Braid: Anniversary Edition Turns Back The Clock Next April

Braid’s 2008 independent classic will get a modernized remaster as part of the Anniversary Edition in August 2020. Originally slated to release in 2021, the project has quietly remained in limbo for years, but developer Thekla Inc. has revealed that it’s finally arriving on April 30. 

On August 6, 2008 Braid, the first game in Xbox 360 Live Arcade, was released. It features Tim, a child who searches for a captured princess. 2D Platformer focuses on the time manipulation mechanics players use to find puzzles, and assemble/locate jigsaws. Braid was praised for its strong writing and mechanics, which were combined to create a critically acclaimed game. Braid has since been credited as the primary title that brought widespread interest and awareness to the indie gaming scene. 

This remastered update features enhanced visuals in the form of repainted graphics by original Braid artist David Hellman, animated brush strokes, and smoother animations with additional frames. You can switch on the fly between the new visuals and the old presentation. It features a new soundtrack, including remixes by Hans Christian Kock (Control, Inside), and improved audio. 

Braid: Anniversary Edition also includes over 15 hours of commentary about the game’s creation and legacy from creator Johnathan Blow and other creators/historians, including David Hellman, Marc ten Bosch (Miegakure), Brian Moriarty (Trinity, Loom, Alvin and the Chipmunks:The Squeakuel), Casey Muratori (1935, Handmade Hero, Computer, Enhance!Cris Moore, resident faculty at Santa Fe Institute, Frank Cifaldi, Video Game History Foundation, Martin Stig Andersen Hans Christian Kock and Jakob Schmid.  

“The goal is to make it the craziest, most-in-depth commentary ever put in a video game,” said Blow in a press release. “You can follow particular threads of commentary spatially, through wormholes that go from level to level to see evolutions of particular concepts; the commentary has lots of markup so we can circle stuff on the screen, point arrows at whatever visual detail we are talking about, show diagrams, play back recordings of gameplay to show what happens if you try doing this or that in a particular level, and many other capabilities.”

Braid Anniversary Edition is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S (PS4), PlayStation 4, Xbox One (PC), and Netflix.