-----Throughout the 2010’s there were a lot of significant releases for video games. One of those video games that I have always held as deeply significant for me has been The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. It's a fantastic game that has a lot going for it to this day. So much so that it would be hard to really describe it here. It honestly encompasses a lot of things mechanically and narratively and culturally for video gaming that I could even describe it as the Sgt. Pepper's of the medium. Now, even though The Binding of Isaac had a pretty decent development time with lots of add-ons and DLC attached to it, developer Edmund McMillen kept busy throughout that time. He released many side projects, and participated in a lot of collaborations. Today's important collaboration is with James Interactive who with their help McMillan was able to make The Legend of Bumbo here.
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-----The Legend of Bumbo is a neat side project for The Binding of Isaac. Unlike the very action-oriented, shooter gameplay of Isaac, Bumbo takes the guise of a puzzle game and a very familiar one at that. It's a match four puzzler where you slide tiles in order to match different types of icons. During the game you have a set number of moves before your opponent's go on the attack. In this way the gameplay kind of fuses with a JRPG in a sense. It's a game whose gameplay I wasn't very keen on at first. In fact, I wasn't a big fan of this game at all when I initially played it. I found the very slow gameplay kind of frustrating, and the randomness of the tile board didn't add to that.
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-----However, once I played more of the game, and allowed myself to dig deeper into the mechanics, I ended up walking away from Bumbo a lot more positively than what I first felt. While I still don't love the game as a whole, I found a lot of things that I think normal players might love with in Bumbo. First, for the types of titles you match a different kind of action will execute. For example, if you match bones or teeth that is your way of attacking enemies. Meanwhile poop and boogers will stifle their progress. Finally there are pee drops that you can match in order to make further returns. There are also wild tiles in the mix as well. Finally the two tiles that I didn't find much use out of, or was kind of unhappy with more than the others were the heart tiles and the cursed tiles. The heart tiles are meant to heal you, but you don't get a lot. I understand why, but when you do actually end up matching Hearts they don't give you a lot in return for the Rarity that they are set as. Meanwhile for the cursed tiles, I don't even know if they even have a use in general. Within my 16 hours of playing the game I never once understood how the cursed tiles could hurt me in any way.
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-----In addition to those tiles, you also get Mana every time you match a certain tile type. You can use these to execute spells that can help you out. These spells can range from damaging the enemies in the field to helping you clear your own board in front of you. In classic Isaac fashion as you go through the separate floors of the game you'll be able to acquire more randomly generated spells into your repertoire. there's also these little trinkets as well that can have subtle soft effects on your gameplay. Speaking of both classic Isaac and soft effects, there are also several different character types you can play as throughout Bumbo. Most of them I like. one thing that's soured my first impressions of the game overall was the initial character you get. Well I felt the other characters had very interesting mechanics and systems that you can play around with, the initial main character I didn't care for all that much. Not only that, but it also feels like James interactive and Edmund McMillen are reusing ideas to a certain point with these characters. Especially since it seems like you can unlock the Lost in the game, which given its more random nature than that of Isaac’s, I imagine has got to be extremely excruciating to play eyes. Heck, you have to make sure not to get hit on the first three floors to even unlock him, and I imagine that's got to be left all to chance.
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-----However throughout the game there are some interesting enemy types that you can run into. Like Isaac they'll have their own little quirks that you have to learn to deal with as you go along. For example I like the fart clouds and how you couldn't attack through them. It added an extra layer of caution to my game play that I liked. I also like the little exploding flies that if they got too close to you, their death would cause them to explode, which in turn would cause you to lose health. That is an interesting point. One of the mechanics that I'm not necessarily sure if I'm keen on or not is the positioning mechanics of the enemies that you face. In Bumbo, the enemy field is kind of split up like a 3D graph where you have 3 columns, a top layer, a bottom layer, and about 5 rows where the enemies will try and move closer to you as you go forth. Meanwhile whenever you try to attack you can only hit the closest, top most Enemy. Ultimately I think it does add some depth to the gameplay, though it felt a little forced and clunky at times as well. The only time where I felt like this mechanic was utilized especially well was during some of the boss fights. These bosses would use their multiple moves to try to get close to you, which then you in turn would use attacks to push them back. I felt those fights were very smart.
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-----Meanwhile the narrative of Bumbo is told in the vignettes that are very similar to Isaac. I do like the intelligent way Bumbo’s story is tied into Isaac, even if I don't care for the narrator behind it. I also like the very diegetic user interface that McMillan and James interactive setup for Bumbo. In fact, as a fan of games like Paper Mario, I really do appreciate the very paper craft, almost childrens’ theater of the entire presentation of Bumbo. I think everything looks great from an aesthetic standpoint. Even McMillan's art, which I feel like he's got such a unique and singular style that sometimes it can become one note at times, still shines through here.
