Braid

Braid is a typical platformer that ends up surprising you thanks to a very particular mechanic: Pressing a button rewinds time, and there are mechanics surrounding this (In some levels you rewind yourself but not certain elements in the background, in others only you rewind, in others everything, etc). I'm sure you already know all of this, TLDR: it's a game I highly recommend. The only thing I can't stand, but which is outside the scope of the game itself, is the pretentiousness surrounding it. The game and its fans reek of the edgiest and weirdest things from the early 2010s, for better or for worse. I feel that sometimes a game exists with a grat mechanic and that's it; the curiosities behind it are just that—curious. I say this in case you play it and don't like it, so you know that even today you'll still get flak for saying so out loud.

Braid appears to be a work best appreciated under altered states of consciousness, perhaps by those indulging in alcohol or cannabis. Its protagonist resembles a peculiar, postmodern reinterpretation of Mario: a small, orange-haired gentleman dressed in formal business attire, complete with suit and tie, wandering through an abstract platforming world. At first glance, the game presents itself as a simple exercise in traversal — one moves, jumps, and interacts with the environment — yet its purpose is not immediately evident. The most notable mechanic is its manipulation of time: the player may reverse events, undo mistakes, and repeatedly revisit prior moments. This temporal reversal is undeniably amusing and unusual. Nevertheless, despite this clever gimmick, the overall experience strikes one as profoundly absurd. The game’s structure seems obscure, its objective unclear, and its meaning elusive. In more direct terms: while the rewind mechanic is entertaining, the game itself appears nonsensical, perhaps even “stupid as hell,” with no immediately discernible point.