When you spend a good deal of your time reviewing sub-standard mini game collections, or vapid shovelware meant for nothing more than capitalizing on the latest gaming trend, playing a game like Braid is a sublime privilege. That is until you have to write the review. Were it up to me, I'd just say that the game is beautiful, engrossing, perfectly controlled, magnificently implemented with a bittersweet core of raw human emotion and tell you to stop reading now and just go out and buy it, but alas, it ain't up to me. (This is true…make with the words! – ed)

Braid tells the story of Tim who wronged his princess and as a result, she left, hence Tim's quest to find her. Tim has the most basic of platforming moves at his disposal, namely the ability to scale ladders and latticework and a mean monster thumping jump. Tim also has the unique ability to rewind time. There is no concept of "lives" in this game. If you die, you simply rewind and try again. The technique isn't new to gaming, but in this context it acts as both a safety blanket for those mistimed jumps and a means for completing the puzzles themselves.

Time plays a huge factor in Braid both as a means of manipulating the game world and a story telling device. As you progress from world to world, time acts differently. In one world, objects exist outside of time, immune to the effects of rewinding, allowing Tim to say, unlock a door, then rewind. The door exists outside of time, so it stays open, meaning Tim can use the key on a different door. In the next world, as Tim moves forward "left to right" time moves forward, as he moves right to left, time moves backward. In this world, Tim can shift time to his advantage, setting up monsters in just the right places for double jumps to loftier heights. In the next world, rewinding causes a shadow Tim to appear and complete the actions Tim had just completed prior to rewinding, allowing Tim to have a partner in time. In the final world, Tim has a golden ring, that slows down time within a certain radius of the ring, allowing Tim to dodge cannonballs, or time jumps correctly. The passages that preclude each world come from various points in Tim's quest for his princess, giving us a glimpse of his state of mind as he gets closer and closer to his goal.

Each world starts off slowly, allowing the player to get a feel for how the new world behaves, and how to use the rewinding of time within the context of the world. The puzzles ramp up fairly quickly though and require an excellent mix of brain power and good old fashioned split second timing. Luckily, the ability to rewind makes timing those jumps easier however there is still a fair amount of trial and error needed to make certain leaps. It never feels laborious though, as the ability to rewind, change course and then rewind again adds a fluidity to the play so that it doesn't feel like you're trying the same jump over and over, just one long, protracted attempt at a single jump.

For those looking to simply get through the levels, the need for rewinding and perfect timing is lessened as many levels can be traversed with minimal effort, however to do so would cause the player to not only lose out on many of the moments that make the puzzles so great, but would also deny them the game's true ending. Capturing the various puzzle pieces scattered within a world allows for a picture to be completed that further illustrates the story told at the beginning of each world. Collect all of the puzzle pieces and a final world opens with the true ending of the game within.