76 reviews liked by Jayvee
There comes a time in everyone’s life, when they have been doing something for long enough, they need to take a step back, realize they have been doing said thing for long enough, and they move onto the next bigger and better thing. This was pretty much the process Capcom went through whenever they decided they were finished with Street Fighter II after SSFIIT, and while this certainly wouldn’t be the last time that we would see that specific iteration of the series (the ride never ends), it was clear that Capcom had exhausted everything they could from that game, and they needed to move onto other things. So they pressed on, making several other fighters, until ultimately deciding to return to the world of the Street Fighter universe for a new prequel game, and the start of a brand new sub-series for the franchise, which would all stem from one game known as Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors’ Dreams.
Not gonna lie, I was actually somewhat nervous to get into this game, because after constantly playing and talking about SFII for god knows how long, I figured I was gonna be in for a rude awakening whenever I tried out another title in this series. It also doesn’t help that, from this point on, I am tackling this series completely blind, because aside from some matches of SFIV here and there, I have never really played any other SF game. But hey, I do typically have a pretty good time with the fighting games I choose to play for this website, and SF hasn’t let me down (yet), so I was willing to jump into the game either way, and yeah, I did end up having a pretty good time. I wouldn’t say I prefer it over SSFIIT, but it still manages to be a fun, tough, and flashy fighting game that definitely shows promise for where this series is gonna be going later down the road.
The story is one that isn’t told to us in the game whatsoever, nor could I find any sort of summary of it online, but going off of what Alpha 2 says, it is essentially just another tournament story, most likely about M. Bison trying to fuck shit up again, so it is up to Ryu, Ken, and all the other fighters to step up to the plate, take him down, and triumph over the rest, which is as bland as you can get with a fighting game plot, but I’m pretty sure Street Fighter doesn’t care about story, so neither do I at this point. The graphics are absolutely wonderful, taking a page out of Darkstalkers book with wonderful designs for all of the different characters, with plenty of very impressive animations to go with them, even if the stage designs can be pretty lacking, the music is pretty good, having plenty of sweet tracks to accompany you as you kick the shit out of all of your opponents, but I for the life of me could not name you any tracks even if I tried, so uh… oops, and the gameplay/control is what you would expect from SF, feeling a little heavy, and it can take some getting used to (especially after previously playing King of Fighters), but it still manages to be fun and satisfying regardless of that.
The game is your typical 2D fighter, where you take control of one of ten different characters, which has most returning from previous Street Fighter games, two newcomers, and even two characters from Final Fight, which is pretty cool, take on many different opponents in fights that take place around the world, throw out plenty of different kicks, punches, and special moves to deplete your opponents’ health down to nothing while also making sure to dodge and block wisely, charge up your super meter to unleash some devastating attacks to get the upper hand on your opponent in many different cases, and rejoice as you stand victorious, proving that you are indeed the best street fighter to ever live…….. or at least, that’s what I hope I can achieve one day by getting good at one of these games. When it comes to Street Fighter, Capcom knew quite well from SFII that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, which is the mentality they stuck with when it came to this game, and it mostly worked out, because not only does it keep the same solid gameplay that we all know and love at this point, but it also adds onto it in several ways that makes it more interesting to tackle.
For starters, the super meter that was introduced in SSFIIT returns in this game, except now, it has been upgraded, making it a lot more useful and complex at the same time. Now, instead of just charging up the bar once and firing away whenever you need it, you can now charge it up to three times, with each different bar representing a different level of power for the super abilities you can use, each one requiring a different sequence of buttons you need to enter in order to pull them off. Of course, shit like this may seem like second nature for those that have played plenty of other fighting games later down the line, but with this being the first time we would see this kind of super meter mechanic for Street Fighter, as well as fighting games in general, it is not only a pretty sweet addition to your super arsenal, but it also adds another layer of strategy to any fight, making you wonder whether you should use a super right away to get an advantage over your foe, or try to build it up even more so you can unleash an absolutely DEVASTATING attack on them.
Alongside this, there are also plenty of new moves that you can pull off, such as air blocking, as well as being able to change up your fighting style between Normal or Auto, with Normal being exactly what it sounds like, and Auto being basically the handicap mode of the game, allowing the player to block things automatically up to ten times and allowing much easier inputs of super moves. I chose to stick with Normal the entire time, because I’m not a pussy-ass BITCH, but for what it’s worth, I do really like the idea of having an Auto mode in there, just in case you have players that are new to the series that want to be eased in while still having a great time. Mix all of that with the option to change your fighting speed, and you have a set-up here that is even more customizable than SSFIIT, able to give you just the right style of fight that you are looking for, which is definitely a plus in my book.
Having said all that though, if you were to ignore all of those new features entirely, then what you got here is just yet another basic arcade fighter from Capcom at the end of the day. Yes, it looks much nicer, still plays pretty well, and can be a lot of fun with the right people, but it is more or less what we have seen from many other fighters in the past, so how much you enjoy this game will not only be based on how well it does as a fighter in your own opinion, as well as whether or not you are sick of these games at this point. To drive that point home even further, the game also has fighting game syndrome, which comes in pretty brutally too, with a good number of the fights being pretty manageable, but then you get to the final boss, and good GOD, you will get completely destroyed if you don’t know what you are doing. Whether you are facing against Sagat, M. Bison, Akuma, it doesn’t matter who: they are all hungry for blood, and your sorry-ass is just what they are looking for, so you better bring your A-game and plenty of patience, otherwise you will just end up as a bloody corpse lying in the street that you chose to fight in.
Overall, despite not too much change to the formula and fighting syndrome being the evil that never dies, Street Fighter Alpha feels like a natural way to progress on from what Capcom had done with SFII, and is overall a pretty good game, still providing the same fast and fun gameplay you have come to love, having a gorgeous art style that is miles better than what came before it, and adding just enough changes to the gameplay to make fights that much more exciting and customizable for whatever makes you feel right at home with a game in this genre. I would recommend it for those who are big Street Fighter fans, as well as those who are big fighting game fans in general, because while this will definitely not live up to the later Alpha games (I’m calling it now), it is still fun regardless, and you can have a great time beating the fuck out of your friends with a smile on your face. Before we do end off this review though, there is one thing I forgot to mention about this game, which may just be the absolute best addition that this game brought to the entire Street Fighter franchise as a whole……….. it introduces Dan Hibiki, a character that is meant to be a parody of Ryo and Robert from Art of Fighting, who completely sucks at fighting, and is without a doubt the worst character to come from this series so far in terms of power and skill………. and we all love him for it.
Game #584
Not gonna lie, I was actually somewhat nervous to get into this game, because after constantly playing and talking about SFII for god knows how long, I figured I was gonna be in for a rude awakening whenever I tried out another title in this series. It also doesn’t help that, from this point on, I am tackling this series completely blind, because aside from some matches of SFIV here and there, I have never really played any other SF game. But hey, I do typically have a pretty good time with the fighting games I choose to play for this website, and SF hasn’t let me down (yet), so I was willing to jump into the game either way, and yeah, I did end up having a pretty good time. I wouldn’t say I prefer it over SSFIIT, but it still manages to be a fun, tough, and flashy fighting game that definitely shows promise for where this series is gonna be going later down the road.
The story is one that isn’t told to us in the game whatsoever, nor could I find any sort of summary of it online, but going off of what Alpha 2 says, it is essentially just another tournament story, most likely about M. Bison trying to fuck shit up again, so it is up to Ryu, Ken, and all the other fighters to step up to the plate, take him down, and triumph over the rest, which is as bland as you can get with a fighting game plot, but I’m pretty sure Street Fighter doesn’t care about story, so neither do I at this point. The graphics are absolutely wonderful, taking a page out of Darkstalkers book with wonderful designs for all of the different characters, with plenty of very impressive animations to go with them, even if the stage designs can be pretty lacking, the music is pretty good, having plenty of sweet tracks to accompany you as you kick the shit out of all of your opponents, but I for the life of me could not name you any tracks even if I tried, so uh… oops, and the gameplay/control is what you would expect from SF, feeling a little heavy, and it can take some getting used to (especially after previously playing King of Fighters), but it still manages to be fun and satisfying regardless of that.
The game is your typical 2D fighter, where you take control of one of ten different characters, which has most returning from previous Street Fighter games, two newcomers, and even two characters from Final Fight, which is pretty cool, take on many different opponents in fights that take place around the world, throw out plenty of different kicks, punches, and special moves to deplete your opponents’ health down to nothing while also making sure to dodge and block wisely, charge up your super meter to unleash some devastating attacks to get the upper hand on your opponent in many different cases, and rejoice as you stand victorious, proving that you are indeed the best street fighter to ever live…….. or at least, that’s what I hope I can achieve one day by getting good at one of these games. When it comes to Street Fighter, Capcom knew quite well from SFII that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, which is the mentality they stuck with when it came to this game, and it mostly worked out, because not only does it keep the same solid gameplay that we all know and love at this point, but it also adds onto it in several ways that makes it more interesting to tackle.
For starters, the super meter that was introduced in SSFIIT returns in this game, except now, it has been upgraded, making it a lot more useful and complex at the same time. Now, instead of just charging up the bar once and firing away whenever you need it, you can now charge it up to three times, with each different bar representing a different level of power for the super abilities you can use, each one requiring a different sequence of buttons you need to enter in order to pull them off. Of course, shit like this may seem like second nature for those that have played plenty of other fighting games later down the line, but with this being the first time we would see this kind of super meter mechanic for Street Fighter, as well as fighting games in general, it is not only a pretty sweet addition to your super arsenal, but it also adds another layer of strategy to any fight, making you wonder whether you should use a super right away to get an advantage over your foe, or try to build it up even more so you can unleash an absolutely DEVASTATING attack on them.
Alongside this, there are also plenty of new moves that you can pull off, such as air blocking, as well as being able to change up your fighting style between Normal or Auto, with Normal being exactly what it sounds like, and Auto being basically the handicap mode of the game, allowing the player to block things automatically up to ten times and allowing much easier inputs of super moves. I chose to stick with Normal the entire time, because I’m not a pussy-ass BITCH, but for what it’s worth, I do really like the idea of having an Auto mode in there, just in case you have players that are new to the series that want to be eased in while still having a great time. Mix all of that with the option to change your fighting speed, and you have a set-up here that is even more customizable than SSFIIT, able to give you just the right style of fight that you are looking for, which is definitely a plus in my book.
Having said all that though, if you were to ignore all of those new features entirely, then what you got here is just yet another basic arcade fighter from Capcom at the end of the day. Yes, it looks much nicer, still plays pretty well, and can be a lot of fun with the right people, but it is more or less what we have seen from many other fighters in the past, so how much you enjoy this game will not only be based on how well it does as a fighter in your own opinion, as well as whether or not you are sick of these games at this point. To drive that point home even further, the game also has fighting game syndrome, which comes in pretty brutally too, with a good number of the fights being pretty manageable, but then you get to the final boss, and good GOD, you will get completely destroyed if you don’t know what you are doing. Whether you are facing against Sagat, M. Bison, Akuma, it doesn’t matter who: they are all hungry for blood, and your sorry-ass is just what they are looking for, so you better bring your A-game and plenty of patience, otherwise you will just end up as a bloody corpse lying in the street that you chose to fight in.
