Tom Chick wrote:

First, a disclaimer: I haven't finished Braid, and I have no intention of doing so. I ambled through to the end of the fifth world, and along the way, I grabbed some of the puzzle pieces you need to finish the game. I've gone back and worked through a few more of the puzzle pieces, and I've talked to others about the solutions to even more. Perhaps most importantly, I've heard developer Jonathan Blow give a talk in which he explained the ending, which is one of the most brilliant computer game endings I've ever seen. I guess you could say I've experienced most of Braid's content, just not the way Braid intended.

I want to like Braid. I really do. I envy the people who like it. Partly because I think people who like Braid enough to finish it are pretty smart (this isn't necessarily true of people who finished Portal, a similarly brilliant and economic work of genius, but one that so leads its players by the nose that any retard can finish it and think he's pretty smart and then go online to make "the cake is a lie" references). [I wonder if he's thinking of any retard(s) in particular? -JW]

Braid is a true test. It doesn't come to you. It sits there as indifferent as a cat leaving you with nothing to do but sit and stare until you wise up or quit out. Or cheat like a chump by looking up the solution online. Braid is like having a really smart guy throw a brain teaser at you, and this really smart guy isn't going to just let you say 'I give up' and then tell you the answer. Which I'd find pretty annoying, but some people would totally be into. Braid doesn't exist to entertain you. It exists to challenge you.

Furthermore, Braid exists to subvert. My brother once pressed on me his copy of Watchmen. I tried to read it. I failed. I realized that a deconstruction of comic books didn't mean much to me since I wasn't a comic book fan. Similarly, Braid's deconstruction of old-school Mario-style 2D platformers doesn't mean much to me since I'm not a fan of old-school Mario-style 2D platformers. Whereas I adored Killer 7, which was a deconstruction of, well, a lot of stuff that I was a fan of.