Looking at: Persona 4 Golden

High School Blues

You'll need to enter the TV world through the biggest TVs you can find.

I'll be the first to admit, I hated high school. I think, on reflection, most people do, since it's an awkward and terrible time in your life. Either that, or they loved high school because it was the last time their life made any sense, and that's even sadder. Regardless, for me high school sucked, and that's terrible, but at least I didn't have to fight a horde of demons hell bent on killing people.

Ok, in fairness, I don't think a lot of people have to do that in high school. Math class may have been terrible, but at least it wasn't trying to eat me.

Persona 4 is, in many ways, the complete opposite from my high school experience. It's a poppy, happy-go-lucky, monster slaying good time and easily one of the best JRPGs I've ever played.

Small Town, Big Adventure

Knocking down all enemies gives you the opportunity for a powerful counter attack.

The setup for P4 is that you've recently moved to the small rural town of Inaba while your parents are away on business for a year. You move in with your uncle and cousin, attend high school, make some friends, ect. A few days later bodies start showing up, mutilated and tied to TV antennas, and you learn of something called the Midnight Channel. The Midnight Channel shows up at midnight on rainy days, and while the rumors say it's supposed to show you your soul mate, the reality is it's showing people about to die horrifically. You, along with your friends, soon discover that you can enter into the midnight channel and save these people by freeing them by way of killing a shitload of monsters.

That's really all I'm going to say about the plot for two reasons: First, the story of this game is so long that recapping it here would make this my longest article yet by far. Having just beaten the game, my total playtime is well over 50 hours, and that's just for the main plot. Persona 4 is a massive game, and encourages extra playthroughs with a New Game Plus mode and a bevy of side missions and entire side plots to explore.

The second reason I'm not revealing any more about the story is that it really needs to be experienced, and just talking about it doesn't do it proper justice. It's a weird tale, with plenty of surreal and unbelievable moments as you get drawn deeper and deeper into the mystery surrounding the Midnight Channel. It also draws heavily from the likes of Saturday Morning cartoons, and it's no coincidence that the entire game was adapted to one of these post launch.

Whatever it is, the writing is amazing, with memorable, multi-layered characters that are worth exploring. There is the occasional awkwardness due to the translation, especially with the total inclusion of Japanese honorifics (I now understand what Senpai means, and I hate it) but overall the translation work is great and it works well in English. It constantly walks between noir-horror, high school comedy, and coming of age as the characters and plot evolve over the year, and I enjoyed every moment of it.

The overarching theme of the story seems to be discovering what's hidden inside of a person. The Midnight Channel accentuates the innermost thoughts of whatever victim is trapped inside, and dealing with this creates some of the most grounded moments in the game. You'll see people dealing with their sexuality as they approach adulthood, and it even touches on the subject of homosexuality, something incredibly taboo in Japan. It's an odd contrast to the mile-a-minute of the rest of the game, but it proves effective for flushing out the characters and making them feel much more real.

Math Class, Killing Demons, and the Dating Scene

Improving your relationships with people is necessary to succeed.

Gameplay wise, P4 is a mix between traditional dungeon crawling JRPG, and... high school life sim? I'm going to go with visual novel for the other half, but that's only because my knowledge of that genre is limited at best.

Basically, when you're in the Midnight Channel, you'll be stalking along the hallways of randomized dungeons, hunting or avoiding monsters and battling them for cash or loot. It's a classic formula we've seen dozens of times before... mostly. More on that in a bit.

The other half of the game is spent as a teenager living in a small town and going to school. You'll need to study for tests and attend classes, as well as buy supplies and prep for your excursions to the other side. Most importantly though, you'll need to make friends and strengthen your bonds with people, referred to as Social Links. Social Links increase as you get to know people, and they feed back into combat by allowing you to create better Personas to fight with.

That leads me to the Personas themselves. Personas are kind of like Pokemon, at least functionally. You collect them by winning battles, and you can train them and equip them with skills. What this means is Personas act as your magic abilities in combat, giving you access to elemental attacks, and various buffs/debuffs. The most interesting thing about Personas is the ability to merge them, either as a pair, threesome, or even more powerful combinations later on. This allows you to create even better personas from the ones you've trained, and combining the right Personas with each other can lead to incredibly strong outcomes, especially when you start giving them the proper skills.