Overall, despite not too much change to the formula and fighting syndrome being the evil that never dies, Street Fighter Alpha feels like a natural way to progress on from what Capcom had done with SFII, and is overall a pretty good game, still providing the same fast and fun gameplay you have come to love, having a gorgeous art style that is miles better than what came before it, and adding just enough changes to the gameplay to make fights that much more exciting and customizable for whatever makes you feel right at home with a game in this genre. I would recommend it for those who are big Street Fighter fans, as well as those who are big fighting game fans in general, because while this will definitely not live up to the later Alpha games (I’m calling it now), it is still fun regardless, and you can have a great time beating the fuck out of your friends with a smile on your face. Before we do end off this review though, there is one thing I forgot to mention about this game, which may just be the absolute best addition that this game brought to the entire Street Fighter franchise as a whole……….. it introduces Dan Hibiki, a character that is meant to be a parody of Ryo and Robert from Art of Fighting, who completely sucks at fighting, and is without a doubt the worst character to come from this series so far in terms of power and skill………. and we all love him for it.
Game #584
Enfim, uma das maiores pendências da minha vida se esvai, deixando pra trás um sentimento de arrependimento por nunca ter mergulhado nesse universo antes.
Desde a ascensão do sub-gênero dos "metroidvania", acredito que nada se compara ao nível absoluto de Hollow Knight. Não se trata apenas de uma experiência definitiva, se trata de uma experiência incomparável a qualquer outro similar.
Hollow Knight está no panteão de colossos dentre os maiores e melhores jogos independentes da história.
Muito me fascina o quanto traços de Dark Souls estão presentes por aqui, e não falo da dificuldade, mesmo que seja um ponto muito abordado no jogo.
A forma como cada cenário conta uma história à sua maneira, de um modo sutil e extremamente imersivo, nos ambientando em um universo tomado pela melancolia, fadado a ceder a uma infecção que se alastra cada vez mais, mas que em contraponto nos apresenta pequenas fagulhas de esperança fixadas a personagens únicos e inesquecíveis.
Há muitas memórias que eu gostaria de apagar, apenas para poder reviver todas elas pela primeira vez. Como quando chegamos na Cidade das Lágrimas pela primeira vez, viajamos pelos túneis com o Velho Besouro ou até mesmo quando enfrentamos os Lordes Louva-a-Deus, uma das lutas mais satisfatórias que já experienciei.
Hollow Knight caminha para se tornar um confort game pessoal, e acredito que minha passagem por esse universo ainda esteja distante de um fim.
Desde a ascensão do sub-gênero dos "metroidvania", acredito que nada se compara ao nível absoluto de Hollow Knight. Não se trata apenas de uma experiência definitiva, se trata de uma experiência incomparável a qualquer outro similar.
Hollow Knight está no panteão de colossos dentre os maiores e melhores jogos independentes da história.
Muito me fascina o quanto traços de Dark Souls estão presentes por aqui, e não falo da dificuldade, mesmo que seja um ponto muito abordado no jogo.
A forma como cada cenário conta uma história à sua maneira, de um modo sutil e extremamente imersivo, nos ambientando em um universo tomado pela melancolia, fadado a ceder a uma infecção que se alastra cada vez mais, mas que em contraponto nos apresenta pequenas fagulhas de esperança fixadas a personagens únicos e inesquecíveis.
Há muitas memórias que eu gostaria de apagar, apenas para poder reviver todas elas pela primeira vez. Como quando chegamos na Cidade das Lágrimas pela primeira vez, viajamos pelos túneis com o Velho Besouro ou até mesmo quando enfrentamos os Lordes Louva-a-Deus, uma das lutas mais satisfatórias que já experienciei.
Hollow Knight caminha para se tornar um confort game pessoal, e acredito que minha passagem por esse universo ainda esteja distante de um fim.
A coleção de jogos são muito bons e com um preço bem acessível, além disso traz desafios extras e artes oficiais dos jogos.
This review contains spoilers
THE BINDING OF ISAAC WARP ZONE: S H A R D S O F I S A A C
EDIT: Slight change to Eden character description. 💖💖💖
It might be pretentious of me to call Rebirth the perfect game. Keyword, might.
But uhhh, it's time for what the entirety of ZeusDeeGoose has been building up to. From shitposts to seemingly endless reviews, here is the review to end all reviews. The K.O. punch, the Industry Baby, here IS…
The Binding of Isaac Rebirth is my favorite game of all time. Bar none. I’ve always pushed the game as amazing, but never really put pen to paper on why it’s so incredible. I’ve known about Rebirth since around 2015, where it was finally put on the 3DS eShop. It looked so... interesting. The cover art had captured my attention like no other. The crying child, the monsters, the... tentacles? It perplexed me in no way any other game has done before, but it was love at first sight. So I immediately clicked on it. I wanted to experience what this game had to offer, and I was ready to buy a New 3DS just to experience it. Before getting cock-blocked by the parental controls, but whatever. 8 years later, New 3DS in tow, nearing the end of the 3DS eShop as a whole (rest in peace), I played Rebirth on the good old New 3DS, and I really did like it, and then I rebought the game (alongside the original), and all of the DLC for both versions, and I was almost instantly hooked for a year straight. Needless to say, I love The Binding of Isaac as a whole. If you know me, I’ve praised The Binding of Isaac to kingdom come, using it as a point of reference for the bar of quality most games should strive for, especially indie games. Any person I meet? Play The Binding of Isaac. Any game recommendations? The Binding of Isaac. I was talking to a security guard at Washington DC, and asked him if he had played any games, and he said he plays Battlefield, and I roughly responded with “PLAY THE BINDING OF ISAAC!”, taking hyper fixations to the next level. And, of course, on that trip I brought my New 3DS to Washington DC, JUST to play The Binding of Isaac, although I dabbled in Mario Kart 7 with some friends. Any time we were on the bus, I’d pop open my 3DS just to play it. I’m pretty sure my friends got tired of the buh-duh... duh-duh-duh-duhduhduh each time I started a new run, but we all enjoyed the trip. I almost beat the entire game on that trip, but unfortunately couldn’t kill Mega Satan in time. Awwwww. But on the night I got home I killed him. It was 3AM in the morning, but I fucking did it.
But, enough about the DC trip, what about the game itself? If you’re not familiar with Rebirth or the original, fear not, as coming into Isaac Rebirth, I had no idea what roguelikes even played like, other than the fact that they were randomized, but also featured permanent death. It was a bit… overwhelming to me? Losing all of my progress didn't seem all that fun to me, as I had played Minecraft previously and found its dropping inventory to be discouraging, and thought Isaac Rebirth would be the same. But, needless to say, my opinion changed pretty quickly on Rebirth, and roguelikes as a whole. Some of my favorite video games are roguelikes, but without my prior exposure to Rebirth, I don't think I would've been as receptive to the genre. And why is that, you may ask? I’m going to explain almost everything that makes the game a masterpiece of a roguelike like no other (sorry, Rogue), DLC by DLC, in-depth, zeusdeegoose style! I’ll also be covering the smaller games in the series, like the original, and the spinoff, The Legend of Bum-bo. I’ve never played Four Souls before, so that’ll be excluded from this short series.
The order will be as follows: Rebirth, Afterbirth, Afterbirth Plus, The Legend of Bum-bo, 2011, Wrath of the Lamb, and finally, Repentance.
The order may seem off to some, considering how Repentance is last in line, but it’s for good reason, trust me. You geese will be eating well tonight! (i'm so sorry)
I’m also spoiling the game rotten, because if you haven’t played the game yet, I strongly suggest going in completely and utterly blind. That’s how I did it, and I feel like having a wiki beside me would’ve ruined a lot of the fun. That’s what I do when going into almost any roguelike, but it matters most here since that’s a majority of the game; discovery. Discovering what each item does, all of the synergies it has, and the context in between each item. It’s a fun process that adds a lot of mystery and suspense to even the littlest of item pickups, and I cannot help but feel it’s too easily lost for newer players. EID is cool and all, but I think I’d recommend saving it, at least until the post-game. It’s your game, and the only stipulation for mods is lacking achievements until you kill Mom, but I still think the game is better experienced without EID for the first time, as finding what each item does is satisfying in it of itself. But if you do use EID, I won’t stop you from enjoying the game as you please. But, with all of that being said, it’s time to explore the Basement, and find the treasure trove that is this review! This is my full, 100%, complete review of The Binding of Isaac Rebirth! Presented proudly by ZeusDeeGoose (& co.).
Content warning for The Binding of Isaac's story contents: Brief mentions of Suicide and Self-harm, Heavy references towards Abuse and Religious discussion
I usually never cover the stories of games in any of my reviews, and usually it’s because they don’t have any impact on the overall score. Not to say that I don’t care for them, but The Binding of Isaac perfectly intertwines gameplay and story, like no other game I’ve seen. It’s like FNAF if it actually had good storytelling!!! Half kidding, but with that being said, like FNAF, The Binding of Isaac is a heavily disconnected narrative, open to various interpretations and ideas. Almost every item connects to the story in every way, and little hints are given throughout each subsequent run victory, and each unlock to paint a grim, yet realistic storyline, despite the less-than-realistic gameplay within the game itself. What I also enjoy about the storytelling is that each release of a major expansion added to the story in a meaningful way, but also stands on their own as cohesive stories. The later endings in some of the future DLCs are a little too blatant for my tastes, but we’ll get to that later.
