Jonathan Blow’s time-manipulation platforming opus has finally made its debut on Xbox Live Arcade, to much well deserved acclaim. Considering the game was put together by a tiny team of people without any financial or corporate backing, it’s a stunning achievement. Put simply, Braid is one of the best examples of what a platforming title can be, and while the game is quite short with almost no replay value whatsoever, it’s a game that everyone should play.

Braid tells an intentionally ambiguous story surrounding the life of a short little man in a suit, Tim, and his relationship/obsession to find a girl he labels “The Princess”. The story is contained within magical books the player reads at the start of each world, detailing the efforts Tim goes through to find and “rescue” the Princess so he and she can finally be together, as well as surreptitiously introducing new gameplay elements before the player actually encounters them later on. It’s an interesting method of delivery, and one the player probably won’t pick up on immediately unless they’re really paying attention.

The charm of Braid’s gameplay lies within the manipulation of time, which is an unlimited ability of Tim’s not bound by any sort of restrictions like a silly power meter or paltry resource the player must collect. The game is meant to be taken at the player’s own pace, and indeed this is really the only way to play it, as some of the puzzles contained within Braid are downright maddening to complete. As is usually the case with most puzzle games, the challenges presented in Braid are actually no where near as complicated as they appear, and completing many of them will undoubtedly give you an enormous, if brief, sense of accomplishment. This entitled sense of self-satisfaction is probably Braid’s most important achievement in game design.

Graphically, Braid is gorgeous. Everything is splashed with color; backgrounds (and some foregrounds) are essentially animated oil paintings. Environments are beautifully designed and completely unique to each of the game’s six worlds, and while there are really only six actual entities in the game to animate, they’re extremely well done and move fluidly. Audibly, Braid features some amazing sound design and an absolutely fantastic sound track. Sound effects are cute but functional without being overly annoying, and it seems as if they were designed specifically not to detract from the incredible musical score.

Despite all of these great features, Braid has got one problem that could potentially question one’s decision to purchase the title: replayability. The game basically has no replayability whatsoever. It will take a new player around six hours to complete, and once that’s done, the only reason to keep playing is to finish the time trials. Other than that, there is really no reason to pick the game up again. That said, Braid is still a game that everyone, everyone should experience, if only to see what the talent of a very small team of developers can create on a minimal budget.