Thoughs on Braid

So, I've been playing Braid. It's a wonderful game and I fully recommend it. On the surface the impressionistic "painterly" art style of the game is beautiful, and far more attractive and interesting to me than games that fall into the uncanny valley of attempting to look realistic.


Although the game's basic mechanics are extremely simple and familiar, with it's Mario style side-scrolling platforming and it's key and lock puzzles, the unique time mechanics of each level made me think in ways that I never have before. The only comparison I can think of is Portal. Portal made me think in a new spacial logic that doesn't really exist in reality, and Braid does the same with it's unique temporal logic.

Although this game is relatively short, it is challenging. Most of the game's 60 puzzle pieces took some thinking for me, but no longer than 15 minutes to solve. There were however three pieces in particular that took me quite a bit longer to figure out. In frustration at one point I looked at developer Jonathan Blow's official walkthrough, only to discover that he had pulled a fast one on me and encouraged me to figure them out myself. So I went back and spent some serious time with these three remaining pieces, and as he suggested in the walkthrough, they may have taken me an hour or two to figure out. But figure them out I did, and it felt extremely satisfying. After experiencing Braid's clever ending and epilogue I thought I had finished the game.

Apparently the game was not finished with me though, as there were still a a few nagging things in the back of my mind. I had read artist David Hellman's excellent article on gamasutra about the exhaustive process he and Blow went through to make sure the art in the game was perfect. In the article he displays numerous mock-ups of a single screen in the first level the player encounters in the game, including this one:


Hellman notes:

When I sent these to Jonathan, he jumped on the rectangular "cut out" on the bottom of the center platform. It was a conspicuous geometric variation in a puzzle game where the player will assume everything has been placed for a reason.

It would be bad for the player to get stuck trying to figure out the puzzle-solving purpose of something with purely aesthetic value. As we went along, I got more disciplined about eliminating stuff that might distract or confuse the player.

I knew that Jonathan Blow's design philosophy was to exclude extraneous noise, and everything in the game had been carefully placed for a reason. Without giving anything away, I had noticed several things in the game that seemed out of place, strange details that Jonathan Blow had placed carefully to linger mysteriously in the minds of players like me. As he notes in his walkthrough: "Braid does not have a linear story the way most games do, so Getting To The End is not necessarily what you would expect. The idea of 'beating the game' does not apply so much, here."

With these little unresolved pieces of the puzzle nagging at the back of my mind, but with no clue in which direction to proceed, I did exactly what Jonathan Blow's walkthrough advised against. I read a forum. What I found was pretty astounding. Aside from people trying to analyze the game's abstract fragmented "story" which presents snippets of optional text that seem to be related on the level of theme alone (personally I'm torn on how I feel about this aspect of the game, but I'll spare you that tangent for now) there is a series of nearly impossible (both to find and execute) hidden challenges in the game that unlock an alternate ending.

If anyone reading this is playing the game, to give you a hint about these challenges without spoiling them for you as a few have already been spoiled for me, they involve finding the stars in the constellation visible in the city overworld, dispersed throughout the game. One of the stars requires starting a new game, or at least finding the star near the beginning of your first play through. Another requires waiting for about two hours in one of the levels! I can't help think that despite Jonathan Blow's statement to avoid reading forums to solve the game's challenges, that these stars were built-in specifically for the forums, where people who found all the puzzles pieces but still wanted more could cooperate to uncover these challenges and be rewarded for doing so, much like Bungie did with the skulls hidden in Halo 3. Indeed, Braid is a game that can be played and appreciated on multiple levels, and it is this kind of depth that makes it so interesting and great.

Donkey Kong Jenga

Check out this awesome Donkey Kong themed Jenga set.


In addition to the classic game of Jenga, it has some sort of Donkey Kong themed alternate rule set that involves using the spinner to moving the little included Marios up the girders to save Pauline from Donkey Kong. I wish this image was a little more high res so I could see what's on that spinner. It's currently sold out on Amazon.

Weight Watchers is an RPG?

