I just finished the Braid demo from Xbox Live and I thought my head would explode.

First of all, I completely support XNA and would almost buy this game purely to support the cause of independent developers succeeding. This game is a prime example of what is possible through XNA and xbox live. It is a little expensive ($15) to get the full version, but the game is incredible.

Now back to my head exploding...

The game is presented so well. It has a very distinct style and simple controls that could rope in a ton of demographics. The tutorial system is a piece of art IMO, as it does very little instruction and lets you learn how to play the game by getting past increasingly difficult scenarios.

Then just as I thought I was getting everything down, the game presented a twist. The controls stayed exactly the same...but the rules tweaked. Suddenly, when I walked forward the game time progressed normally. If I moved backwards, it started to rewind everything but my character. If I stopped...the world stopped. This truly caught me off guard and was a super cool change. But when I started to analyze the level design and possibilities with something like this, that's when my head actually exploded. I died right there.