Welcome to the 27th entry in our weekly Gamebusters series. This week we’ll be tackling a game that’s a bit more recent than last week’s myth, namely the hit indie title, Braid. Before we begin, it should be noted that this myth will contain spoilers, so if you haven’t yet played the game and wish to avoid said spoilers, you may wish to stop reading here.

For those still with us that are unaware, within the game are seven stars. These stars are actually quite a secret, as the game does not acknowledge them at all. There are no trophies/achievements, hints, or clues that these seven items actually exist across the game’s five levels, allowing you to get all the achievements or platinum the game without even knowing of their existence.

If that wasn’t bad enough for completionists, the stars are even harder to obtain. Two examples can be found below. The first star requires waiting in a screen for two hours:

Another star is perhaps even easier to miss as it must be obtained before you assemble the puzzle for World 3:

Once you have managed to gather the seven stars, nothing seems to happen. If you decide to return to the game’s final level, though, you’ll notice a slight difference.

This level was strange to begin with as it seems that you’re helping the princess escape from a bad guy. You find out that you’re watching the situation in reverse, however, and she’s actually escaping from you. Once you have all seven stars, the level is changed in a way that you can actually catch up to the princess and touch her, resulting in her beginning to flash freakishly and make the sound of a nuclear bomb detonating:

Myth or fact? The videos above actually aren’t faked and are indeed the truth of what happens in the game. This means that the game with the innocent-seeming quest of rescuing the princess (who doesn’t want you to, apparently) is in actuality a metaphor for creating the atomic bomb and how the creators of said bomb wish they could turn back time and undo all the damage caused.

This may seem far-fetched, but the game’s very epilogue has a quote from Kenneth Bainbridge, the head of the Trinity atomic bomb tests:

As usual, I hope you enjoyed this week’s myth. As usual if you feel like I missed anything (or am incorrect in this week’s Gamebusters), feel free to comment. If the latter, I do ask that you provide proof so that I can update the post accordingly.

If you have any myths in mind that you would like me to tackle, please share them and I promise to make them a priority. See you next week, and happy gaming!