Braid, a seemingly simple 2d platformer, might be the best game I played last year (and I didn't even finish it!) My brother got it on his Xbox and I played a little and was entranced. A few days ago, I picked it up on Steam, and have been reintroduced to it's elegant gameplay & beautiful art.

The game has a unique graphic look, clear graphics that look to me like lithographs from an old Victorian novel.  The music reminds me of the mournful cello solos of Arcanum (one of the best game soundtracks). Aesthetically, the game is clean and beautiful. The surprising aspect of the game is the lovely backstory. It's not hugely complex, or epic in scale but it has depth and deals with some fairly deep thoughts. It definitely enriched the game for me.

The game plays nicely using the arrow keys for movement, space to jump and (and here's the kicker to the game) the shift key to control time. Yup, during the game you will be using time travel to solve puzzles. The key is that anything you pick up during time shifts stays with you, so jump down in that pit to grab a key, and then shift time backwards before you jumped in the pit, and you can continue on your way with the key. It leads to some incredibly complex and well designed puzzles. The last few levels (where I am currently stuck..) are brain burners in the best way, building on the various time tricks you have learned. It's like Portal, without the need for massive physical dexterity.

I cannot recommend Braid enough. You can get it on Xbox Live, Steam or several other digital download sites. It's definitely worth $15.

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