If you’ve heard anything about The Binding of Isaac, you’ve absolutely heard about the story in some way, shape or form. Not only for how batshit it is initially, but how depressing it eventually gets. The gist of what the game tells you is that “isaac mom watch bible bwoadcasts on tv and went a little nuts thanks to a voice from above and wants to re-enact the binding of isaac but isaac jumps into a trapdoor”, but eventually transforms into “Isaac commits suicide by suffocating in a Chest because he simply couldn’t take it anymore. The End.” The reason why is because the initial story is from Isaac’s perspective, but as he slowly dies, he eventually has to face reality, and what happens after he dies, as he feels as if he’s a sinner. There is no “good ending”. Isaac will always die, no matter what. And that's what I really liked about it. Not every story needs a happy ending (and especially in a story that discusses child abuse and beliefs being used as a false justification for said abuse). But I don’t think that the point of the game’s story is that religion is necessarily bad. It’s that using religion as something to punish someone is immoral, nor should we shame those who chose to not partake in religion, and rather unfortunately, that fact is frequently ignored in our world. This game helped me be more comfortable about my own religious beliefs. As someone who has struggled over their religion as of recent, I felt so validated by Isaac’s struggles. Although I wouldn’t consider myself an atheist, I’m still struggling with who or what I believe in, or if I should even believe in any entity at all. Whilst the game never gives an answer as to if you should believe in religion, it did contribute to my thoughts of religion. I really like how Edmund McMillen never shies away from controversial topics, because I’ve never seen any game that covers religion in depth like The Binding of Isaac. The entire game’s environment reflects the grim nature of the game, not shying away from the disturbing and occasionally haunting themes of the entire game. Each area feels dishearteningly oppressive, with blood and other bodily fluids of all kinds being used to add to the environment. It’s a grotesque game, but remember that this is from the perspective of a 5 year old. That’s why the items are unidentified, being discoveries of a relatively young child in a world that’s too big for him. That’s why he believes that his mother is re-enacting the story of The Binding of Isaac, because he’s using his imagination to create false parallels between himself and the Bible. That’s why there’s a relatively low brow humor bar, spirals of shit and all. That’s why he fights himself. Due to a misunderstanding of religion, he hates what he sees in himself. Once again, as a kid who was exposed to religion constantly, I was always concerned about sinning, even the most mild sins. However, I would come to realize, that according to the Bible, your sins are forgiven easily. This is perspective that Isaac lacks; an intentional flaw in his character, and makes him fear himself. This entire misunderstanding leads to the death of him. That’s fucked up. Every element of the game, from the characters representing Isaac’s own thoughts about himself, to the items painting the picture of abuse and neglect. It’s a solid story overall, with unprecedented storytelling, with eye opening themes and a nearly flawless execution in storytelling, a story told like no other, and interpretations out the wazoo. Hell, I’ll contribute a theory right now; Range up items are often represented with more sexual items, representing libido. But as many people know, religion tends to disfavor sexual activity outside of marriage. And as the Range ups are among the worst items in the entire game, it represents this very fact. Or how the entirety of the game is a conflict of Isaac’s own personality, due to the billions of possible individual runs? BOOM, MatPat is shaking in his boots right now. Regardless, despite my several hundred hours, I'm not some lore master, I'm just here to shoot tears and have fun. I know someone who is, though! Listen, I would absolutely love to analyze the entirety of the game’s many items, hints, and even more, but that could be potentially hours of pure content, and I don’t have the time for that. I mean, this is a game, right? Of course the story couldn’t be THAT good, right? What matters more is the gameplay!
Content Warning over.
As I’ve said previously, The Binding of Isaac integrates story and gameplay almost perfectly. You traverse through randomly generated dungeons that slowly increase in difficulty, increasing in size and becoming harder as you descend down The Basement. Although the “game” is incredibly short, the threat of permanently losing all of your items looms over your head throughout the run. Each run is about 30 minutes long, meaning that dying and retrying isn’t so punishing when it happens. This one of those roguelikes that masters the “one more run” mentality that lots of roguelikes similarly embody. The game is forgiving, but If you fuck up one too many times, there’s no permanent progression loss. Each run helps contribute even the littlest of help to future runs, but more on that later down.
The controls of the game are incredibly simple, as you move with the Left Stick and shoot in 4 directions with the Right Stick (or buttons if you prefer), making the game very simple to pick up and play, and the controls themselves feel incredibly fluid and fun. As I had mentioned previously, the aesthetics of the game are incredibly strong, with the game sporting solid pixel art, supported with great visual effects, and profound sound design. The music is pretty catchy to me, and it immerses me into the run. I also like the “layers” of the tracks, which play whenever you’re locked into combat. Bosses get even more intense, with the foreboding sound effect before battle, as well as incredibly intense boss tracks. Crusade, Matricide, Ventricide, Infantcide, Ascension, I mean, jesus. Talk about a good soundtrack, guys! On your journey through The Basement, you’ll encounter items on the way down, which are what keep The Binding of Isaac so fresh and replayable. In Rebirth, there are about 300+ items to collect, all of which have different effects and abilities. Some items are triggered manually by the player, with the triggers, but a majority of items are passive, all of which give random effects and abilities. Even with the large amount of items, you’ll eventually see all of them, so what keeps the gameplay fresh and exciting for hours to come? THE SYNERGIES.
One of the defining aspect of The Binding of Isaac is it’s large focus on synergies. Almost every item has at least one notable synergy, all of which add to the replay value of the game. Not only does this ensure that the game has a consistent difficulty curve by making synergies easier to find than oxygen, but also adds a sense of individuality to each run. With the amount of items, unique interactions in between those items, and the individual room layouts, Rebirth almost feels endless to me, and this would only be improved in later releases, with more content in general. To see Isaac grow in each run, gaining a different sense of personality each run, to see him take on gods and monsters, even himself at times, makes Rebirth a joy to come back to each and every time I start a new run.
A common point of criticism with Rebirth is that it apparently takes “no skill” to win? Yeah, obviously. I find the “no skill” argument to be largely irrelevant, as yes, the game does have various items, some of which are a cut above the rest, but calling it “luck based” is a complete misunderstanding of the game’s design as a whole. In fact, I’d say Rebirth is TOO easy, but more on that later. And I can prove it, too. Not only is the ratio of bad, good, and great items extremely fair and consistent, not feeling too powerful nor weak in terms of strength, by avoiding red heart damage on a floor, they can guarantee a “deal”, primarily of which will be a Devil deal, housing some of the most powerful items within the game, in exchange for their own health. Deals are an incredibly consistent way of obtaining good items, but it requires YOU, yes, YOU, to man up and actually be good at the game. It’s Risk Vs Reward done at it’s finest; do you want that cool-ass Brimstone laser? Well, you’re going to have to survive with less HP than usual in order to keep it, and that’s just one example. If you don’t like losing your HP, you could risk getting collectively shunned by the entire community and go for deals with the Angel. These are deals which are completely free, but require you to skip taking any deals with the Devil, and they only have one item to choose from. A lot of people claim that Angel deals are unviable, but I think they’re kind of missing the point, as not risking your HP gets you the worse items. Personally, I do think Angels, while a neat idea, are still outclassed by Devil deals. But, I’m not starting another Angels VS Devils debate. Lord knows how many there’s been. But back to the main point, if you’re still struggling with the game, you can always try to unlock some new characters, many of which will benefit you compared to base Isaac, who starts with nothing until a certain point. By all accounts, the game is on your side. It’s just up to you to keep up with the game’s difficulty, which is already pretty low to begin with, but more on that later. Yes, I know I’m saying that a lot, but Rebirth is fucking huge, okay? Yes, the game is random. But you have to grab the randomness by the balls and use it to your advantage, whilst also not being too sloppy on your part to win. Like Spelunky, you have to experiment and actually think to win consistently. Victory is not guaranteed for your first couple of runs, but if you really dig deep and try everything, maybe pick up that item that you don’t know anything about, only then can you truly succeed.
But not only do you have to embrace the randomness of the game in order to win, but the game itself changes as you play, quite literally. Remember when I said that each run contributes to your future runs? Well, it’s time to talk about SECRETS. Secrets are the bread and butter of The Binding of Isaac, bestowing new stuff into almost any run. From items, to bosses, and even new floors. To go back to the story for a bit, your first end goal is to kill Mom. For your average player, this could take a fair amount of tries, as the player learns the game and adapts to the environment, combined with Mom being a pretty difficult boss for a newcomer. Mom can be quite unpredictable, with her constantly spawning enemies, while the infamous foot stomps easily catch you off guard. It serves as a skill check for the following part of the game; once you kill Mom for the first time, you get the fake-out ending, with Isaac defeating Mom, but she comes back soon after. One curious player may check out the menu and realize that there’s over 16 different endings. This starts quite possibly the longest gameplay arc of the game; The Womb. In this cursed crimson floor, you always take a full heart of damage (without The Wafer of course), and the enemies are much more dastardly than before, with a greater variety and number of them than previously, as well as less items being present than before. This shows off the progressive difficulty of the game, both in a hypothetical and literal sense, as several secrets are tied to difficulty, like the alternate floors for the first 3 floors, an increase in champions (harder versions of enemies, denoted with a specific color), and also an increase in “curses”, which are bestowed upon the current floor at random.
They try to force you to approach a floor differently, making it more difficult, to slightly mixed results. Most of these are just kind of annoying, including a no map mode, invisible HP mode, randomly teleporting to new rooms, darkness, and being unable to see items picked up. The only one that’s not annoying is the XL floors, which also skips an additional floor and gives you two item rooms. I think the main thing curses suffer from is that they lack Risk vs Reward. Take Spelunky for example, which have a similar mechanic dubbed “level feelings”. They do make the floor harder, but usually add some sort of benefit to counterbalance it. Take the darkness idea again. Yes, it makes the level darker, but you can collect fireflies for additional cash. This could easily work with Isaac, too. Putting out fires gives a higher chance for pickups, OR better quality of the pickups in general. Maybe a no Map floor gives less rooms, and a no HP floor gives more hearts. Darkness could give you an extra item, and a random teleport room has a chance of creating a new room entirely. There are so many ideas I have with curses, but it kind of sucks that they haven’t been touched at all since Rebirth’s release. As it stands, curses are an interesting idea, but they quickly become more irritating as time goes on. Not a dealbreaker by any means, but it’s a big nitpick that I have with Rebirth. On the note of nitpicks, I will also draw attention to the Challenges of the game. The in-game challenges, like curses, feel underdeveloped. Far too many of them give overpowered item combos, then ask you to simply survive. They never really feel “challenging” to the player; even Purist, which I can assume is intended to be the hardest challenge based on its underlining in the menu, is incredibly easy, even though it takes away all of the treasure rooms and shops.People who say Isaac is luck based are fuming at the mouth right now. Very little of these are even “challenging” in some way, really the only arguably difficult one is Suicide King, which has you shooting explosive tears which home back in on you, but that’s really it. And that bit about the Challenges somewhat applies to the game as a whole, as even though I believe the game forces you to get good at it, it snowballs in your favor far too easily. I may be biased with my several hundred hours of The Binding of Isaac across 4 different versions, but I’d figure I’d bring it up as it’s frequently mentioned when reflecting on Rebirth, especially now that we have Repentance. Even when your runs aren't absolutely broken, Rebirth will still be pretty easy to beat. Once again, a nitpick, one that doesn't really hold much relevance to me. I'm up for a challenge, and all that (peep my favorite games), but an easy game is usually fine to me. Aaaand, with all of that, I can say that Rebirth is essentially a perfect game (to me, at least). I'm serious, I only have 3 nitpicks with this game, all of which are pretty minor. A slightly annoying, but not detrimental game mechanic in runs, a harmless side mode that still has all of the great qualities of the main game, and a difficulty level, which doesn't really affect me. Sooooo... can I go back to talking about how good this game is?
After killing Mom’s Heart 11 times, you can access the Cathedral or Sheol, but if you’re really good at the game, avoiding Red Heart damage on Womb 2 at any kill count almost always guarantees you a deal with the Angel or Devil, which allows you to go to the Cathedral or Sheol respectively, allowing already experienced players to skip major chunks of the game. Is this a well thought out game or what? Really, what else is there to nitpick? In these areas, you have to fight either Isaac, or Satan, and do it 5 times to access each respective final chapter; The Chest or The Dark Room. However, while you’re in the process of killing all of these bosses over and over again, you may come across a hole in the wall when killing Mom. This giant room holds 4 free items, but you can walk out... if you dare. But... it can’t be that easy, right? I’ll take the best item, just to be caref- why is there boss music? This is the infamous Boss rush, an onslaught of 15 sets of 2 bosses each, and it can either be the best or worst thing ever. Boss Rush is fucking intense, even with a good run. While you have a lot of leeway, Boss Rush often leaves you scraping for more HP, doubly so if you’re playing as a character who depends on low HP. It’s a difficult, yet rewarding mode to blast through each run, with you needing to give it your all to win. Once again, RISK VS REWARD. I can’t stress this enough. Boss Rush is pretty fun, but once it’s finally over, you get another item and yet another secret to mark your victory.
