Braid and Geometry

First Impressions by Tanx
Video Game Reviews by a Very Busy Math Teacher

Game: Braid and Geometry Wars 1 + 2
Platform: XBOX 360 download

It is time to do this column’s first mini-review round-up of recent high value direct download games on each of our favorite consoles. Our first contender is the Xbox 360, whose list of available games grows linearly with a slope of 1 game per week. As there are currently 154 games available on this console to review, I’ll just cover two of the most recent favorites lest even the most dedicated review reader be forced to give up and go have a fig newton or something. Assuming anyone made it this far…

Braid: a game that somehow manages to combine the artsy incomprehensibleness of the independent flick with the rumpled stylings of a Microsoft employee and turn it into one of the most satisfying, clever and all-together excellent gaming experiences this side of Portal. The primary mechanic of Braid is the fluidity of time, beginning with a Prince of Persia rewind and developing more abstract abilities like a shadow clone who repeats any rewound actions or a limitation that moving to the right progresses time, moving to the left withdraws it. Each stage consists of a few devilish puzzles surrounding the acquisition of jigsaw pieces that seem to represent fragmented memories.

Dreamy and a little bonkers, our protagonist is trying to figure out his restless love life, as he never appears satisfied with what he has. Light, shadow and sound are used to maximum effect, providing a hazy warm environment which puts you at ease even as you struggle to solve the more difficult dilemmas. As a math teacher I recommend this game to, well, everyone. I’d assign it as homework if I could. Each puzzle is of the highest caliber… they teach techniques, do no repeat solutions, and each answer is natural and completely obvious… after you’ve figured it out, that is.
Plus, the game has feral flower-pot head leaping cat bunnies. What more could you want?



Geometry Wars 2: Okay, so my evil cousin CotangentX still has the high score between us in Geometry Wars 1. I’m not bitter, though, seeing as our healthy trend towards competition has got us both with scores in the top 3000 in the world, which in that game is pretty near rocket science. As an added plus, my students find it wholly appropriate that their math teacher goes home and plays Geometry Wars. Anyway, Wars 2 picks up the innovation torch where the first one tossed it, fixing previous issues and adding a huge amount of variety. Divided into six fast-paced and well-designed gamelets, Geometry Wars 2 is a veritable litter of arcade goodness.

Most of the games force you to balance your desire to shoot stuff and stay away from enemies with your need to pick up the geoms the enemies release when they burst apart. Geoms increase your score multiplier, and are essential enough that after a good session of play you’ll see them hovering in your peripheral vision whenever you blink for the next twenty minutes or so. Most of the enemies are familiar… dart shaped concave quadrilaterals, “breathing” rhombuses (four sides all equal length), and so on. My favorites of the new games are Pacifism and King, both different enough in strategy and feel from the original game to require whole new hours of practice and mastery.

As things stand, CotangentX has my score beat in four out of six of the games, but I may be catching up. Unfortunately for me, he tends to play it while dealing with boring conference calls from work, which he apparently has quite often. But I’m sure to catch up soon…!

Will I play it more: Braid goes to the Fiancée next, GW2 is a lifelong pursuit