Clive Thompson posted an interesting article on wired today about how Weight Watchers functions exactly like an RPG. I really like the idea of turning dull, boring activities that people have trouble motivating themselves to do into games. The brilliant thing about Weight Watchers though, if it does actually function like an RPG, is that it isn't marketed as a game and most people who use it probably have no clue that they are playing one.

Critter Crunch

If I could get my hands on an iPhone I would totally buy this puzzle game:

Stoned spacial reasoning

If you're having people over and want to play a videogame, but don't want it to take the attention away from the conversation or ruin the relaxed atmosphere, pick up Boom Blox. Highly recommended.

iPhone Games

I suspect the iPhone AppStore is going to become quite the fertile ecosystem for innovative game development, potentially even on par with the Nintendo DS, thanks to the iPhone's friendly SDK. Take a look at this video for the game Rolando, clearly heavily inspired by LocoRoco.


Rolando for iPhone - Teaser trailer from handcircus on Vimeo.

I've seen some pretty slick looking iPhone game demo videos, but so far this one is the slickest, right up there with the Super Monkey Ball demo that Apple and and Sega have been showing off. Word is that this game will hit the AppStore in August for $9.99.

The Last Days of Dr. Wily

Sure, Capcom may have just announce Mega Man 9, a new game that resembles the classic NES Mega Man games and will be released on all three of the major console download stores. All you nerds celebrated and rejoiced and prepared yourselves for the months ahead of anticipation. But did any of you stop to think how hard these things are on old Dr. Wily, who has to fit the bill and deal with all the red tape involved in creating eight different fun worlds?

Everday Shooter

One of the few interesting indie download games on the PS3, Everday Shooter, is now available for Windows on Steam. It's $8.99 this week, and $9.99 next week. I'll probably get it, despite the fact that I'm already overwhelmed with great games that I haven't made time to play.

I hereby issue a challenge!

I challenge you fellow Very Nerdy readers/contributors to beat my score at Desktop Tower Defense, the free flash game Stephen Totilo chose as his 2007 game of the year. I have created a group scoreboard, the name of which is of course Very Nerdy. You can view the scoreboard if you want. There's nothing like some friendly competition to liven things up!

Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 Recreated in Doom Engine

There's really nothing more to say. Behold:



I give an internet high five to the dude that created this.

Cursor*10

Wow, this flash game is really cool. Do yourself a favor and take a few minutes to play it.

a thousand words

Co-op Tetris

I just ran across this video on youtube... Somehow I missed out on this when I was a kid, but Tengen Tetris for the NES had a cooperative mode. It looks pretty cool. I think my friends who had tetris back then all had the Nintendo version. Check it out:

They just don't make em like they used to.

I was digging through my old game-tapes today and found this forgotten gem.



Its a little hard to figure out the controls, but once you get em down its all a race to that ever elusive high score. A real treat of a find!

Fun Flash Game: Boomshine

Here's a nicely designed little flash game, it's called Boomshine. It's very simple, there are a bunch of colorful circles floating around the screen in random directions and you simply click one and it begins to expand. You have to strategically click a circle so that other circles collide with it and start a chain reaction. Like most good casual games it's easy to learn but hard to master, and this game has an excellent difficulty curve. The first level is nearly impossible to lose, but the 12th and last level is very difficult to win. According to the game's website only 3.97% of the level 12 games played are winners. Despite it's difficulty in the later stages, the game never punishes you for losing, you just try again. If you play it, I recommend turning off the music.


The game's designer Danny Miller is or was a student at Georgia Tech. Which makes me think maybe I should have gone there, considering this guy and Ian Bogost are both there. Then again never mind, thinking about the gender ratio there still makes me cringe.

The Power of the Internet

The internet could be seen as a culminating cultural moment in human history. A communicative tool that links users from all over the world and empowers them with the ability to collaborate and share information. The ultimate result of collective human intelligence? See for yourself.

AWESOME NEW CONSOLE REVEALED!!!

Read more about the amazing new SUPER MEGASON IV!

Super Mario Galaxy demo videos

Oh my sweet heavens.



