Onyxmeth said:
1. In World 5(The doppelganger world), I think it's the fourth room in, you have a door all the way towards the right and a platform overhead with a puzzle piece. I couldn't figure out to let the goomba kill me by walking off the platform onto my head, elevating him high enough so my future jump from the upper platform could bounce me to the puzzle piece. God I hope you can all visualize what I'm talking about.
2. Definitely World 6(The pocket of time world), where in the right upper corner, you have to pass two goombas in a row past three pirahna plants so you can hop off one and onto another for a boost big enough to reach the upper platform for a puzzle piece. I knew what to do early on, but it was maddeningly difficult to execute.
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Exactly the same for me, so I'll just quote you instead of describing the puzzles again.
As for the story, I think there's multiple intended meanings. First, it can be taken as a more thoughtful version of the standard "save the princess" videogame plot. It gives some insight into the motivations of both the hero and the princess, and ends with a brilliant twist. Taken just on that level, it succeeds beyond the standard videogame plot. Beyond that, theres universal themes running through the story that act as metaphors for more than one thing. The most prominent theme is how a difference in perspective can make the same events mean the opposite thing to different people. I think that's the purpose behind the books in the epilogue: each one shows a different way to interperet the story.
The most obvious metaphor is the romantic relationship. The boyfriend sees himself as being protective, while the girlfriend sees him as smothering. Similar to how Tim sees himself as trying to save the princess due to his backwards perception of time, while the princess is afraid of him and trying to escape. There also appears to be an atomic bomb metaphor; the creation of the bomb could be seen as working for the good of humanity - to defeat nazi Germany - at the time scientists were working on it. When viewed in hindsight, the creation of the bomb can be seen as evil. There's also the mother/baby metaphor: the mother is trying to protect, the baby doesn't understand and sees the protection as cruel.
I also think there's ironic comments about videogames running through the game. The example that comes to mind is the book saying Tim doesn't believe he should be punished for his mistakes, as long as he learns from them. The entire game design is based around the this concept: the game never tries to punish the player for making a mistake. If you do something wrong, you're free to learn from it, rewind, and do it right. There's probably more parallels that can be drawn, but I'm not good at seeing them.
Finally, I think the game examines universal themes about the human condition, such that it can be seen as a metaphor for any number of things unintended by the author. The player is intended to examine the themes presented for themselves, and be able to see parallels between the themes in the game and the themes in the player's own life. The castle at the very end of the epilogue is extremely vague about what it is supposed to represent, while the other books in the epilogue are more clear. Some people have said the castle means Tim is dead, and is examining the events of his life. I think the castle represents the experience of the player playing the game. From the memory of those experiences, the player has the beginnings of their own "castle". But it's only the basis; the complete the castle, the player needs to use his own life experiences, to build his own "castle" of meaning, unique to himself. The player's "princess" will never be found in someone else's castle, but only in one he has constructed himself.
(I really feel like most of the game's story goes over my head. I'm still trying to understand it.)
