I am holding my head in shame as I
realize I was a few seconds away from defeating “It Lives!” for
the second time in my gaming career. I damn the Curse of the Unknown
that was placed on me at the start of this floor, which got rid of my
life bar and left me to guess how much life I had left. I think to
myself, maybe I should have saved my Head of Crampus special until
the very end of the fight instead of the beginning...too late now as
I stare at my defeated Cain character curled up in a ball on the
floor still writhing in pain.
If any part of that last paragraph made
sense to you, then congratulations! You're a fan of the Indie,
rogue-like, randomly generated dungeon crawler The Binding of
Isaac! The Legend of Zelda-like
game was originally released on PC back in 2011 and was
created by game designer Edmund McMillen, the same guy who brought us
Super Meat Boy and a handful of other great games.
Super Meat Boy was probably one
of my favorite games of 2010 when it was released on Xbox Live
Arcade. It had it all: comedic writing, memorable music, an old skool
gaming feel and a brutal difficulty. I would spend most of my free
time playing Super Meat Boy either alone or with friends taking
turns. A majority of the time we would be drawn to the more difficult
games over the ones that could easily be completed. Challenge always
won out over graphics and an engaging story. Our love of the early
consoles played a huge part in constantly searching for that next
hardest game. Beating these games, or even getting past one of the
tougher levels brought such a huge sense of accomplishment and
excitement to us, especially as young children going into our late
teens. We lived for the challenge.
After almost 100 percenting SMB,
I was left to wonder What great game will come out next
from Edmund Mcmillen? I loved this one! Not
even a year after being introduced to Super Meat Boy and his
girlfriend Bandage girl, I was given my answer. The Binding
of Isaac was Mr. McMillen's next
project and it came out solely on PC at the end of 2011. Not having a
functional computer to play games on I knew it would be some time
before I could experience Isaac's adventure for myself. So I sat and
waiting patiently while the console versions were developed. Instead
of the original game, we were given the bigger and better remake The
Binding of Isaac: Rebirth which
added tons of new content. It was released on Xbox One, Nintendo 3DS
and Wii U this year on July 23rd.
Ever
since downloading it, I have been in love with how addicting and
rewarding the experience is. Every run I start turns out to be wildly
different from the previous ones I have played. This is mostly in
part to the huge list of items and bosses that are in the game. Each
run is procedurally generated, meaning the layouts and locations of
special gold item rooms and bosses will be different every time TBoI
is played. It's literally a new
experience every time I decide to turn the game on!
The
difficulty that Super Meat Boy
was so well-known for also makes a comeback in Isaac. Every time you
get further in the game is an accomplishment in itself!
Have
you tried out The Binding of Isaac yet?
What are your thoughts and fondest memories of playing it? Let me
know in the comments section below!