All of this feeds back into the combat, which you'll be doing a lot of. Combat in a JRPG can drag and get boring, especially thanks to random encounters, but Persona 4, having learned from P3, seems to have been built to keep combat going at a break-neck speed. The trick is the ability to stun enemies by exploiting their weaknesses. If the enemy is weak to fire, hit them with a fire attack and they'll be stunned. Stun all the enemies and you'll have the option to launch an All-Out Attack, where all available party members rush in and do massive damage. Battles are blissfully short when conducted correctly, and you're encouraged to balance your party, as well as your stable of Personas to stay prepared for anything.

Golden Hour

The golden re-release contains so much new content, it might as well be it's own game.

I've played a bit of the PS2 version of P4, but it's the Vita re-release that I beat the game on. The Vita version is called Golden, and that's not an understatement. It's the definitive version of the game by far, with a huge list of additions and extra balancing to even out some of the rougher areas of the game. The Vita doesn't have a huge list of games worth playing, but Persona 4 is definitely worth it alone.

Graphically, the PS2 version was pushing the system to it's limits. Everything is incredibly stylized to look like a cartoon. It's an incredibly colorful game, with everything over the top and popping with style. Animations are all smooth, and character models look great both in game and during battles. There are a handful of animated cutscenes, and while they don't look as good as the official companion anime, they're a great addition to the game and help to sell some of the more important scenes. The Vita's Golden version is even better, with a wider resolution and smoother frame-rates throughout, even despite being on a hand-held.

The audio in Persona 4 is brilliant. There's really no better way of putting it. Sound effects are punchy and help to sell the animations, but it's the voice work and the music that really shine here. Firstly, let me say that Persona 4 might have one of the funkiest soundtracks ever recorded. It's an eclectic mixture of J-pop just south of annoying, 80's style hair-rock, and what I can only describe as electric orchestral. The PS2 version came with a soundtrack CD, and it's not hard to see why.

The voice over work is equally impressive, calling on some of the best from both anime and video games. You're main character is silent throughout, but there's strong performances from people like Troy Baker, Laura Bailey, and a huge cast of extras. Like most Japanese games, only select portions of the dialogue are voiced, but the parts that are, are extremely well done. There are some lines that grow annoying after hearing them for the 500th time, but you eventually just tune this out as you loose yourself in the game.

Graduation Party

Persona 4 isn't afraid to touch on taboo subjects, but it's also filled with humor.

It's rare that there's a JRPG that I like, and even rarer that I like one so much I play it till the end. I really considered not writing this review, since in my mind there's something terribly off about a grown man playing a game about high school teenagers.  In the end though, P4 is such a great game I decided it was worth talking about.

Persona 4 is, single-handily, one of the best reasons to own a PS Vita. It's one of the best JRPGs I've ever played, and it's one of the best RPGs in general I've ever played. It's a game that forced me out of my comfort zone, and I'm all the more happy for it.

image sources:
http://gearnuke.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/persona4-golden-1.jpg
http://www.snackbar-games.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/persona4golden4.jpg
http://gamingtrend.com/wp-content/screenshots/persona-4-golden-vita/Persona%204%20Gold%20-%201.jpg
http://www.thescoreonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/persona4-social-link.jpg
http://gamerchatter.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/2013-02-01-132245.jpg
http://static4.gamespot.com/uploads/screen_kubrick/mig/3/1/4/5/2123145-169_p4golden_extras_homegardening_ot_vita_110912.jpg
http://cdn3-www.playstationlifestyle.net/assets/uploads/2012/11/p4g-screenshot1-555x315.jpg

Looking at: Goat Simulator

Broken Masterpiece

Despite how it's built, it is possible to break the game.

Goat Sim is something of a hard game to discuss, much less review. When a game advertises itself as being a broken, barely playable game, but then does that to the perfect degree is it still a broken game? Can something that's meant to be terrible still be good if it's good at being terrible.

It's odd that I'm putting this much though into a game about being a goat.

In a way though, that's what Goat Sim is, a game with ideas that are more far-reaching then it's own initial impression. It's a really, really, really stupid game with some really smart ideas and commentaries to provide about modern games. It's a parody that's smarter then it looks, even if it doesn't realize it.