The final floors of Rebirth, The Chest and The Dark Room are essentially a victory lap, with each individual chest giving you a different item for the final battle, between... Isaac but dead??? Or The Lamb. Each path sports wholly unique fights and enemy patterns, making it feel like both are different enough from each other. Dead Isaac is probably my least favorite of the two; the fight ends before it can really get good; hell, I’d even say Isaac is harder in some cases. But The Lamb is a fair bit better than its blue brethren. He has a larger amount of HP, and he actually throws out ipecac shots, which explode. And then, his head and body splits at 50% HP, with the head gaining a few more tricky attacks than before. And the music in each fight is fucking INTENSE. Ascension is my favorite track in the game, bar none. It’s so ridiculously epic, like holy shit. It really feels like you’re overcoming the great dread within you. There’s so much damn BASS. It truly feels like the final battle. The Fallen Angel is a little worse than Ascension, but I still like it. It just gets a little too repetitive for my liking, that’s all. But it still feels pretty awesome. I know I already gassed up the Rebirth soundtrack to kingdom come, but holy FUCK it’s genuinely incredible. It knows when to rock out, how to be somber, and how to convey Isaac’s thoughts. It’s great. Diptera Sonata always feels like you’re on the edge of what your next run may have, Sodden Hollow is really fucking groovy, Abyss feels just like the title, and Viscera... Well, disregarding that, THE CELLAR! That awesome rock tune will never fail to be an earworm. Crusade makes every single Dingle look like fucking Sans. And The Calm makes you reflect on your past floor, what to do, where to go next. I could go ON AND ON about how good this game is, you have no IDEA. And you thought we were done? HELL NO! Once you beat either Dead Isaac or The Lamb once, something... interesting happens.
The game ominously states that the Angels “are waiting”? Well, I think you all know what that means. It’s time to go back into the Basement for one last time! Give Satan the middle finger, and head into the arms of Christ? And what happens? Uhhhh... The angels aren’t doing anything. Walking into them doesn’t do anything. What about a bomb?
The famous last words of zeusdeegoose. Rest in Peace, 2023-2024
Bombing the Angel Statue initiates a boss battle with an Angel, which REALLY caught me off guard. But after defeating the Angel, you get... Key Piece 1? Okay, so then you have to get another Key Piece by bombing another Angel, and then make your way down to Chapter 6, for the final time. A massive golden door appears, and after collecting all 4 items in the room, feel free to head in. And then... for REAL this time... you can fight Mega Satan, god, I am tired.
It’s not a bad fight; far from it, in fact. It kind of reminds me of shmup arcade games, in a way. It’s a massive arena, and Mega Satan is at the forefront of it all. He spawns hundreds of bullets, while you keep shooting him. And in his second phase, his skull appears (Terraria reference), spewing flames at you. But once his skull cracks ONCE AND FOR ALL, with potentially over a HUNDRED runs done by the player already, you think you’re done, right? Well, kind of. This is the end of all of Rebirth’s campaign, but 100%ing is a different story. You have 6 completion marks you have on each respective character, which are, as follows: Mom’s Heart, Boss Rush, Isaac, Satan, Dead Isaac, and The Lamb. And you need to do all of that on all 10 characters in Hard Mode, which predictably makes the game harder. So you can realistically expect to do that in 2-3 runs. I’d complain about the monotony of this, but like I said, Rebirth already encourages replayability to the fullest degree, so it’s actually really fun. Quickly, to save my fingers from carpal tunnel, the characters in Rebirth are solid, having their own strengths and weaknesses. Isaac is the basic bitch, Cain is lucky and does a little more damage, Maggy is the skill issue character, Judas is the glass cannon, Eve is the self-damaging character, ??? is the intentionally bad, but still fun character, Samson is the skill issue character, Lazarus is the skill issue character, Azazel is the best character in the game, and Eden is the genderfluid one (kind of like me). Yes, the game could use a lot less characters based on self damage, and the characters are a LITTLE too similar to base Isaac for comfort, but everything else about them is fundamentally solid. So after doing all of that, which will probably take you a good week or so, boom. All unlocks for every character. Are you still done? Hell no! You still have to do all 20 challenges, a majority of which are free and are already probably done at this point, so yeah. Easy. And after ALL of that, are you still done? NO. You have to fill the Donation Machine all the way up to 999 coins, or you can use a glitch to do it. Are you STILL done? HELLLLLLLLLLL NO, GIRL. Do all of this miscellaneous bullshit, like playing the slot machine. Are you still done? Have you explored every nook and cranny for the Plat- NO YOU FUCKING BUFFOON. You have to touch every item, which isn’t too hard on it’s own, as you’ll probably do all of this during your trip to Platinum God. But... after all of that, you finally set down your controller (or keyboard, if you’re one of those people?) satisfyingly, knowing that one of the greatest games of all time has been officially 100%ed. You are a Platinum God, friend! Welcome to the club, drinks are in the fridge. But... you feel... odd. Your achievements say that there’s still roughly a dozen to go. Could there be something... you’re... missing?
WAIT. You remember how I talked about the game’s numerous secrets? Well, take that literally, because there's a secret SO complex, that it's nearly impossible to figure out on your own. In fact, it was so secret that it had to be datamined exactly 109 hours after Rebirth released. What’s the secret, you may ask? If Isaac dies in a Sacrifice Room with The Missing Poster, it will show a piece of a torn-off paper, revealing itself to be the next secret to the puzzle, that being Isaac’s Last Will (the death screen which states where you are and what you were killed by). If, in sequential order, Isaac gets killed by a Mulliboom in The Basement, Magdalene kills herself with her own bombs in The Caves, Judas is killed by Mom, and Azazel is killed by Satan, a new character is unlocked, which is the bane of my and many other Rebirth players’ existence.
THE MOTHERFUCKING LOST. The Lost is by far one of the WORST characters in any roguelikes history, more specifically the REBIRTH incarnation and the Rebirth version ALONE. He only has 2 benefits. One; he starts with flight, which is always great, and he can get free deals with the Devil no matter what, which is always pretty cool. So what's the tradeoff? YOU HAVE NO FUCKING WAY TO PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST ANY DAMAGE. NONE, NADA. Get hit once due to a bad dodge? Eat SHIT, go back all the way to the FUCKING BASEMENT, NERD. I mean, shit! Talk about punishing design, one that's not ultimately suited for this game. Sure, The Lost is an intentionally bad character, but ??? (the other “challenge” character), gave the player lenience when it came to their mistakes, but it also forced you to rethink your entire strategy. Devil Deals are much riskier with ??? as a result of your lack of red heart containers, and you have to take less damage in general as well if you want any chance of survival. The Lost feels like ramming your head into a wall until you see pretty stars and pass out. And yes, you could argue that The Lost can get Holy Mantle, or Dead Cat for an easier time. But that’s quite literally luck based, and isn’t fun. I got all of his marks in Rebirth ONCE on the 3DS. And quite frankly, I’m not interested in doing it ever again. The only silver lining is that you never need to play as him, unless you’re doing 100%, and you also don’t have to fight Mega Satan as him for 100% because he’s not a mark. But disregarding all of that, FUCK The Lost, and thank god for Afterbirth making him actually fun to play as. But this is Rebirth, so yeah. Fuck that guy. You have to do ALL of his marks in Hard Mode, but what do you get for all of your troubles? One of the best items in the game, GODHEAD. The TRUE mark of mastery. Although I think The Lost is a fundamentally flawed character, I won’t say that powering through and finally unlocking Godhead, alongside all of these other cool items isn’t satisfying. Now, after all of that, you can actually rest easy... until you check out Edmund’s Tumblr to find out there’s a new DLC get fucked LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Disregarding The Lost and the like, I believe Isaac Rebirth is one of the greatest video games ever crafted, with very little flaws overall. I do have my gripes with it, of course, like any game, but at the end of the day, it’s still one of the greatest roguelikes to be released to date. Even games like Dead Cells and lots of non-traditional roguelikes have their roots within The Binding of Isaac. The Binding of Isaac has become less of a game, and more of a starting platform for aspiring creators and artists (including me, peep this). I could barely find a flaw in Rebirth's gameplay that isn't just a nitpick. It's a fundamentally sound game, with almost endless replayability. And did I even mention how fucking addictive Rebirth is? Seriously, even after 700 hours across numerous platforms in the span of a year, I still play Rebirth to this day. It's a game I'll probably never get tired of popping it in and starting a new descent into the Basement. And when I get my hands on the Switch release, oh man. But, what's next for Isaac? Well, what happens after Birth? A postpartum!
“A birth in full bloom / Endless basement drenched in gore / Stuck in the nightmare...” - “A Rebirth” by zeusdeegoose, Written on 4/22/24
EDIT: Slight change to Eden character description. 💖💖💖
It might be pretentious of me to call Rebirth the perfect game. Keyword, might.
But uhhh, it's time for what the entirety of ZeusDeeGoose has been building up to. From shitposts to seemingly endless reviews, here is the review to end all reviews. The K.O. punch, the Industry Baby, here IS…
The Binding of Isaac Rebirth is my favorite game of all time. Bar none. I’ve always pushed the game as amazing, but never really put pen to paper on why it’s so incredible. I’ve known about Rebirth since around 2015, where it was finally put on the 3DS eShop. It looked so... interesting. The cover art had captured my attention like no other. The crying child, the monsters, the... tentacles? It perplexed me in no way any other game has done before, but it was love at first sight. So I immediately clicked on it. I wanted to experience what this game had to offer, and I was ready to buy a New 3DS just to experience it. Before getting cock-blocked by the parental controls, but whatever. 8 years later, New 3DS in tow, nearing the end of the 3DS eShop as a whole (rest in peace), I played Rebirth on the good old New 3DS, and I really did like it, and then I rebought the game (alongside the original), and all of the DLC for both versions, and I was almost instantly hooked for a year straight. Needless to say, I love The Binding of Isaac as a whole. If you know me, I’ve praised The Binding of Isaac to kingdom come, using it as a point of reference for the bar of quality most games should strive for, especially indie games. Any person I meet? Play The Binding of Isaac. Any game recommendations? The Binding of Isaac. I was talking to a security guard at Washington DC, and asked him if he had played any games, and he said he plays Battlefield, and I roughly responded with “PLAY THE BINDING OF ISAAC!”, taking hyper fixations to the next level. And, of course, on that trip I brought my New 3DS to Washington DC, JUST to play The Binding of Isaac, although I dabbled in Mario Kart 7 with some friends. Any time we were on the bus, I’d pop open my 3DS just to play it. I’m pretty sure my friends got tired of the buh-duh... duh-duh-duh-duhduhduh each time I started a new run, but we all enjoyed the trip. I almost beat the entire game on that trip, but unfortunately couldn’t kill Mega Satan in time. Awwwww. But on the night I got home I killed him. It was 3AM in the morning, but I fucking did it.
