Leathco here, and finally I’m doing another game feature! As well as being a huge retro fan, I am also a fan of Indie games. Indie games are more or less independent game devs not tied to a studio. Of course, a lot of these games have a retro feel, being created by a small team or a single individual. I’d like to feature one of these games today, named The Binding of Isaac. If you are a fan of the old school 8-Bit Legend of Zelda, but don’t care much for the overworld and just want to go dungeon exploring, you’ll love this.
The game story is simple. Isaac and his mother led a nice life, him content to sit, draw, and play with his toys while his mother watched Christian Broadcasting. Unfortunately, God spoke to the mother, first taking away his toys, than licking him away in his room, and culminating in grabbing a butcher knife to sacrifice her son in the name of God. Isaac, thinking quickly, jumps down a trap door into the basement below, which is where the game starts up.
The dungeons in this game are obviously Zelda inspired, from the look of the rooms, the minimap, the hearts as life, and the item buttons. Gameplay is something similar to Zelda as well, with an overhead look as you go room by room. Your weapon has a good range though, much like the sword laser in Zelda. It doesn’t go across the whole screen at first, but like any good dungeon crawler, your character finds many items that upgrade him over time. The game has a good difficulty setting, not brutally hard but you’ll die a few times before you complete it.
Along with the tongue in cheek dark humor, there’s a ton of extras in this game. One huge thing is that all levels are randomly generated. You will never play the same game twice. This also affects how hard the game can get, as item placement in dungeons can make or break your character. If you don’t get some good items, the game can get brutally hard, or, if you get lucky early on, the game can be pretty easy if you are familiar with it. There’s also unlockable characters, so you aren’t stuck only using Isaac to play.
This game is dark though, and not kid friendly (if you haven’t been paying attention to the screenshots.) You have the change to sacrifice hearts to make deals with the devil to give yourself huge powerups, at the expense of a shorter life bar. You can use tarot cards you find for special one time abilities. You can pick up mystery pills that you have no idea will harm or help you until you consume it. Isaacs initial primary attack is shooting his own tears. You fight disembodies heads, disfigured fetuses, tumorous children, and other enemies not child friendly. It feels very tongue-in-cheek to me, but if you are religous this would be one to stay away from. For the rest of us, its an incredibly fun dungeon crawler that harkens back to the 8-bit era.
The game is available on PC and Steam for $4.99, an incredibly cheap price for a game this good. It was also made by the same team behind Super Meat Boy, so if you liked that one than this one is a must for you. If you are still on the fence, you can play a flash based demo over at NewGrounds.