And more:



And of course, the new bee suit:




This really is going to be my favorite game ever. HOORAY!

echochrome

The only thing that really impressed me during Sony's E3 press conference was a game called echochrome. Although it has a terrible name that isn't the least bit representative of what the game is, this PSP and PS3 download game looks to be a very unique and interesting puzzle game. Phil Harrison presented the game by saying it would be the game with "the least graphics and the most gameplay you will see during the show." Which is probably true, considering the game's graphics were simple black line drawings on a white background.

The game is played by manipulating your perspective on a series of impossible M. C. Esher style platforms and stairs. There is a little person, drawn to look like a wooden figure drawing model who wanders around the environment like a lemming, and you must help it navigate by moving the camera to connect and align platforms. I look forward to seeing more on this title in the future.

UPDATE: here is the video from the press conference:

Super Quick Nintendo E3 Press Conference Recap

• Nintendo is releasing the zapper that you insert the wiimote and nunchuck in this year for $19.99.
• Super Mario Galaxy will be released on November 12th.
• Smash Bros. Brawl will be released on December 3rd.
• Mario Kart for the Wii comes out early next year with online multiplayer racing and battle modes. It comes packed with a racing wheel that you stick your wiimote in.
• The DS vision training game is coming to the US under the name Flash Focus.
• A new Wii channel called "Check Mii Out" was announced in which people can upload, compare, and vote for their favorite Miis.
  
• Wii Fit is played with a new peripheral called the Wii Balance Board, that measures your weight and your center of gravity. The game will calculate your BMI to measure your performance, and you can compare your stats with your friends and family. They showed aerobics and yoga style exercises, a stepping mini game that looked sort of inspired by DDR, and a soccer game where you use your balance to try to hit a soccer ball with your virtual head and avoid things like flying cleats.
  

Zelda documentary IN ENGLISH!

I've read about this documentary for a few years now. I heard it featured lots of info on Aonuma and Miyamoto's working relationship and things left out of the series.

Thankfully, Zentendo translated the video and now has both high and low definition versions available. The download speeds are terrible, but that could be due to all the blogs discovering it today.

GET IT!

Backwards compatability gimped in new PS3s, blog pissed

It happened first in Europe and it finally has made its way to PS3s in America.

The new 80 gig SKU of the PS3 DOES NOT include the "emotion engine" chip and therefore will only play software supported PS2 games. Most of the worthwhile PS2 games cannot play on these new machines so if backwards compatibility is important to you, get a 60 gig unit while you can. Circuit City is having a sale now that includes a second PS3 controller and Sony is having a deal where you can get 5 bad movies on Blu-Ray if you buy a PS3 in July. The fact they are charging more for a unit without such a widely advertised feature is amazing.

Bastards.

First Killzone 2 screen released, better than GDC, worse than teaser

So early this morning the first screenshot of Killzone 2 was released and I'm partially impressed. The lighting is nice and the detail on the model is great, but the shadow on the wall looks pretty crummy from what I can see. Then again, this is all based on a scan from a page in USA today, so who knows what the game really looks like. However, this already looks better than what was described from their GDC showing so perhaps things are looking up

Rock Band timed Xbox 360 exclusive?

On his blog Game/Life Chris Kohler has been speculating for the past few days that Rock Band could become a timed Xbox 360 exclusive. At first, he had no evidence but relied on the fact that the PS2 timed exclusive of Guitar Hero 2 didn't impact the sales of the Xbox 360 version of the game. Next, he had a scan of the invite he was sent for the Rock Band E3 event which had an Xbox 360 logo but lacked one for the PS3. Now, he found in last night's PS3 price drop press sheet there was a list of the major third party releases for the PS3... and Rock Band wasn't on the list. Now this could just be a coincidence, but I think he may be on to something. Sony doesn't have the install base to support such an expensive game and since timed releases haven't hurt Harmonix in the past, why should they be worried now?

I'm very curious to see if he is right on this one.

Nintendo Announces WiiWare

Well, Nintendo finally made the announcement that everyone knew was coming eventually. Today they announced that original downloadable content will be available for sale on the Wii Shop channel, under the name WiiWare. Wii owners may already be familiar with the big WiiWare button in the shop menu.


Unfortunately, Nintendo stated in their announcement that the first WiiWare content wont be available until early 2008.