But, enough about the DC trip, what about the game itself? If you’re not familiar with Rebirth or the original, fear not, as coming into Isaac Rebirth, I had no idea what roguelikes even played like, other than the fact that they were randomized, but also featured permanent death. It was a bit… overwhelming to me? Losing all of my progress didn't seem all that fun to me, as I had played Minecraft previously and found its dropping inventory to be discouraging, and thought Isaac Rebirth would be the same. But, needless to say, my opinion changed pretty quickly on Rebirth, and roguelikes as a whole. Some of my favorite video games are roguelikes, but without my prior exposure to Rebirth, I don't think I would've been as receptive to the genre. And why is that, you may ask? I’m going to explain almost everything that makes the game a masterpiece of a roguelike like no other (sorry, Rogue), DLC by DLC, in-depth, zeusdeegoose style! I’ll also be covering the smaller games in the series, like the original, and the spinoff, The Legend of Bum-bo. I’ve never played Four Souls before, so that’ll be excluded from this short series.
The order will be as follows: Rebirth, Afterbirth, Afterbirth Plus, The Legend of Bum-bo, 2011, Wrath of the Lamb, and finally, Repentance.
The order may seem off to some, considering how Repentance is last in line, but it’s for good reason, trust me. You geese will be eating well tonight! (i'm so sorry)
I’m also spoiling the game rotten, because if you haven’t played the game yet, I strongly suggest going in completely and utterly blind. That’s how I did it, and I feel like having a wiki beside me would’ve ruined a lot of the fun. That’s what I do when going into almost any roguelike, but it matters most here since that’s a majority of the game; discovery. Discovering what each item does, all of the synergies it has, and the context in between each item. It’s a fun process that adds a lot of mystery and suspense to even the littlest of item pickups, and I cannot help but feel it’s too easily lost for newer players. EID is cool and all, but I think I’d recommend saving it, at least until the post-game. It’s your game, and the only stipulation for mods is lacking achievements until you kill Mom, but I still think the game is better experienced without EID for the first time, as finding what each item does is satisfying in it of itself. But if you do use EID, I won’t stop you from enjoying the game as you please. But, with all of that being said, it’s time to explore the Basement, and find the treasure trove that is this review! This is my full, 100%, complete review of The Binding of Isaac Rebirth! Presented proudly by ZeusDeeGoose (& co.).
Content warning for The Binding of Isaac's story contents: Brief mentions of Suicide and Self-harm, Heavy references towards Abuse and Religious discussion
I usually never cover the stories of games in any of my reviews, and usually it’s because they don’t have any impact on the overall score. Not to say that I don’t care for them, but The Binding of Isaac perfectly intertwines gameplay and story, like no other game I’ve seen. It’s like FNAF if it actually had good storytelling!!! Half kidding, but with that being said, like FNAF, The Binding of Isaac is a heavily disconnected narrative, open to various interpretations and ideas. Almost every item connects to the story in every way, and little hints are given throughout each subsequent run victory, and each unlock to paint a grim, yet realistic storyline, despite the less-than-realistic gameplay within the game itself. What I also enjoy about the storytelling is that each release of a major expansion added to the story in a meaningful way, but also stands on their own as cohesive stories. The later endings in some of the future DLCs are a little too blatant for my tastes, but we’ll get to that later.
If you’ve heard anything about The Binding of Isaac, you’ve absolutely heard about the story in some way, shape or form. Not only for how batshit it is initially, but how depressing it eventually gets. The gist of what the game tells you is that “isaac mom watch bible bwoadcasts on tv and went a little nuts thanks to a voice from above and wants to re-enact the binding of isaac but isaac jumps into a trapdoor”, but eventually transforms into “Isaac commits suicide by suffocating in a Chest because he simply couldn’t take it anymore. The End.” The reason why is because the initial story is from Isaac’s perspective, but as he slowly dies, he eventually has to face reality, and what happens after he dies, as he feels as if he’s a sinner. There is no “good ending”. Isaac will always die, no matter what. And that's what I really liked about it. Not every story needs a happy ending (and especially in a story that discusses child abuse and beliefs being used as a false justification for said abuse). But I don’t think that the point of the game’s story is that religion is necessarily bad. It’s that using religion as something to punish someone is immoral, nor should we shame those who chose to not partake in religion, and rather unfortunately, that fact is frequently ignored in our world. This game helped me be more comfortable about my own religious beliefs. As someone who has struggled over their religion as of recent, I felt so validated by Isaac’s struggles. Although I wouldn’t consider myself an atheist, I’m still struggling with who or what I believe in, or if I should even believe in any entity at all. Whilst the game never gives an answer as to if you should believe in religion, it did contribute to my thoughts of religion. I really like how Edmund McMillen never shies away from controversial topics, because I’ve never seen any game that covers religion in depth like The Binding of Isaac. The entire game’s environment reflects the grim nature of the game, not shying away from the disturbing and occasionally haunting themes of the entire game. Each area feels dishearteningly oppressive, with blood and other bodily fluids of all kinds being used to add to the environment. It’s a grotesque game, but remember that this is from the perspective of a 5 year old. That’s why the items are unidentified, being discoveries of a relatively young child in a world that’s too big for him. That’s why he believes that his mother is re-enacting the story of The Binding of Isaac, because he’s using his imagination to create false parallels between himself and the Bible. That’s why there’s a relatively low brow humor bar, spirals of shit and all. That’s why he fights himself. Due to a misunderstanding of religion, he hates what he sees in himself. Once again, as a kid who was exposed to religion constantly, I was always concerned about sinning, even the most mild sins. However, I would come to realize, that according to the Bible, your sins are forgiven easily. This is perspective that Isaac lacks; an intentional flaw in his character, and makes him fear himself. This entire misunderstanding leads to the death of him. That’s fucked up. Every element of the game, from the characters representing Isaac’s own thoughts about himself, to the items painting the picture of abuse and neglect. It’s a solid story overall, with unprecedented storytelling, with eye opening themes and a nearly flawless execution in storytelling, a story told like no other, and interpretations out the wazoo. Hell, I’ll contribute a theory right now; Range up items are often represented with more sexual items, representing libido. But as many people know, religion tends to disfavor sexual activity outside of marriage. And as the Range ups are among the worst items in the entire game, it represents this very fact. Or how the entirety of the game is a conflict of Isaac’s own personality, due to the billions of possible individual runs? BOOM, MatPat is shaking in his boots right now. Regardless, despite my several hundred hours, I'm not some lore master, I'm just here to shoot tears and have fun. I know someone who is, though! Listen, I would absolutely love to analyze the entirety of the game’s many items, hints, and even more, but that could be potentially hours of pure content, and I don’t have the time for that. I mean, this is a game, right? Of course the story couldn’t be THAT good, right? What matters more is the gameplay!
Content Warning over.
As I’ve said previously, The Binding of Isaac integrates story and gameplay almost perfectly. You traverse through randomly generated dungeons that slowly increase in difficulty, increasing in size and becoming harder as you descend down The Basement. Although the “game” is incredibly short, the threat of permanently losing all of your items looms over your head throughout the run. Each run is about 30 minutes long, meaning that dying and retrying isn’t so punishing when it happens. This one of those roguelikes that masters the “one more run” mentality that lots of roguelikes similarly embody. The game is forgiving, but If you fuck up one too many times, there’s no permanent progression loss. Each run helps contribute even the littlest of help to future runs, but more on that later down.
The controls of the game are incredibly simple, as you move with the Left Stick and shoot in 4 directions with the Right Stick (or buttons if you prefer), making the game very simple to pick up and play, and the controls themselves feel incredibly fluid and fun. As I had mentioned previously, the aesthetics of the game are incredibly strong, with the game sporting solid pixel art, supported with great visual effects, and profound sound design. The music is pretty catchy to me, and it immerses me into the run. I also like the “layers” of the tracks, which play whenever you’re locked into combat. Bosses get even more intense, with the foreboding sound effect before battle, as well as incredibly intense boss tracks. Crusade, Matricide, Ventricide, Infantcide, Ascension, I mean, jesus. Talk about a good soundtrack, guys! On your journey through The Basement, you’ll encounter items on the way down, which are what keep The Binding of Isaac so fresh and replayable. In Rebirth, there are about 300+ items to collect, all of which have different effects and abilities. Some items are triggered manually by the player, with the triggers, but a majority of items are passive, all of which give random effects and abilities. Even with the large amount of items, you’ll eventually see all of them, so what keeps the gameplay fresh and exciting for hours to come? THE SYNERGIES.
One of the defining aspect of The Binding of Isaac is it’s large focus on synergies. Almost every item has at least one notable synergy, all of which add to the replay value of the game. Not only does this ensure that the game has a consistent difficulty curve by making synergies easier to find than oxygen, but also adds a sense of individuality to each run. With the amount of items, unique interactions in between those items, and the individual room layouts, Rebirth almost feels endless to me, and this would only be improved in later releases, with more content in general. To see Isaac grow in each run, gaining a different sense of personality each run, to see him take on gods and monsters, even himself at times, makes Rebirth a joy to come back to each and every time I start a new run.
A common point of criticism with Rebirth is that it apparently takes “no skill” to win? Yeah, obviously. I find the “no skill” argument to be largely irrelevant, as yes, the game does have various items, some of which are a cut above the rest, but calling it “luck based” is a complete misunderstanding of the game’s design as a whole. In fact, I’d say Rebirth is TOO easy, but more on that later. And I can prove it, too. Not only is the ratio of bad, good, and great items extremely fair and consistent, not feeling too powerful nor weak in terms of strength, by avoiding red heart damage on a floor, they can guarantee a “deal”, primarily of which will be a Devil deal, housing some of the most powerful items within the game, in exchange for their own health. Deals are an incredibly consistent way of obtaining good items, but it requires YOU, yes, YOU, to man up and actually be good at the game. It’s Risk Vs Reward done at it’s finest; do you want that cool-ass Brimstone laser? Well, you’re going to have to survive with less HP than usual in order to keep it, and that’s just one example. If you don’t like losing your HP, you could risk getting collectively shunned by the entire community and go for deals with the Angel. These are deals which are completely free, but require you to skip taking any deals with the Devil, and they only have one item to choose from. A lot of people claim that Angel deals are unviable, but I think they’re kind of missing the point, as not risking your HP gets you the worse items. Personally, I do think Angels, while a neat idea, are still outclassed by Devil deals. But, I’m not starting another Angels VS Devils debate. Lord knows how many there’s been. But back to the main point, if you’re still struggling with the game, you can always try to unlock some new characters, many of which will benefit you compared to base Isaac, who starts with nothing until a certain point. By all accounts, the game is on your side. It’s just up to you to keep up with the game’s difficulty, which is already pretty low to begin with, but more on that later. Yes, I know I’m saying that a lot, but Rebirth is fucking huge, okay? Yes, the game is random. But you have to grab the randomness by the balls and use it to your advantage, whilst also not being too sloppy on your part to win. Like Spelunky, you have to experiment and actually think to win consistently. Victory is not guaranteed for your first couple of runs, but if you really dig deep and try everything, maybe pick up that item that you don’t know anything about, only then can you truly succeed.
