X3F Insight: Why should we care about Braid?

High fives for anyone who finds a star (for those of you complaining it's too short.)

I decided to put my trust in X3F and get the game. It's very good and maybe great, imo. Will everyone like it? Of course not. But considering how much crap there is out there that's available on disc and $60, Braid is really a good deal.

XBLA is simply another method of game distribution, not necessarily a resource for cheap and quick games.

This game is amazing.. Truly something that people should try out. The innovative style of gameplay, artistic watercolor-painted worlds, and soothing music that puts you in a state of ecstasy make this one game that will burn a hole in my memory.

i don't see what the big fuss is about the price. sure its more than your average live game but its absolutely amazing. i'd rather pay for $15 on xbox live for an amazing game than go out to a store and pay $20 for the same game. the fact is that if this game was actually produced out of xbox live it would be a $20 game.

Braid is cool. Ok.
But all this praise from critics for the time manipulation mechanic just shows how deeply in need of innovation the games market is.
Braid's though premise and presentation (being just six levels, costing 15) is not that great.
I value the work of the developer. But it does not deserve all this hype.

Braid is great. No doubt about it. The primary reason I won't be buying it? The price.

Microsoft is banking on the game earning critical acclaim so as to justify the price hike, using Braid as a test bed for future XBLA price structure changes.

I for one don't support that. It has little to do with the game itself other than I can't really tell based on the demo if there's $15 worth of entertainment in it for my tastes. The demo doesn't give me enough a sense of what depth the game actually offers or quality of overall experience. So no, you don't get my money.

What I can say is that, at 800ms points, I would be much less hesitant. Hard to explain really, as it's only about $5 difference, but to me the principle of the thing is key. If we allow for MS to declare the price of dlc based on it's perceived quality and value, where does it all lead towards?

I think it's a slippery slope, and that fixed XBLA pricing is the way to go. Especially when MS can't guarantee that I'll be able to play the game without being signed into Live... that's not ownership, that's a supervised rental.

Well put, Stranger. It's not like I can't afford this $15 Arcade game. I have a job like everyone else and invested tons of money into my gaming. Braid seems like a very unique, fun game. It's just that there's nothing there that justifies the higher price. There are many other fun games available for the "standard" 800 points. Why is that? It feels arbitrary, but it's anything but. MS may very well be testing a new price point. That's entirely within their right. It's a free market and they'll charge as much as the market will bear.

For those who have bought the game already and are enjoying it despite having paid more, that's great. You've found value in your purchase and feel like you got a fair deal. I, like a lot of other gamers, are choosing to vote with our wallets.

This is a must-have game. The puzzle design and art style puts many full price games to shame. The writing is amazing and it manages to elicit a real emotional response more than once.

The ending is phenomenal.

Discussing price on a title of this quality is absurd. Just because it's delivered through Xbox Live Arcade doesn't mean it can't be worth 1/4 of a Madden game.

Skip a couple of trips to starbucks and buy a life-altering piece of art instead. This is one of the best designed games to have been released in the last few years. It's up there with Bioshock and
Portal and worth just as much as those titles were.

Pricing and value can certainly be relative. Root Beer Tapper was ridiculously overpriced at 400 ms points. Braid is cheap at 1200.

Finally got my Xbox back and tried this game out, and I don't really see the big deal. I like the style, and the music is cool, but it's the biggest super mario rip off ever. Jumping on enemies to kill them, killer plants coming up out of pipes in the ground, even at the end, "The princess is in another castle." I swear that's an exact super mario quote. Am I the only one who sees this stuff?

"Others see the price as an impenetrable wall or, in some cases, as permission to let Microsoft charge more on future XBLA titles."

Ding ding ding. It's not so much that I don't think Braid is worth $15 (although with no replay value, I'm not sure if it is). It's that if I buy Braid for $15, I'm telling MS that it's a-okay to start charging $15 for even more XBLA games.

Braid is incredible.

My Braid experience:

http://croutondays.d3p0.com/braid/