The concept of wii development being open to developers small and large thanks to the low cost and risk of electronic distribution is certainly promising. Lets hope that the late launch of this service means that Nintendo is really taking their time to do things right.

Rock Band Drums

Game Informer Magazine published an "artists rendition" of what the rock band drums are going to look like based on a prototype that Harmonix let them play. Check it out:


The text on this image is a little hard to read, so I'll go ahead and tell you that it says that the red pad on the far left is your snare and the yellow, blue, and green pads to it's right serve as multipurpose toms or cymbals. The yellow pad is usually the hi-hat when needed, and the green pad on the far right is often the crash cymbal. The set comes with real wooden drum sticks.

Trash Talk for Xbox 360 -- A Joke and Call for Response

I suppose at the time when Halo 2 for the Xbox came out I decided that if (1) I had the voice of a seventeen year old girl and (2) I had the ability to play the game very well, then I would spend my time playing online and observing the ridicule of male players as some ditz cheerleader apparent outplayed them at their favorite game. Now, with Datel's Trash Talk 360, the first half of my dream can be realized in the form of sixteen different recorded phrases available to me at the touch of a button.

That's correct, for the price of $39.99 USD one can purchase a product which allows the recording of up to sixteen voice samples (presumably all consisting of a teenaged girl saying phrases such as "Um, did I, like, just kill you?") and their subsequent broadcast live via online gaming with just a press.

Interestingly enough, as much as this scenario is a joke, it is also the only practical use I have been able to come up with for the TT360. That is, unless one were mute, in which case prerecorded trash talking would be essential for online play in the live-o-verse. Last time I checked, though, speaking took approximately the same amount of effort as pressing a button on a device called a Trash Talk 360.

In short, Trash Talk 360 is a contraption of ideas demanding jokes, debate, and questions -- of both philosophical and practical nature -- be made on its behalf. I'll leave that for the comments board, though.

Five Most Anticipated Games of 2007: Blake's list

2007 is almost halfway behind us, and boy is my wallet tired. For an industry in such a state of Limbo (the surprise success of the Wii, the slow Xbox 360 adoption rate, and the near-disaster of current PS3 sales), we have seen many fantastic releases already this year. Crackdown and Forza Motorsport 2 have both far exceeded my expectations, and WarioWare: Smooth Moves and Super Paper Mario meant that I occasionally had a non-virtual console reason to power on my Wii in the first half of the year. The DS remains strong with Hotel Dusk, Pokemon, and Planet Puzzle League. The PS2 had Chulip. Wowsa. But where is the beef, you might ask? Calm yourself, dear friend. Let me show you the beef. Here are my five most anticipated games of this year.

Note: my sincerest apologies for the IGN watermarked image. I know, I feel dirty too.

5. More Brain Age

Brain Age is certainly my most played DS game to date. Though I've spent much time solving ludicrous murder mysteries with Phoenix Wright, getting told about constellations named "DUUUDE" and the importance of muscles in Animal Crossing, and tapping out the beats of "Material Girl" with the Elite Beat Agents, nothing is in my DS more often than Brain Age. That the sequel promises MORE Brain Age is good enough for me.

4. Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed makes it's way onto my list for it's pedigree; this game is made by the team that created last generation's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. That game had some of the best platforming and environmental puzzles of it's generation and Assassin's Creed looks to up the ante in all respects. The art style looks tasteful, the level of detail looks plentiful, and the gameplay possibilities that come with being able to scale any terrain look vast.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass

The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass has much to live up to. First and foremost it is the first Zelda game to grace Nintendo's most successful system since the days of the Famicom, the Nintendo DS. Perhaps more importantly though it follows closely in the footsteps of what many consider to be the greatest Zelda game yet released, Twilight Princess. I am included in those many. Phantom Hourglass looks to take the series in many new directions with it's extensive use of the DS hardware and touch panel as well as a more "treasure hunting" styled adventure that should mix up the relative linearity of the more recent entries into the series. Eiji Aonuma has never been afraid of experimenting with the Zelda formula, and the game's delay should have helped give the game the extra level of detail and polish that makes Zelda games feel like Zelda games. All signs are looking up for this game, and we will find out how the final product holds up once it is released at the end of the month in Japan.