G.O.A.T Goat

There's also an MMO parody included, for some reason.

So what is Goat Sim about? Obviously it's about being a goat and doing goat things. Provided, of course, that your idea of "goat things" include wanton destruction of property, a complete disregard for physics, wholesale slaughter of small European towns, and the occasional demonic sacrifice and satanic ascension. That's just a small slice of the weirdness that awaits in Goat Sim, never mind the World of Warcraft inspired fantasy DLC that adds quests and an inventory system. It's a parody through and through, although a parody of what exactly I'm not really sure.

Gameplay-wise Goat Sim is bizarrely similar to the Tony Hawk games of old, but with a bigger focus of senseless destruction and less on sweet 720 kickflips. You control the goat of your choice as you wander around the open levels, looking for secrets, collecting trophies and combo-ing together your swathe of destruction to complete objectives. It's fun enough singleplayer, but the game really thrives with a few friends and your madness is spread in a wider arch with more people.

Backassward

Flying through the air will constitute most of the game.

Where some games pride themselves on their advanced physics, Goat Sim seems to laud how horrible and broken the physics are. Goat Sim is built on the Unreal engine, and apparently was slapped together out of pre-made assets and whatever was lying around. While the Unreal engine itself is decent, it does have some odd tendencies when it comes to how it renders physics, and it's here that Goat Sim finds itself a niche.

Goat Sim is a broken game that's been sealed up and resold as a broken game. The Steam page advertises that it's full of bugs, and true enough things in Goat Sim often seem completely removed from any basis in reality. It's important to remember, however, that Goat Sim isn't an unplayable game, and is actually quite stable. All of the bugs are internal and sort of personify that old joke of "it's not a bug, it's a feature"

Baaaahd

Crowds of horrified people constitute the rest of the game.

Like I said, it's incredibly difficult to actually critique Goat Sim because it invites you to hate it. It's a game that covers itself in crappy makeup then asks you to call it a psychopath. In an age where the validity of game reviews is constantly being called into question, Goat Sim rises above because it doesn't care what the reviews have to say about it.

Goat Sim isn't that great of a game, and yet at the same time it's a fantastic game. It's a joke that's gone to far, and yet hidden within are even more jokes that make you laugh more. It's deliciously deranged in all the right places and invites you to do likewise. Goat Sim is the anti-game, the anti-review, and the be-all end-all of simulation parody games.

Looking at: Hatoful Boyfriend

Bird Brained

Your best friend, the rock dove.

My best friend is a pigeon. That's fine because so are all of my classmates, my teacher, my boss at the cafe I work at, and everyone I interact with. They're all pigeons. Also, I'm in Japan and it might be the post apocalypse. There's pudding and ghosts and creepy rapist doctors.

Hatoful Boyfriend might be one of the weirdest games I've ever played.

You live in a cave and talk about your "Hunter Gatherer instincts". 

Dumb Novel

Okosan.

Hatoful Boyfriend is... bizarre. At a glance it's a simple parody of the weird, often confusing sub-genre of games known as Visual Novels that are popular in Japan. These games range from well done and emotional stories to poorly disguised hentai sex simulators. My experience with them is limited at best, but I can tell that despite making fun of them Hatoful Boyfriend comes with a lot of experience.

People have all but forgotten how to make a proper parody, be it in games, books, or movies. The idea of a parody is not to simply point at the original and laugh at it, but rather to create an exact copy of the original in a humorous manor, accentuating the flaws and exaggerate the funniest parts of the original work.

Take, for example, the greatest parody film ever made: Airplane! Airplane is a comedy, and a damn funny one at that, but strip away the comedy parts and you're left with a really crappy but completely functional airplane disaster movie. That's because Airplane was written to be a crappy disaster movie, using an actual disaster movie script as the basis and just exaggerating what was funny about it.

In a similar vein, Hatoful Boyfriend is making fun of Japanese Visual Novels by being an almost exact copy of them. You play as a girl going through highschool life, taking test and meeting boys. It's a fairly common scenario, although usually played from the other side, that would fit right in with any normal Visual Novel.

Except for the pigeons.

Hatoful Boyfriend is constantly strange, and hilarious.