But not only do you have to embrace the randomness of the game in order to win, but the game itself changes as you play, quite literally. Remember when I said that each run contributes to your future runs? Well, it’s time to talk about SECRETS. Secrets are the bread and butter of The Binding of Isaac, bestowing new stuff into almost any run. From items, to bosses, and even new floors. To go back to the story for a bit, your first end goal is to kill Mom. For your average player, this could take a fair amount of tries, as the player learns the game and adapts to the environment, combined with Mom being a pretty difficult boss for a newcomer. Mom can be quite unpredictable, with her constantly spawning enemies, while the infamous foot stomps easily catch you off guard. It serves as a skill check for the following part of the game; once you kill Mom for the first time, you get the fake-out ending, with Isaac defeating Mom, but she comes back soon after. One curious player may check out the menu and realize that there’s over 16 different endings. This starts quite possibly the longest gameplay arc of the game; The Womb. In this cursed crimson floor, you always take a full heart of damage (without The Wafer of course), and the enemies are much more dastardly than before, with a greater variety and number of them than previously, as well as less items being present than before. This shows off the progressive difficulty of the game, both in a hypothetical and literal sense, as several secrets are tied to difficulty, like the alternate floors for the first 3 floors, an increase in champions (harder versions of enemies, denoted with a specific color), and also an increase in “curses”, which are bestowed upon the current floor at random.
They try to force you to approach a floor differently, making it more difficult, to slightly mixed results. Most of these are just kind of annoying, including a no map mode, invisible HP mode, randomly teleporting to new rooms, darkness, and being unable to see items picked up. The only one that’s not annoying is the XL floors, which also skips an additional floor and gives you two item rooms. I think the main thing curses suffer from is that they lack Risk vs Reward. Take Spelunky for example, which have a similar mechanic dubbed “level feelings”. They do make the floor harder, but usually add some sort of benefit to counterbalance it. Take the darkness idea again. Yes, it makes the level darker, but you can collect fireflies for additional cash. This could easily work with Isaac, too. Putting out fires gives a higher chance for pickups, OR better quality of the pickups in general. Maybe a no Map floor gives less rooms, and a no HP floor gives more hearts. Darkness could give you an extra item, and a random teleport room has a chance of creating a new room entirely. There are so many ideas I have with curses, but it kind of sucks that they haven’t been touched at all since Rebirth’s release. As it stands, curses are an interesting idea, but they quickly become more irritating as time goes on. Not a dealbreaker by any means, but it’s a big nitpick that I have with Rebirth. On the note of nitpicks, I will also draw attention to the Challenges of the game. The in-game challenges, like curses, feel underdeveloped. Far too many of them give overpowered item combos, then ask you to simply survive. They never really feel “challenging” to the player; even Purist, which I can assume is intended to be the hardest challenge based on its underlining in the menu, is incredibly easy, even though it takes away all of the treasure rooms and shops.
After killing Mom’s Heart 11 times, you can access the Cathedral or Sheol, but if you’re really good at the game, avoiding Red Heart damage on Womb 2 at any kill count almost always guarantees you a deal with the Angel or Devil, which allows you to go to the Cathedral or Sheol respectively, allowing already experienced players to skip major chunks of the game. Is this a well thought out game or what? Really, what else is there to nitpick? In these areas, you have to fight either Isaac, or Satan, and do it 5 times to access each respective final chapter; The Chest or The Dark Room. However, while you’re in the process of killing all of these bosses over and over again, you may come across a hole in the wall when killing Mom. This giant room holds 4 free items, but you can walk out... if you dare. But... it can’t be that easy, right? I’ll take the best item, just to be caref- why is there boss music? This is the infamous Boss rush, an onslaught of 15 sets of 2 bosses each, and it can either be the best or worst thing ever. Boss Rush is fucking intense, even with a good run. While you have a lot of leeway, Boss Rush often leaves you scraping for more HP, doubly so if you’re playing as a character who depends on low HP. It’s a difficult, yet rewarding mode to blast through each run, with you needing to give it your all to win. Once again, RISK VS REWARD. I can’t stress this enough. Boss Rush is pretty fun, but once it’s finally over, you get another item and yet another secret to mark your victory.
The final floors of Rebirth, The Chest and The Dark Room are essentially a victory lap, with each individual chest giving you a different item for the final battle, between... Isaac but dead??? Or The Lamb. Each path sports wholly unique fights and enemy patterns, making it feel like both are different enough from each other. Dead Isaac is probably my least favorite of the two; the fight ends before it can really get good; hell, I’d even say Isaac is harder in some cases. But The Lamb is a fair bit better than its blue brethren. He has a larger amount of HP, and he actually throws out ipecac shots, which explode. And then, his head and body splits at 50% HP, with the head gaining a few more tricky attacks than before. And the music in each fight is fucking INTENSE. Ascension is my favorite track in the game, bar none. It’s so ridiculously epic, like holy shit. It really feels like you’re overcoming the great dread within you. There’s so much damn BASS. It truly feels like the final battle. The Fallen Angel is a little worse than Ascension, but I still like it. It just gets a little too repetitive for my liking, that’s all. But it still feels pretty awesome. I know I already gassed up the Rebirth soundtrack to kingdom come, but holy FUCK it’s genuinely incredible. It knows when to rock out, how to be somber, and how to convey Isaac’s thoughts. It’s great. Diptera Sonata always feels like you’re on the edge of what your next run may have, Sodden Hollow is really fucking groovy, Abyss feels just like the title, and Viscera... Well, disregarding that, THE CELLAR! That awesome rock tune will never fail to be an earworm. Crusade makes every single Dingle look like fucking Sans. And The Calm makes you reflect on your past floor, what to do, where to go next. I could go ON AND ON about how good this game is, you have no IDEA. And you thought we were done? HELL NO! Once you beat either Dead Isaac or The Lamb once, something... interesting happens.
The game ominously states that the Angels “are waiting”? Well, I think you all know what that means. It’s time to go back into the Basement for one last time! Give Satan the middle finger, and head into the arms of Christ? And what happens? Uhhhh... The angels aren’t doing anything. Walking into them doesn’t do anything. What about a bomb?
The famous last words of zeusdeegoose. Rest in Peace, 2023-2024
Bombing the Angel Statue initiates a boss battle with an Angel, which REALLY caught me off guard. But after defeating the Angel, you get... Key Piece 1? Okay, so then you have to get another Key Piece by bombing another Angel, and then make your way down to Chapter 6, for the final time. A massive golden door appears, and after collecting all 4 items in the room, feel free to head in. And then... for REAL this time... you can fight Mega Satan, god, I am tired.
It’s not a bad fight; far from it, in fact. It kind of reminds me of shmup arcade games, in a way. It’s a massive arena, and Mega Satan is at the forefront of it all. He spawns hundreds of bullets, while you keep shooting him. And in his second phase, his skull appears (Terraria reference), spewing flames at you. But once his skull cracks ONCE AND FOR ALL, with potentially over a HUNDRED runs done by the player already, you think you’re done, right? Well, kind of. This is the end of all of Rebirth’s campaign, but 100%ing is a different story. You have 6 completion marks you have on each respective character, which are, as follows: Mom’s Heart, Boss Rush, Isaac, Satan, Dead Isaac, and The Lamb. And you need to do all of that on all 10 characters in Hard Mode, which predictably makes the game harder. So you can realistically expect to do that in 2-3 runs. I’d complain about the monotony of this, but like I said, Rebirth already encourages replayability to the fullest degree, so it’s actually really fun. Quickly, to save my fingers from carpal tunnel, the characters in Rebirth are solid, having their own strengths and weaknesses. Isaac is the basic bitch, Cain is lucky and does a little more damage, Maggy is the skill issue character, Judas is the glass cannon, Eve is the self-damaging character, ??? is the intentionally bad, but still fun character, Samson is the skill issue character, Lazarus is the skill issue character, Azazel is the best character in the game, and Eden is the genderfluid one (kind of like me). Yes, the game could use a lot less characters based on self damage, and the characters are a LITTLE too similar to base Isaac for comfort, but everything else about them is fundamentally solid. So after doing all of that, which will probably take you a good week or so, boom. All unlocks for every character. Are you still done? Hell no! You still have to do all 20 challenges, a majority of which are free and are already probably done at this point, so yeah. Easy. And after ALL of that, are you still done? NO. You have to fill the Donation Machine all the way up to 999 coins, or you can use a glitch to do it. Are you STILL done? HELLLLLLLLLLL NO, GIRL. Do all of this miscellaneous bullshit, like playing the slot machine. Are you still done? Have you explored every nook and cranny for the Plat- NO YOU FUCKING BUFFOON. You have to touch every item, which isn’t too hard on it’s own, as you’ll probably do all of this during your trip to Platinum God. But... after all of that, you finally set down your controller (or keyboard, if you’re one of those people?) satisfyingly, knowing that one of the greatest games of all time has been officially 100%ed. You are a Platinum God, friend! Welcome to the club, drinks are in the fridge. But... you feel... odd. Your achievements say that there’s still roughly a dozen to go. Could there be something... you’re... missing?
WAIT. You remember how I talked about the game’s numerous secrets? Well, take that literally, because there's a secret SO complex, that it's nearly impossible to figure out on your own. In fact, it was so secret that it had to be datamined exactly 109 hours after Rebirth released. What’s the secret, you may ask? If Isaac dies in a Sacrifice Room with The Missing Poster, it will show a piece of a torn-off paper, revealing itself to be the next secret to the puzzle, that being Isaac’s Last Will (the death screen which states where you are and what you were killed by). If, in sequential order, Isaac gets killed by a Mulliboom in The Basement, Magdalene kills herself with her own bombs in The Caves, Judas is killed by Mom, and Azazel is killed by Satan, a new character is unlocked, which is the bane of my and many other Rebirth players’ existence.
