10 Worst Possible Alternative Video Game Endings

Braid is a beautifully crafted side-scrolling puzzle platformer that revolves around the manipulation of time.

The story, in its simplest state, is of a man, Tim, searching for a princess who has been snatched by a horrible and evil monster. Each world uses different aspects of time manipulation for its puzzles: pausing time, changing its effects on Tim or on objects around him, rewinding time to undo mistakes . However, it is revealed in a brilliant ending twist that in the final world, time is playing out in reverse.

It turns out that this whole time, instead of Tim running to the princess to save her, she was in fact running away from him.

As if this “normal” ending wasn’t devastating enough, there is a secret ending where, if the player takes their time, (takes all the time, in fact) and collects all the hidden secret stars throughout the game, when you catch up to the princess, she explodes.

Try not to think about it too hard.

Braid’s symbolism and metaphors are incredibly clever. All along, the Princess actually represented the atomic bomb, and Tim the scientists obsessively pursuing it. In the end, when Tim and the scientists finally got what they were searching for the whole time, they only received pain.

Even if it is an unhealthy obsession, I don’t think we really wanted our precious princess to explode. Yikes.