Our Feathered Friends

This happens too. Not sure what to make of it.

Everyone other then you is a pigeon, albeit extremely intelligent pigeons capable of speaking. There's about two seconds of back story to explain this, which is immediately ignored. You're going to have to accept that everyone is birds and just sort of move on.

There's your best friend, the rock dove. The teacher is a narcoleptic quail prone to falling asleep halfway through a senescence. There's mourning doves, fantail pigeons, and more, all with their own accompanying human portrait. Except the one bird seems to be an actual bird in a suit that's addicted to pudding.

This is a weird game.

Even the local punks are birds. Everybirdie is birds.

Each bird you interact with has their own personality and can be woo'd through repeated interaction. Hatoful Boyfriend is a game that, provided you can look past the weirdness, demands multiple playthroughs in order to see everything. To help this along a complete run will only take you ~90 minutes, but there's a staggering amount of outcomes that can be achieved.

I don't know if I can actually recommend Hatoful Boyfriend, because I don't really know what the fuck Hatoful Boyfriend is. It's a parody, and a damn good one at that. It's also an exceedingly funny game with strange writing and an almost alarmingly low budget appeal to it, including using Christmas and public domain music for most of the soundtrack. But it's still a visual novel, with almost no gameplay and a tonne of reading.

Beware of Blaster

Hatoful Boyfriend is a game worth playing if you're looking for something that's not only outside the box, but doesn't even live in the same neighborhood as the box's relatives. It's a game that spits in the face of everything else and looks damn weird while doing it.

image sources:

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/danielnyegriffiths/files/2014/06/Hatoful-Boyfriend-Logo_1402053849.png

Looking at: Over the Garden Wall

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Power of Boredom

I love it when this happens. Occasionally I'll see an image or .Gif so weird that I need to research it. In this case it was this:

http://i.imgur.com/b4jdMQD.gif

There's a lot in that .Gif that caught my eye. A bird talking about scamming, arguing with what appears to be a garden gnome, then a horse given free will and the ability to speak stating that the only thing he wants to do is steal things. 

A little research (definition: checking the Reddit thread) revealed that this was a scene from Over the Garden Wall, an animated mini-series from Cartoon network. The .gif was enough to get me to take a look further, and man am I glad I did. 

Not Your Little Brother's Cartoon

http://www.awn.com/sites/default/files/styles/original/public/image/featured/1020658-cartoon-network-announces-over-garden-wall-premiere.jpg?itok=hYNvgEGB

A relatively normal moment.

I hesitate to refer to OtGW as a kid's show. It's animation style skews a bit young, sure, but it's art direction, themes, and even dialogue suggest this is a much more mature show than it lets on. It also might be because I'm a 22 year old man who swears like a sailor, and the idea of me sitting down to watch a kid's show seems weird. Then again, the popularity of shows like Adventure Time, Regular Show and Avatar in my age group have sort of opened the door for something like OtGW. It's a cartoon for people that grew up watching cartoons, and aren't quite ready to actually be adults. 

Other shows have attempted this before. Regular Show in particular regularly seems to go way beyond the bounds of a normal kids show by tackling themes like being in debt, caffeine addiction, and relationships. Paranorman back in 2012 was an animated movie that definitely would've gone over a kid's head, that is if it didn't scare the hell out of them. It's likely that this trend will continue, with more and more 90's kids and millenials refusing to actually become adults well into their 20's, and these types of cartoons can often reach an audience, however niche. 

The Other Side

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Christopher Lloyd is a standout as the mysterious Woodsman.

OtGW comes to us courtesy of Cartoon Network's Shorts Development program, the same program that gave us cartooning legends like Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter's Lab, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls) and Derek Drymon (Spongebob, Rocko's Modern Life). It's been a while in the making too, with the original short being pitched back in 2006 by Patrick McHale. McHale worked on Adventure Time, and wrote a short called Tome of the Unknown about two brother becoming lost in a strange world. this would eventually become OtGW. 