THE MOTHERFUCKING LOST. The Lost is by far one of the WORST characters in any roguelikes history, more specifically the REBIRTH incarnation and the Rebirth version ALONE. He only has 2 benefits. One; he starts with flight, which is always great, and he can get free deals with the Devil no matter what, which is always pretty cool. So what's the tradeoff? YOU HAVE NO FUCKING WAY TO PROTECT YOURSELF AGAINST ANY DAMAGE. NONE, NADA. Get hit once due to a bad dodge? Eat SHIT, go back all the way to the FUCKING BASEMENT, NERD. I mean, shit! Talk about punishing design, one that's not ultimately suited for this game. Sure, The Lost is an intentionally bad character, but ??? (the other “challenge” character), gave the player lenience when it came to their mistakes, but it also forced you to rethink your entire strategy. Devil Deals are much riskier with ??? as a result of your lack of red heart containers, and you have to take less damage in general as well if you want any chance of survival. The Lost feels like ramming your head into a wall until you see pretty stars and pass out. And yes, you could argue that The Lost can get Holy Mantle, or Dead Cat for an easier time. But that’s quite literally luck based, and isn’t fun. I got all of his marks in Rebirth ONCE on the 3DS. And quite frankly, I’m not interested in doing it ever again. The only silver lining is that you never need to play as him, unless you’re doing 100%, and you also don’t have to fight Mega Satan as him for 100% because he’s not a mark. But disregarding all of that, FUCK The Lost, and thank god for Afterbirth making him actually fun to play as. But this is Rebirth, so yeah. Fuck that guy. You have to do ALL of his marks in Hard Mode, but what do you get for all of your troubles? One of the best items in the game, GODHEAD. The TRUE mark of mastery. Although I think The Lost is a fundamentally flawed character, I won’t say that powering through and finally unlocking Godhead, alongside all of these other cool items isn’t satisfying. Now, after all of that, you can actually rest easy... until you check out Edmund’s Tumblr to find out there’s a new DLC get fucked LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Disregarding The Lost and the like, I believe Isaac Rebirth is one of the greatest video games ever crafted, with very little flaws overall. I do have my gripes with it, of course, like any game, but at the end of the day, it’s still one of the greatest roguelikes to be released to date. Even games like Dead Cells and lots of non-traditional roguelikes have their roots within The Binding of Isaac. The Binding of Isaac has become less of a game, and more of a starting platform for aspiring creators and artists (including me, peep this). I could barely find a flaw in Rebirth's gameplay that isn't just a nitpick. It's a fundamentally sound game, with almost endless replayability. And did I even mention how fucking addictive Rebirth is? Seriously, even after 700 hours across numerous platforms in the span of a year, I still play Rebirth to this day. It's a game I'll probably never get tired of popping it in and starting a new descent into the Basement. And when I get my hands on the Switch release, oh man. But, what's next for Isaac? Well, what happens after Birth? A postpartum!
“A birth in full bloom / Endless basement drenched in gore / Stuck in the nightmare...” - “A Rebirth” by zeusdeegoose, Written on 4/22/24
Sonic the Hedgehog
1991
Não tenho muito o que dizer, é redundante falar o quanto esse jogo é importante e influente, o jogo que eu mais zerei em diversas plataformas, quando não tinha nada pra fazer eu jogava um Soniczin, e claro que, de certa forma, ele influencia meu gosto por games até hoje.
Mega Man X
1993
Quando eu lembro da minha infância, esse é um dos jogos que sempre me vem a mente de tanto que eu joguei.
Deixando a nostalgia de lado, esse jogo tem aspectos técnicos excelentes em sua gameplay, mas para mim o que se destaca sem dúvidas é a OST, vc pode nem ser fã ou ter jogado um jogo da série X, mas reconhece as músicas.
P.S: No meu trabalho tem uma sala de jogos e um clássico arcade (Fliperzão) zerei o jogo até lá.
Deixando a nostalgia de lado, esse jogo tem aspectos técnicos excelentes em sua gameplay, mas para mim o que se destaca sem dúvidas é a OST, vc pode nem ser fã ou ter jogado um jogo da série X, mas reconhece as músicas.
P.S: No meu trabalho tem uma sala de jogos e um clássico arcade (Fliperzão) zerei o jogo até lá.
Mortal Kombat
1992
It’s the year 1991… Street Fighter II had released and became a worldwide sensation, not only reinventing the series for the better, but also reinventing the entire fighting genre as a whole forever. Of kourse though, with one great success, many kompetitors will kome and follow, with today’s subject being quite possibly the biggest kompetitor out of them all. Two lone souls, only known as Ed Boon and John Tobias, would be approached by a long-gone titan known as Midway, tasking them to kreate a new game in about a year, one that would be able to take on Street Fighter II, and possibly even konquer it. So these two went to work, making a game on the same basic grounds as Street Fighter II, except it would be… different. More realistic, more gritty, more intense, and more… violent. Ultimately, in about 10 months, this new game would kome out to the public, and it would go on to be known as… Mortal Kombat. Yes, combat with a K, because it’s kool, alright?
All of their hard work wouldn’t be in vain, because Mortal Kombat would go on to become a massive success, being a hit in the arcades, and facing even greater success when the game was ported to konsoles, selling over 6 million kopies by 1994. This would lead to the series being expanded on and kontinued for many years, still going strong 30 years later, and making themselves a force to be reckoned with in the fighting genre, becoming a direct kompetitor with Street Fighter for many years. That being said, there would obviously be komplications that they would run into, such as the kontroversy surrounding the game’s violence, eventually leading to the creation of the ESRB, but such events were merely added to MK’s legendary status, making even more popular and iconic.
With all that being said… how is the game itself? Well, it ain’t no Street Fighter II, that’s for sure, but for what we got here, it’s still good. I myself am not too familiar with Mortal Kombat when kompared to other fighting game franchises. Throughout my life, I had played through Mortal Kombat 9’s story mode, and I dabbled in MKX and some of the other titles, but aside from that, I was unfamiliar with most of the games. That being said, I was well aware of what the games were, I absolutely loved watching them, and I do get extremely excited when a new title gets announced… you know, despite how dumb the story and title may be (kough, Mortal Kombat 1, kough). So, I figured I’d finally properly check out the series with the original game, and it is good for a first entry, but there were bound to be aspects that would make the game pale in komparison to later titles.
The story is pretty komplex, including plenty of background and motivations for the kharacters you play as, as well as the foes that you face, but let’s be honest, it all just boils down to “a guy fights a whole bunch of other guys and wins”, the graphics are pretty good, with the environments themselves giving off the right vibe they need to, and as for the kharacters being digitized versions of real actors, they have aged very well, although of kourse, it kan look pretty awkward and goofy at times, the music is great, with the tracks in the game being good enough to accompany the fights you will be doing, but without a doubt, the best song to be paired with the game is the theme song (and it didn’t even get made until 2 years later), the kontrol functions well enough, but it is pretty stiff in komparison to other titles, which I will go more into later, and the gameplay is about the same as other fighting games at the time, but with that extra pinch of blood to make it that much more memorable.
In terms of the gameplay, it plays pretty much exactly like your average fighting game of the time. You take control of one of seven kombatants, take on many opponents in one-on-one matches (or even one-on-two, just in kase things got too simple for you), dealing deadly blows, kombos, and special moves to each other until your opponent goes down, and take on bonus stages at points in between matches to test your might. Once again, it is all stuff we have seen before, even if there are some additions that other games didn’t have at the time, such as matches between secret kharacters (if you were lucky enough to get to them), but there are two elements that makes this game stand out from the rest, the first of which being how it looks. This wasn’t the first game to use digitized actors for its kharacters, but it is one of the most notable, and this, koupled with the look of the game’s kombat, gore, and environments ultimately drew people in.
The second element, and undeniably the most iconic from the game, is the violence. Kompared to every other game at the time, this game had a level of realistic violence that had never been seen in a video game before, having plenty of moments where blood will be sent shooting from opponents when hit, the environments having blood and gore decorating it, and of course, the biggest defining aspect of Mortal Kombat, the Fatalities. These are finishing moves that kharacters kan perform on their opponents when prompted to do so, and they do so by performing extremely violent kills, such as Kano ripping out opponents’ hearts, Scorpion setting his opponents on fire, and Raiden electrocuting his opponents to the point where their heads explode. Sure, these fatalities are pretty simple when kompared to what we would get later down the road, and I do wish there were more of them in the game, but for what we have here, it is still satisfying, with my favorite fatality of the game being Sub-Zero’s, where he rips his opponent’s head and spinal kord straight out of his body.
Now, with all that being said, despite having enough violence and gore to garner massive praise from me, the gameplay on the other hand… not so much. It is still pretty fun, and it kan be extremely satisfying to annihilate your opponents, but it does feel very stiff and awkward when kompared to other fighters at the time, such as, of kourse, Street Fighter II. Thankfully, the kombat does get better with future installments, but for this original game, it does make it somewhat hard to kome back to. Not to mention, there is the inevitability of the fighting game syndrome, and it is here in full force. It kan be pretty difficult to take down your opponents in the arcade mode of the game, especially with the endurance matches later down the road… that is, until I discovered how to do Scorpion’s spear move, and then I spammed that for the endurance matches… and then proceeded to get my ass handed to me again by Goro and Shang Tsung. It isn’t impossible, of kourse, but be prepared to get thrown into the pit a lot.
Overall, despite fighting game syndrome and the stiff, awkward gameplay, the original Mortal Kombat is still a good game, and a great way to start out what would become one of the most iconic fighting franchises of all time. I would definitely recommend it for those who are fans of the series, but for those who aren’t too much of a fighting game guy, then there are plenty of other titles in the series that you kould play instead. So, now that we have that done, I will make a promise to you all. Whenever I review Mortal Kombat II, I promise I won’t spell all C words with a K in that review. I just wanted to do it here for the funny.
Game #322
All of their hard work wouldn’t be in vain, because Mortal Kombat would go on to become a massive success, being a hit in the arcades, and facing even greater success when the game was ported to konsoles, selling over 6 million kopies by 1994. This would lead to the series being expanded on and kontinued for many years, still going strong 30 years later, and making themselves a force to be reckoned with in the fighting genre, becoming a direct kompetitor with Street Fighter for many years. That being said, there would obviously be komplications that they would run into, such as the kontroversy surrounding the game’s violence, eventually leading to the creation of the ESRB, but such events were merely added to MK’s legendary status, making even more popular and iconic.
With all that being said… how is the game itself? Well, it ain’t no Street Fighter II, that’s for sure, but for what we got here, it’s still good. I myself am not too familiar with Mortal Kombat when kompared to other fighting game franchises. Throughout my life, I had played through Mortal Kombat 9’s story mode, and I dabbled in MKX and some of the other titles, but aside from that, I was unfamiliar with most of the games. That being said, I was well aware of what the games were, I absolutely loved watching them, and I do get extremely excited when a new title gets announced… you know, despite how dumb the story and title may be (kough, Mortal Kombat 1, kough). So, I figured I’d finally properly check out the series with the original game, and it is good for a first entry, but there were bound to be aspects that would make the game pale in komparison to later titles.
The story is pretty komplex, including plenty of background and motivations for the kharacters you play as, as well as the foes that you face, but let’s be honest, it all just boils down to “a guy fights a whole bunch of other guys and wins”, the graphics are pretty good, with the environments themselves giving off the right vibe they need to, and as for the kharacters being digitized versions of real actors, they have aged very well, although of kourse, it kan look pretty awkward and goofy at times, the music is great, with the tracks in the game being good enough to accompany the fights you will be doing, but without a doubt, the best song to be paired with the game is the theme song (and it didn’t even get made until 2 years later), the kontrol functions well enough, but it is pretty stiff in komparison to other titles, which I will go more into later, and the gameplay is about the same as other fighting games at the time, but with that extra pinch of blood to make it that much more memorable.
In terms of the gameplay, it plays pretty much exactly like your average fighting game of the time. You take control of one of seven kombatants, take on many opponents in one-on-one matches (or even one-on-two, just in kase things got too simple for you), dealing deadly blows, kombos, and special moves to each other until your opponent goes down, and take on bonus stages at points in between matches to test your might. Once again, it is all stuff we have seen before, even if there are some additions that other games didn’t have at the time, such as matches between secret kharacters (if you were lucky enough to get to them), but there are two elements that makes this game stand out from the rest, the first of which being how it looks. This wasn’t the first game to use digitized actors for its kharacters, but it is one of the most notable, and this, koupled with the look of the game’s kombat, gore, and environments ultimately drew people in.
