The Binding of Isaac!

Let's jump straight into why I'm discussing The Binding of Isaac today: The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Teaser Trailer has been released!

The Binding of Isaac, created by +Edmund McMillen and +Florian Himsl, is perfect for the frugal gamer.  (It has never cost more than $5.) When it came out back in late 2011 it was reminiscent of Zelda: A Link to the Past (one of my all-time favorite games.)  The 2D run and shoot (rather than slash as per Zelda) immediately got my attention.  Not only did the game play seem intuitive but the macabre elements and overall plot (mixed with the PERFECTLY eerie scores by +Danny Baranowsky) grabbed me by the throat.

How can you describe fighting a few-toothed head with a cleft palate

that spits and jumps around with a grin?

The game follows poor Isaac who is about to (this isn't a spoiler, it's the intro to the game) be murdered by his crazy voice-hearing Christian mother.  What does he do?  Flees for his life into the basement through a trap door.  I don't know about any of the readers out there but when I was a kid, a dark basement was the last place I wanted to be... Especially after my polka-dot-moo-moo-wearing-butcher-knife-wielding-mother tried to kill me.

The basement doesn't seem so bad anymore.

To start off, the levels are randomly generated.  This makes it so that every time you play you're not playing the same levels, with the same item possibilities, or with the same amount of bombs and keys.  (Bombs and keys are straight forward enough for you, right?)  There are literally hundreds of items to use that range from more tears (your attack projectile, there isn't a melee) to being able to see the secret rooms.  There are also "usable" items that get recharged after use by entering a certain amount of previously unentered rooms.  Don't forget the Tarot cards and pills that have different one use abilities, either!  All of these factors ensure you'll never play the same game twice.

NOW I know why mom kept me out of the medicine cabinet.

Another thing about this game is that gives it an awesome throw-back pat on the back: If you die, you're done.  Start over from the beginning.  No saves in between, it's life or death for Isaac and his fate is in your sweaty uber-micro hands.  Some people have said, "It's not fair!"  I tend to laugh at them because 95% your deaths are because you fucked up.  It means you didn't use the range to your advantage, or didn't zig when you could (and should) have zagged.  I'm not saying NONE of your deaths will be unfair (as games with randomly generated levels can be at times) but most are because of human error.

Even if it's not your fault, this will be you.

Oh!  One other thing I forgot.  For your first... 30-50 play-throughs, this is without the DLC, you're going to want the wiki's (items and cards) open so you know if you want to grab certain items and what they do to help you.

All of that aside, I want to point out how incognito the symbolism in this game is.  If you play it enough, and you've ever taken a few psychology classes during the "some college" that you put on your resumes, you'll see it eventually.  I won't go in depth, because that ruins the fun of finding things out for yourself, but it is definitely another facet of TBoI in the plus category.

You may be wondering why I keep saying "games" when TBoI: Rebirth has only been announced.  Well, there's the DLC "Wrath of the Lamb."  This is where things get tricky.  If the original was difficult for you to go beat mom (which you have to do multiple times to actually complete the game) then I wouldn't suggest the DLC right away.  It adds more items, more cards, new enemies, new bosses, a new secret room, and of course more frustration.

THAT'S THE 15TH FUCKING TIME!

It is definitely a frugal gamer's wet dream by coming in under $10 (including the DLC) while having a replay value I haven't come across before in a single-player game.

I personally have ~75 hours logged.  I've paid all of $4.99 without the DLC. When you do the maths here it comes out to around 0.07 cents PER HOUR! (Yes, I said maths.) If that doesn't sound like a good deal to you, I have no idea what would.

Without further ado, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Teaser Trailer!