2. Halo 3

You don't get a screen for Halo 3,

because you should be playing the beta damnit.

If you've played the Halo 3 multiplayer beta you know why this game is so high on this list. All of the disappointment I had with Halo 2 looks to have been made up for with the third entry into the series. It is big. It is stupid. It is very, very fun.

1. Super Mario Galaxy

In all honesty, I have never been quite as excited about any game as I am about Super Mario Galaxy. The first time I saw the game I was watching the live feed of Nintendo's E3 press conference last year, drunk on champaigne with Grant and Stephen. We let out yells of amazement before our jaws hit the floor. When they showed the title of the game, we were stunned. This was the game we had all been waiting for. The result of 10 years of Mario experiments within Nintendo, this game is being billed as the successor to Super Mario World. However, it is not Mario's presence in the game that fuels my excitement. It is the sheer level of wonder present in each moment of the game that has been displayed thus far. The playable demo at E3 last year, though brief, already showed more wonder than most games can ever hope to muster in their entirety. The trailer shown at this year's GDC was even more fantastical. This game, the first proper entry in gaming's flagship series in more than a decade, looks to show the imaginative heights that the medium is capable of. Here's hoping it lives up to it's potential.

Honorable mentions: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Mass Effect, Burnout 5, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, My Sims (Wii version), Grand Theft Auto IV

Worrywort Award: Team Fortress 2. What would have been on this list without a doubt seems much less compelling without grenades. Please prove me wrong Valve!

Forza 2 Impressions

Better than Gran Tourismo 4. Shall explain later.

Guitar Hero borked by new developer, all hopes turn to Rock Band

Today Joystiq linked to a video of Guitar Hero 3 and it's hardly impressive.



In contrast to Joystiq's view of the game, I see nothing new in this. The visual cues were still present in previous versions of the game and the old interface looked to fit together more than the new one Neversoft put in. What's shocking in the story though is that Neversoft didn't have any of Harmonix's code to work with, so the game has been developed from scratch. This may mean note detection may be on par with Guitar Hero 1 instead of 2, if this video shows any sign of how the final game will play. What's most disappointing about the video is that note placement looks pretty uninspired when compared with both of the guitar hero games, looking more like something made by a fan for Frets on Fire than a game developed by professionals.

Let's hope it turns out well.

If this doesn't show gaming is for the masses, I don't know what does

DIRTY DANCING IS BECOMING A VIDEOGAME. Too bad it's not a Wii game, I'd rather dance with Patrick Swayze than that blob from Boogie. In the game you play to earn money which you can spend on Dirty Dancing memorabilia. It seems really strange to me that they just continue to market to you as you play the game. Oh well, as long as it has the song in it, Stephen and I will probably check it out.





Found via Game/Life.

Young female villager sacrificed to bring Actraiser to virtual console

The first of Enix's old SNES games has hit the virtual console and hopefully everyone can find time between playing Shrek the Third and Legend of Dragoon on their Wii to give this a shot. When I was around 7 and bought my Super Nintendo, the games I got with it were Super Mario World, F-Zero and Actraiser. I knew little about Actraiser other than Nintendo Power seemed head over heels for it, but I was hoping for something like Castlevania. That was not what I got.

At first things went smoothly enough; you enter your name and see some great mode 7 effects before a beautiful 2D action scene with impressive music and giant sprites. Then, as soon as you defeat the boss, it all changed. I was now in control of flying nude baby, complete with a bow and arrow that felt almost entirely useless against bats that seemed to never stop spawning. Villagers told me they needed more crops and roads, and my young heart was broken at the thought of what the rest of the game would be like. I was really hoping for more stabbing and less talking.

I reluctantly played on, hoping to convince myself what I was doing was fun and that it wouldn't be a painful wait until my birthday when I got another game. I did encounter more action scenes. They were fun, but eventually I started enjoying the town building more than anything else in the game. The story of the villagers was became pretty intense for me and I ended up crying when I was told a young girl had to be sacrificed to save the village.

The game holds up well through the years and is a great example of how adventurous Enix used to be. Buy it!