The second element, and undeniably the most iconic from the game, is the violence. Kompared to every other game at the time, this game had a level of realistic violence that had never been seen in a video game before, having plenty of moments where blood will be sent shooting from opponents when hit, the environments having blood and gore decorating it, and of course, the biggest defining aspect of Mortal Kombat, the Fatalities. These are finishing moves that kharacters kan perform on their opponents when prompted to do so, and they do so by performing extremely violent kills, such as Kano ripping out opponents’ hearts, Scorpion setting his opponents on fire, and Raiden electrocuting his opponents to the point where their heads explode. Sure, these fatalities are pretty simple when kompared to what we would get later down the road, and I do wish there were more of them in the game, but for what we have here, it is still satisfying, with my favorite fatality of the game being Sub-Zero’s, where he rips his opponent’s head and spinal kord straight out of his body.
Now, with all that being said, despite having enough violence and gore to garner massive praise from me, the gameplay on the other hand… not so much. It is still pretty fun, and it kan be extremely satisfying to annihilate your opponents, but it does feel very stiff and awkward when kompared to other fighters at the time, such as, of kourse, Street Fighter II. Thankfully, the kombat does get better with future installments, but for this original game, it does make it somewhat hard to kome back to. Not to mention, there is the inevitability of the fighting game syndrome, and it is here in full force. It kan be pretty difficult to take down your opponents in the arcade mode of the game, especially with the endurance matches later down the road… that is, until I discovered how to do Scorpion’s spear move, and then I spammed that for the endurance matches… and then proceeded to get my ass handed to me again by Goro and Shang Tsung. It isn’t impossible, of kourse, but be prepared to get thrown into the pit a lot.
Overall, despite fighting game syndrome and the stiff, awkward gameplay, the original Mortal Kombat is still a good game, and a great way to start out what would become one of the most iconic fighting franchises of all time. I would definitely recommend it for those who are fans of the series, but for those who aren’t too much of a fighting game guy, then there are plenty of other titles in the series that you kould play instead. So, now that we have that done, I will make a promise to you all. Whenever I review Mortal Kombat II, I promise I won’t spell all C words with a K in that review. I just wanted to do it here for the funny.
Game #322
Castlevania
1986
I hope this flopped and they didn't make any other entries, that'd be worth a laugh! I havent had any playing this. This mf Simon with his perfectly chiseled chin and wealthiest caveman in the cave rizz can't whip worth a damn. Is he asexual? Why does he think he's him? Call it y = b^x the way shit went off the rails so fast, what a difficulty curve folks. You have to be there to see it. There's not really a specific enemy to make fun of so I won't focus on that aspect. Except Dracula on steroids but those were different times, the basement dweller community has foregiven Dracula.
Let's breakdown how the game plays. There are no input cancels obviously this ain't no Tekken, once you jump you are vulnerable for around 1 second and to approximately 33 threats, you can only walk and slightly crouch, not to mention (I'll mention) the whip having more screentime where it doesnt hit once you press the destroy foes button. So basically you're dead on arrival. Also, sometimes you get hit by a projectile thats been destroyed or a mf who already vaporized. Shit that should only happen in Mexico and I don't wager Simon is having his pilgrimage there.
I've warmed up, but huh no physical activity to follow because I need to say good things about this decent game. The night is dark and the path is.. not always clear, especially stage 17 with those gears but it all looks great. Dracula looks like his breath smells of garlic which makes me worry about his health being a vampire and all, but I won't judge him if he stepped out the hospital just to whoop my ass he's just that guy. Not gonna lie I had to use save states between every hit because I didn't trust myself enough and I was playing the game on break I wanted to finish it today at least (as in friday 22nd march, I'm actually reviewing it on the day I finish a game which I usually never do and condone! But we do this ig)
Let's breakdown how the game plays. There are no input cancels obviously this ain't no Tekken, once you jump you are vulnerable for around 1 second and to approximately 33 threats, you can only walk and slightly crouch, not to mention (I'll mention) the whip having more screentime where it doesnt hit once you press the destroy foes button. So basically you're dead on arrival. Also, sometimes you get hit by a projectile thats been destroyed or a mf who already vaporized. Shit that should only happen in Mexico and I don't wager Simon is having his pilgrimage there.
I've warmed up, but huh no physical activity to follow because I need to say good things about this decent game. The night is dark and the path is.. not always clear, especially stage 17 with those gears but it all looks great. Dracula looks like his breath smells of garlic which makes me worry about his health being a vampire and all, but I won't judge him if he stepped out the hospital just to whoop my ass he's just that guy. Not gonna lie I had to use save states between every hit because I didn't trust myself enough and I was playing the game on break I wanted to finish it today at least (as in friday 22nd march, I'm actually reviewing it on the day I finish a game which I usually never do and condone! But we do this ig)
I mean, why not? When Nobunaga ruled part of Japan, and was asked for his reasoning to go after the rest, he simply went "because it's there". I'm pretty sure he said that, I was alive for it. It was essentially the same mindset I had with finishing the Advance Collection.
Known as "Vampire's Kiss" for our PALs, "Dracula X" could only be assumed to be meant as "Dracula's Hug" rather than some attempt at the 2Xtreme movement of the 90s. You see, because in here Dracula gives you a nice little hug and a peck on the cheek, all before he kicks you down a hole in his dilapidated humble abode. It makes one wonder why Dracula would even bother with floors in general when he's more than capable of flying everywhere, especially if he's already figured out that the best defense against Belmonts is to simply either make them walk up stairs, or dare them to hop with their cement-infused boots across magical levitating platforms. Where these platforms are coming from is a mystery, but I assume it's where all those holes in Dracula's throne room came from, or perhaps that's the origin of all the gaps in the grand hallway where one slip up means Richter falling into an alternate stage that denies him the ability to rescue Maria's now completely useless ass.
"Wow, thanks Richter! Good luck on your quest, I'll make my way out now."
Bitch.
It's really intriguing how a final boss fight can completely overtake discussion, and it's quite telling what the legacy of the Dracula's Smooch version of the climactic finale leaves behind when there exists an entire guide on GameFAQs dedicated to it. A useful one at that. Part of me wishes the Game Gear version of Sonic 2 would have something like that for it's first boss, but I guess there's not much to be helped there beyond "I sure hope the balls don't hit me". To say that the fight with Dracula X is a slog would be shorting it a few hundred didgeridoos, because man I could've made some tasty pancakes in the time it took trying to wait out his ass to get into an advantageous position to hit his godawful hitbox along the pillar system he installed in his throne room prior to him calling in an assist from Devil Kazuya. Kaiser Sigma from X3 would puke at all the times I uselessly cracked my whip across Dracula X's forehead and had it not register, because Konami designed this game from the ground up with anti-blockbuster rental countermeasures instead of waiting for it to come out to us, thus destroying all potential goodwill it could have found as a demake later during the age of emulation, with an audience less upset at being bamboozled out of a more faithful and less mean-spirited retelling of the beloved PC Engine classic. Instead, Switch owners will be annoyed they have to deal with this while Requiem continues chilling as a PS4 exclusive nearly six years later.
Baffling, though not quite as baffling as the censorship where they kept the blood on the title screen, but got rid of Death's Mortal Kombat Deception-style Hara Kiri where he decapitates himself with his own scythe, meanwhile Richter in our version apparently explodes into a pile of flour for Dracula X to make his cookies from.
What cookie would Richter be? Puzzling...
My opinion was ever so slightly improved from forcing myself to replay this for completion-sake, but the most heartwarming thing I get out of Dracula's Kiss personally is seeing the font used at the bottom of the title screen for the copyright, and being reminded of a childhood banger in Konami's Biker Mice From Mars which uses the same thing, so I guess I'll go play that now instead. Ciao.
Known as "Vampire's Kiss" for our PALs, "Dracula X" could only be assumed to be meant as "Dracula's Hug" rather than some attempt at the 2Xtreme movement of the 90s. You see, because in here Dracula gives you a nice little hug and a peck on the cheek, all before he kicks you down a hole in his dilapidated humble abode. It makes one wonder why Dracula would even bother with floors in general when he's more than capable of flying everywhere, especially if he's already figured out that the best defense against Belmonts is to simply either make them walk up stairs, or dare them to hop with their cement-infused boots across magical levitating platforms. Where these platforms are coming from is a mystery, but I assume it's where all those holes in Dracula's throne room came from, or perhaps that's the origin of all the gaps in the grand hallway where one slip up means Richter falling into an alternate stage that denies him the ability to rescue Maria's now completely useless ass.
"Wow, thanks Richter! Good luck on your quest, I'll make my way out now."
Bitch.
It's really intriguing how a final boss fight can completely overtake discussion, and it's quite telling what the legacy of the Dracula's Smooch version of the climactic finale leaves behind when there exists an entire guide on GameFAQs dedicated to it. A useful one at that. Part of me wishes the Game Gear version of Sonic 2 would have something like that for it's first boss, but I guess there's not much to be helped there beyond "I sure hope the balls don't hit me". To say that the fight with Dracula X is a slog would be shorting it a few hundred didgeridoos, because man I could've made some tasty pancakes in the time it took trying to wait out his ass to get into an advantageous position to hit his godawful hitbox along the pillar system he installed in his throne room prior to him calling in an assist from Devil Kazuya. Kaiser Sigma from X3 would puke at all the times I uselessly cracked my whip across Dracula X's forehead and had it not register, because Konami designed this game from the ground up with anti-blockbuster rental countermeasures instead of waiting for it to come out to us, thus destroying all potential goodwill it could have found as a demake later during the age of emulation, with an audience less upset at being bamboozled out of a more faithful and less mean-spirited retelling of the beloved PC Engine classic. Instead, Switch owners will be annoyed they have to deal with this while Requiem continues chilling as a PS4 exclusive nearly six years later.
Baffling, though not quite as baffling as the censorship where they kept the blood on the title screen, but got rid of Death's Mortal Kombat Deception-style Hara Kiri where he decapitates himself with his own scythe, meanwhile Richter in our version apparently explodes into a pile of flour for Dracula X to make his cookies from.
What cookie would Richter be? Puzzling...
My opinion was ever so slightly improved from forcing myself to replay this for completion-sake, but the most heartwarming thing I get out of Dracula's Kiss personally is seeing the font used at the bottom of the title screen for the copyright, and being reminded of a childhood banger in Konami's Biker Mice From Mars which uses the same thing, so I guess I'll go play that now instead. Ciao.
Fallout 4
2015
There is no other game that I have played that makes me feel the way that Fallout 4 makes me feel. I feel so lonely but also so extremely immersed when exploring the wasteland. Turning on the radio and killing creatures, stealing from people, base building, the story, the silly little glitches that happen here and there along with the many other features that make this game so amazing to me. This is my favorite Fallout game in the franchise and It's a really amazing experience when you don't have a New Vegas super fan screaming in your ear that the game is bad. Mods also take this game to a whole other level and I highly recommend.
