycled, making this short game feel a little shorter. While each chapter has different puzzles, you often play in the same environment multiple times - this gets a little old.

Braid is a great game, and while it has a few shortcomings, they hardly affect the game play, making Braid worth buying if you are interested in it.

I was really disappointed by this game. After all the reviews I read, i was expecting more than what I got. I finished the entire game, minus the speedruns, in under 2 hours. Since I now know how to solve the puzzles, there's not much replay value for me. I don't see any similarity to super mario brothers besides the dinosaur and "the princess is in another castle"

This is a flat out great game. Its so fresh, and surprisingly, manages to stay fresh the entire game, by throwing new aspects of time control your way. It is also challenging. Oh, and the Audio. Don't get me started on the Audio. I would put it up on the level of Chrono Trigger. Just fantastic. Now the only downers with this game is the 15 bucks you have to cough up, and that the boss fights are lame. But this is a definite pick up, no matter what kind of games you like.

I admit to being fairly surprised by Braid. I guess I didn't really know what to expect from it - I was expecting a fast-paced side-scrolling platform game. What I got was a moody, cerebral, and touching puzzle-type platform game.

The game's premise is simple - you gather up puzzle pieces on a series of levels. Gathering the puzzle pieces is no easy task - you have to figure out how to get them, which involves defeating, bouncing, and utilizing Mario- little enemies and some other fairly conventional platform game tactics. Once you collect the puzzle pieces, you assemble a piece of the puzzle.

What's interesting is Braid's ability to set a tone that is both wistful and new-feeling, even if the gameplay isn't. This game quickly found its way into my brain. As far as homage to Mario goes, this is brilliant and quirky and fun. The only people who would probably not like it are gamers who really realy want fast-paced platform action.

I just recently downloaded this game after seeing Soulja Boy's in depth review(lol J/K) Anyways, it wasn't what I was expecting, but it still has a certain charm about it that kept me coming back. The main idea is your trying to rescue a princess(Mario...) and you collect puzzle pieces and solve time related puzzles as you have the ability to rewind time. You can't really die because of it. This makes makes the gameplay alot more fun because there is no annoying deaths. It adds a certain puzzle element to the game. It's a fun game worth inesting some time in.