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-----Overall, while the legend of Bumbo isn't one of my favorite games I played this year, I had a lot more fun with this addition to Isaac then I thought. That being said, Bumbo still feels like an add-on to the Isaac experience rather than its own kind of standalone enjoyable experience. I thought the puzzle mechanics with depth were interesting enough to carry my playtime all the way to 16 hours. However, the match four gameplay isn't something I'm necessarily a fan of, and there were several elements here that I felt like they were keeping me from enjoying the game as a whole. There are spots in the software that feel really polished and have a lot of care taken into it, and other spots felt like there needed to be more added to it in order to flesh it out even further. Ultimately I would recommend the legend of Bumbo, but only after you've enjoyed a great helping of The Binding of Isaac first. - [06/10]
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-----The Legend of Bumbo is a neat side project for The Binding of Isaac. Unlike the very action-oriented, shooter gameplay of Isaac, Bumbo takes the guise of a puzzle game and a very familiar one at that. It's a match four puzzler where you slide tiles in order to match different types of icons. During the game you have a set number of moves before your opponent's go on the attack. In this way the gameplay kind of fuses with a JRPG in a sense. It's a game whose gameplay I wasn't very keen on at first. In fact, I wasn't a big fan of this game at all when I initially played it. I found the very slow gameplay kind of frustrating, and the randomness of the tile board didn't add to that.
-----
-----However, once I played more of the game, and allowed myself to dig deeper into the mechanics, I ended up walking away from Bumbo a lot more positively than what I first felt. While I still don't love the game as a whole, I found a lot of things that I think normal players might love with in Bumbo. First, for the types of titles you match a different kind of action will execute. For example, if you match bones or teeth that is your way of attacking enemies. Meanwhile poop and boogers will stifle their progress. Finally there are pee drops that you can match in order to make further returns. There are also wild tiles in the mix as well. Finally the two tiles that I didn't find much use out of, or was kind of unhappy with more than the others were the heart tiles and the cursed tiles. The heart tiles are meant to heal you, but you don't get a lot. I understand why, but when you do actually end up matching Hearts they don't give you a lot in return for the Rarity that they are set as. Meanwhile for the cursed tiles, I don't even know if they even have a use in general. Within my 16 hours of playing the game I never once understood how the cursed tiles could hurt me in any way.
-----
-----In addition to those tiles, you also get Mana every time you match a certain tile type. You can use these to execute spells that can help you out. These spells can range from damaging the enemies in the field to helping you clear your own board in front of you. In classic Isaac fashion as you go through the separate floors of the game you'll be able to acquire more randomly generated spells into your repertoire. there's also these little trinkets as well that can have subtle soft effects on your gameplay. Speaking of both classic Isaac and soft effects, there are also several different character types you can play as throughout Bumbo. Most of them I like. one thing that's soured my first impressions of the game overall was the initial character you get. Well I felt the other characters had very interesting mechanics and systems that you can play around with, the initial main character I didn't care for all that much. Not only that, but it also feels like James interactive and Edmund McMillen are reusing ideas to a certain point with these characters. Especially since it seems like you can unlock the Lost in the game, which given its more random nature than that of Isaac’s, I imagine has got to be extremely excruciating to play eyes. Heck, you have to make sure not to get hit on the first three floors to even unlock him, and I imagine that's got to be left all to chance.
-----
-----However throughout the game there are some interesting enemy types that you can run into. Like Isaac they'll have their own little quirks that you have to learn to deal with as you go along. For example I like the fart clouds and how you couldn't attack through them. It added an extra layer of caution to my game play that I liked. I also like the little exploding flies that if they got too close to you, their death would cause them to explode, which in turn would cause you to lose health. That is an interesting point. One of the mechanics that I'm not necessarily sure if I'm keen on or not is the positioning mechanics of the enemies that you face. In Bumbo, the enemy field is kind of split up like a 3D graph where you have 3 columns, a top layer, a bottom layer, and about 5 rows where the enemies will try and move closer to you as you go forth. Meanwhile whenever you try to attack you can only hit the closest, top most Enemy. Ultimately I think it does add some depth to the gameplay, though it felt a little forced and clunky at times as well. The only time where I felt like this mechanic was utilized especially well was during some of the boss fights. These bosses would use their multiple moves to try to get close to you, which then you in turn would use attacks to push them back. I felt those fights were very smart.
-----
-----Meanwhile the narrative of Bumbo is told in the vignettes that are very similar to Isaac. I do like the intelligent way Bumbo’s story is tied into Isaac, even if I don't care for the narrator behind it. I also like the very diegetic user interface that McMillan and James interactive setup for Bumbo. In fact, as a fan of games like Paper Mario, I really do appreciate the very paper craft, almost childrens’ theater of the entire presentation of Bumbo. I think everything looks great from an aesthetic standpoint. Even McMillan's art, which I feel like he's got such a unique and singular style that sometimes it can become one note at times, still shines through here.
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-----Overall, while the legend of Bumbo isn't one of my favorite games I played this year, I had a lot more fun with this addition to Isaac then I thought. That being said, Bumbo still feels like an add-on to the Isaac experience rather than its own kind of standalone enjoyable experience. I thought the puzzle mechanics with depth were interesting enough to carry my playtime all the way to 16 hours. However, the match four gameplay isn't something I'm necessarily a fan of, and there were several elements here that I felt like they were keeping me from enjoying the game as a whole. There are spots in the software that feel really polished and have a lot of care taken into it, and other spots felt like there needed to be more added to it in order to flesh it out even further. Ultimately I would recommend the legend of Bumbo, but only after you've enjoyed a great helping of The Binding of Isaac first. - [06/10]