Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software
Braid comes to the Mac
You have to admit: for all of the gaming woes that the Mac faithful has suffered, there's fortunately never been a shortage of great indie games for us to play. Aquaria made it to our platform, World of Goo appeared pretty early on, and now Braid, Jonathan Blow's terrific deconstruction of Super Mario Bros., has appeared on OS X thanks to the kind folks over at Hothead Games. The game has won more awards than you can count, but I can personally tell you it's great, as I played the XBLA release when it first arrived. It's a classic 2D platformer in the vein of Mario with a very important twist: you can reverse, slow, and replay time throughout the various levels. That twist results in an extremely artistic game that takes apart the original Mario story and ends up with something very much more beautiful and sad.
"Artistic"? "Beautiful"? "Sad"? Can I say these things about a videogame? Of course I can -- Braid stands in a class of its own as an experience that uses art and gameplay together to tell quite a story. If you're a fan of innovative games or just great interactive experiences, and haven't played through it yet (it's fairly short, maybe six hours at the most), it's definitely worth a look. The Greenhouse is selling the Mac or PC versions for $14.95.
"Artistic"? "Beautiful"? "Sad"? Can I say these things about a videogame? Of course I can -- Braid stands in a class of its own as an experience that uses art and gameplay together to tell quite a story. If you're a fan of innovative games or just great interactive experiences, and haven't played through it yet (it's fairly short, maybe six hours at the most), it's definitely worth a look. The Greenhouse is selling the Mac or PC versions for $14.95.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
alpayerturkmen said 8:41AM on 5-21-2009
Seems definitely worth checking out. Mac gaming, coupled with the iPhone platform will soon match PC gaming.
Alpay
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shaunisadirty said 9:27AM on 5-21-2009
I'm sorry sir, until the iPhone comes with a full fledged processor and graphics card, and another form of input such as a mouse, iPhone gaming will NEVER match that of PC Gaming.
alpayerturkmen said 9:30AM on 5-21-2009
iPhone is great at casual gaming, and it will definitely improve in newer iterations. we are talking about a rev1.1 device ATM.
shaunisadirty said 9:34AM on 5-21-2009
I'm not saying it won't improve. I don't think we will ever see it at the specs of a full fledged PC. Can you see anyone playing Call of Duty 4 with the level of graphics and control as that of a PC on their iPhone anytime soon?
If you need something to entertain yourself for 5 minutes while waiting at the doctors office or something, then yeah it's fine, I do it myself all the time. However if you want to actually casually play a real game, then at the moment and until the iPhone can do this with the battery lasting 10 hours or more, then a real portable gaming device is needed such as a DS or PSP.
alpayerturkmen said 9:40AM on 5-21-2009
I am definitely with you there. I have a PSP and I know what you mean. However your logic is a bit off. Can you compare a PS3 to a PSP, or a Wii to a DS? No you can't. that is why you shouldn't compare a PC to an iPhone.
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Cheers,
Alpay
durumbu.com
THJ said 1:38PM on 5-21-2009
No, it won't.
The iPhone/Touch has already relegated my PSP and DS to the dusty shelf though.
MatzeLoCal said 9:56AM on 5-21-2009
If it only would not crash after 1 minute...
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shaunisadirty said 9:25AM on 5-21-2009
Wait wait wait whaaaat? Something crashing on a mac? I thought everything "just worked"?
PSN: HinchyFC said 11:22AM on 5-21-2009
MatzeLoCal, you're in the minority here. I just got it and it works great. Try disabling some other apps and try again.
Send a support request if you can find an email or form to do so, though.
superberg said 1:20PM on 5-21-2009
Hasn't crashed for me, and I've played through the first three worlds.
Loved this game on 360, loving it even more on mac.
Harry said 9:19AM on 5-21-2009
I've just played the first level, and as a game it looks promising, but I find the artwork and music incredibly twee. It's always sad when you can see that loads of effort has been put into achieving something so naff.
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Matt said 9:33AM on 5-21-2009
I have no idea what you just said.
Paco said 9:46AM on 5-21-2009
Your mom is a naff twee.
finchburg said 8:13PM on 5-21-2009
Don't dismiss the game so quickly. It is a beautiful, complex game and a wonderful experience. However if you are unable to look past the superficial then maybe this game isn't for you.
moshee said 9:26AM on 5-21-2009
I had this a while ago on my Mac using Cider... but I guess a native version is always better. Great game.
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Fred said 10:24AM on 5-21-2009
Are you sure that's not "The Pitt". That title shot looks SCARY!
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Jon said 11:59AM on 5-21-2009
I have this for XB and it's a fun game. Very "artsy", and still fun at the same time.
I wonder if it will come out for the iPhone though? The controls are not that complex, it seems like a good fit for the iphone.
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cuteSAVAGE said 1:24PM on 5-21-2009
I really wish the level editor was was a bit more accessible. It's a pain to load up at the moment. Seeing as it is the main incentive for me to re-buy this game as we already have it on 360.
Does anyone know of a decent way to access the Level Editor other than using Terminal to launch the game?
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diegus83@hotmail.com said 2:11PM on 5-21-2009
There is a box in the launcher that says "Additional Comands", I guess you can use it to pass the same parameter that you use in terminal to open the editor.
In my Mac Pro with Tiger I've to use -no_post or otherwise it crash every time, I guess is Ok for a 1.0 version.
Paul Bryan said 3:52PM on 5-22-2009
Finally a Mac version of a game that is superior to its Windows incarnation.
With the Mac version of Braid, I can play the game at my monitor's native resolution (1080p), which the Window's version can't, and without the black border I get in Windows. And finally something that makes use of my new Mac mini's 9400M graphics.
Well done to whoever ported this game .
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