Irrelevant trivia: I was lectured at university by a Dr. Shipman who was the absolute spitting image of Harold were he in his 30s. Beard and all. "No relation" was his ice-breaker.
Irrelevant trivia: I was lectured at university by a Dr. Shipman who was the absolute spitting image of Harold were he in his 30s. Beard and all. "No relation" was his ice-breaker.
there was a picture here
"A puzzle-platformer indie game that is full of little nods to other games."
Although from first glance this sounds pretentious at worst, and "just like every other indie game" at best, this is a surprisingly sharp little puzzle game that is a lot of fun.
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This game features a couple of famous block-mancers, namely Notch (of Minecraft fame) and Alexey Pajitnov (of Tetris fame). You are a little robot that they've invented, and your job is basically to go around, well... collecting Minecraft blocks and turning them into Tetris blocks. The game has two different interfaces. The default one...
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And the block-building one.
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You can only build your shapes in the form of Tetrominos (Tetris shapes), which throws an interesting twist into the puzzle aspect of the game. Your goal, then, is to use blocks get to the portal at the end of each level so you can rescue Notch and Alexey, who have apparently been kidnapped (presumably by EA or Activision or something.)
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As you progress, you learn that different blocks do different things, and also get upgrades.
Oh, and there are Big Bads that you have to run away from. It's pretty tense because you have to build as you go.
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There are also a lot of little secrets that you can collect. These secrets unlock bonus levels and reference other Blocks That (Have) Mattered in video games, such as the Companion Cube or Mario's ? blocks.
In short, this is a surprisingly fun game that you'll probably have trouble putting down. One of the better indie games I've played lately, for sure.
THE VERDICT
- It's an indie-puzzler that's better than most indie-puzzlers
- Yes, the premise is silly, but don't let that deter you
- Definitely get it if it sounds interesting to you, it's fun
- Even if you're not sure, get it on sale or in a bundle. I'm not kidding, it's fun
The second I saw the image of those two dudes I thought "those animated characters are of Indie Devs, perhaps the ones who made this game, aren't they?" and then I read that they were indeed Indie Devs and it made me realise just how predictable Indie Devs are.
Also, regarding the WTC screenshots, how sad is it that I was all "Why are there stars in front of the WTC and those other buil-- ohhhhh, wait, windows, lights, right."
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
It does look super hipstery and indie but it's also genuinely really fun.
And it's not nearly as hipstery and indie as the next game on my list...
Braid, eh
That sounds pretty cool. May look into that!
Up next for your consideration I present... an INDIE PUZZLE PLATFORMER (who would have guessed?)
So yes, Braid. If there was a poster child for artsy indie games than this would be it. Most people who haven't played it have at least heard of it, for better or for worse.
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You know from the start that you're in for an art game. To the game's credit you can play right from the title screen - no waiting around for opening cutscenes or exposition.
Granted, that's because all the exposition begins on the next screen, and boy, is it wordy.
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Time and Forgiveness? What?
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Oh, okay. Each book is going into huge detail about... I don't know, author filibuster, I guess.
ANYWAYS, now that that's out of the way, we can continue on to the gameplay. The game's art direction and music is actually really relaxing, and all in all it's a standard Mario-style platformer that involves jumping on bad guys and collecting items.
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The primary gimmick of the game is the ability to reverse time. This means that if you die, instead of restarting the level, you can just back up a few seconds and try again. This is actually nice and keeps the game from being overly frustrating, a problem that I feel many other puzzle-platformers fall victim to.
As you continue along, the time control becomes less of a life-saving device and more of a part of the puzzle, because certain objects (denoted by sparkles) are immune to the effects of time. This makes manipulating time an integral part of the gameplay, in a way that's difficult to explain but really quite ingenious. It also keeps Braid from being Yet Another Indie Game With One Minor Gimmick, a la Fez, for example. Because the gimmick, in this case, is actually interesting.
It also does tie in to the story (or Author Filibuster) about the rhetorical question "What if we could redo our mistakes?" So that's pretty admirable.
Anyways, Mario references abound.
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I seem to recall a Donkey Kong reference from the last time I played, too.
Ultimately if this game falls victim to anything it's its own sense of self-importance. This is just me speaking, so others might have a different viewpoint, but when I play a puzzley-platformer I'm not looking for a grand, thoughtful essay about the meaning of life. I just want to play the damn game. Braid seems to want to stuff the aforementioned author filibusters in whenever possible, and although I'm sure some people really like this aspect of the game, I just find it to be superfluous.
TLDR: If you don't mind Braid's ego, and/or you can look past it, you really will find an interesting game here with some ingenious puzzles. Brace yourself for a couple of (fortunately largely skippable) philosophy dumps, though.
THE VERDICT:
- Kind of full of itself (to no one's surprise)
- But the gimmick is actually really interesting and well done
- Probably a bit of a polarizing game
- The art and music is really relaxing, though
- Worth a look if the concept of time manipulation intrigues you
Interesting. I vaguely recall hearing the game title, but it might just be my imagination. Other than that, I don't think I've actually seen this before. Looks neat, but probably not something I'd pay for.
Bow before the mighty Javoo!
I couldn't get into Braid at all!
And then there is Death
I freaking loved Braid. It was like stumbling into anime for the first time. I thought mario had gotten stale. And playing a mario-like with a weird and intriguing story
It reminded me of watching Memento or Donnie Darko. Just trippy and I was always interested in what came next. And I adored the music and art style. To me it was an artsy fartsy story game with good gameplay. To everyone its its a platformer with good gameplay and a useless story. But if I just want gameplay, there's always things like Escape Goat (or whatever was available back then. N+ or 'Splosion Man or something)
So to me it filled the same void as Cave Story~ But I totally get why people hate it. It's definitely not just trying to be a game. It's attempting to be more. And for some people that's okay, for others its annoying
I'm pretty indifferent to Braid. I liked some of the puzzles, and didn't really like others, and the non-gameplay elements barely mattered at all. It's just a slightly-below-average indie puzzle game overall, I think.
Overall I do like Braid, I think the puzzles are pretty interesting. I just don't know if I can get into it enough to finish it.
Braid was alright, I guess? :3 I enjoyed it, but I definitely won't be going back to it again.
I think I beat Braid in like 3 hours. And that's probably mostly because puzzle platformers weren't really a thing to me at the time. Especially ones involving time manipulation. I think speed runs do it in like 20 minutes. So it can probably really be done in an hour or so. Its not a very long game. But don't force yourself or anything
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