System: Microsoft Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Arcade)

Publisher: Number None

Reviewer’s rating: ****

ESRB rating: Everyone 10+

Game type: Platform/puzzle

Kind of like: “Mario,” but with more puzzles than jumping

Best feature: The gameplay and storyline are both very deep.

Worst feature: It’s a small game, beatable in several hours if you’re determined.

The bottom line: Perhaps more than any other game on Xbox Live Arcade, “Braid” fulfills the promise of small publishers having a venue to release awesome games.

“Braid” is, at first glance, a simple platform game in which you move from left to right and jump over obstacles. Tim is said to be searching for a princess, whom he lost after making an unrevealed mistake.

This game, however, is about time manipulation. By holding down the X button, you can rewind time backward, undoing everything you’ve done.

Initially, you’ll just use this to undo your mistakes. But soon, the time function becomes part of the puzzles. Some objects glow green and are immune to being rewound. When you rewind, you’ll go backward, but they won’t.

As you might imagine, the levels start making you use the rewind in crazy ways. By the time it’s all said and done, you’ll have to be in two places at once to let yourself through locked doors, and you’ll have to fight enemies that move forward in time while you’re moving backward.

The real challenge is to collect jigsaw puzzle pieces that open the final set of levels, where you can see the real conclusion of the game.