Updated impressions.

I had a chance to play Braid for quite some time last night. Four hours straight, and enjoying every second.

The art direction is what will impress you the most. What the style reminds me of is the paint effects from What Dreams May Come with Robin Williams. It's absolutely stunning, especially on an HD set.

To describe the game briefly, it's a fairy tale platform puzzler. Your trying to save a princess who is your true love, which is told through a series of story books before you enter the next stage.

Throughout the game, you will collect puzzle pieces, and figure out ways to obtain these pieces that are just barely out of reach in some areas. Each of these situations will scale in difficulty as you progress. And if you're like me, you will get frustrated only to realize you over thought the situation. Try not to over think. Be logical. Think simple thoughts.

There is a gimmick in the game, and it works wonderfully well. You manipulate time. Not only will you rewind time when you die, you must rewind and fast forward time to reach your goals. For example, you may have a puzzle piece to collect that is over spikes and behind a wall that moved downward blocking your path. Looking closely, you may see a glowing platform that is unaffected by time manipulation. Meaning, if you rewind or fast forward time, the platform adheres by its scripted rule instead of your control.

If you stand on the glowing platform, you yourself are unaffected by time manipulation. At this point, you can rewind time until the wall moves up and you can progress to get the puzzle piece.

That's just one example from an early stage.

Yeah, it's $15 in Xbox monies, but it's worth it. In my opinion, this is the best title on XBLA.

That is until this.

And, I'm sorry to say that Braid beat out Penny Arcade's Precipice, which was my favorite until last night.