The central plot of the series is centered around Wirt (Elijah Wood) and Greg (Collin Dean), two brothers that find themselves lost in a mysterious forest. Wirt is the older brother, but lacks any confidence, while Greg is happy-go-lucky and lacks any awareness, trading it in for a smile and a frog. They run into a mysterious Woodsman (Christopher Lloyd) who warns them of a horrible beast, and Beatrice (Melanie Lynskey), a bluebird with an attitude. Following a disaster the two brothers decide to go with Beatrice to find their way out of the woods. 

What follows is a sort of Alice in Wonderland style journey, with each episode offering a small vignette into the world of The Unknown, often with the brothers directly influencing something. they meet pumpkin people, deranged demons, singing frogs, and all manner of weirdness as they try and get back home. 

There are two things I really enjoyed about OtGW's story. First, it's characters really evolve. Wirt, Greg, and Beatrice all change is fairly believable ways, and they become really flushed out by the time the series concludes. Second is that it never looses sight of it's plot. It's probably best that OtGW was presented as a short series, rather then a regular cartoon, as it's plot would've been unnecessarily muddled in the need for extra "filler" episodes to pad out a season. It's plot is simple to follow and concise, and never strays to far from it's intended path. 

A Grimm Tale

http://cdn.bloody-disgusting.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/over-the-garden-wall-image-5-620x400.jpg

The autumn setting helps to sell feelings of both fear, and levity.

It's art style is probably my favorite thing about OtGW. It's a mixture of the animation works of Studio Ghibli, American Fokelore, and 19th century Germanic children stories. Whatever it is, it works great. There's a pervasive style to the show and it's great to watch. 

Similarly the music is fantastic. Again influenced by American fokelore, there's a lot of old time music being played around, everything from dixieland jazz, to negro hymnal style, to tenor based operatic scores. Almost every episode contains a wonderfully well done song, and although I'm not partial to children singing, it's endearing enough to earn a pass, particularly a song about mashed potatoes and molasses that I still have stuck in my head. A special mention needs to be made of Samuel Ramey who voices the villain The Beast. Ramey is an American opera singer, and not only does his bass-ey voice give great life to The Beast, but his penchant for breaking into song is both eerie and beautiful. 

It's rare we get a show as well put together as Over the Garden Wall, one that builds momentum and creates a world that's a joy to see explored. McHale has already said he'd like to release the story in comic form, and I'd definitely buy that again, just to re-enter the Unknown. I don't know when the next cartoon this good will come along, but if this is what Cartoon Network can do with an independent pitch, I say bring them on. OtGW is a wonderful, creative, and darkly comedic show that reminds us that every once in a while, it's worth looking into the unknown. 

Looking at: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

http://static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/9/93770/2355509-ps2_metalgearsolid3subsistence.jpg

While doing research for yesterday's article on Half Life 2, it was brought to my attention that it's also the tenth anniversary of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. MGS3 is particularly important to me because it's the only Metal Gear Solid game that I've actually played, an issue I now wish to remedy.

I didn't play MGS3 when it came out. I didn't even play it during it's console's life cycle. It wasn't until earlier this year, after receiving a PS2 as a Christmas gift did I dive in. I was excited, I'd never played a Metal Gear Solid game before, and MGS3, being a series prequel looked like a good place to drop in.

I'll admit, I had no idea what I should've expected. One of the reasons I picked MGS3 was because of this video:

I was so confused, perplexed, and intrigued that I had to know what was going on, and what was the big deal with this series.

I can honestly say I still don't know.

Virtuous Mission

http://ps2media.gamespy.com/ps2/image/article/696/696626/metal-gear-solid-3-subsistence-20060316033833158.jpg

The infamous Box makes a return.

Unlike the other games in the series, MGS3 takes place during the cold war, specifically in the mid 60's. You play as secret agent Naked Snake, so named because he's dropped behind enemy lines with almost no equipment. Naked Snake is a central character in the future of the franchise, but here he's just an agent with a job to do. That job is shutting down a secret Soviet tank capable of throwing (literally) nukes right at the US.

It's hard to classify...everything about MGS3. On paper it's a stealth game, and you can certainly play it that way. But like any good stealth game you're also allowed to just play however you want. The game provides you with plenty of tools to just shoot your way through everything.

More then just trying to classify the gameplay, it's difficult to classify the story and characters. Again, on paper they're all grim, serious secret agents behind enemy lines. But MGS3 is filled with weird humour, and most of your "serious" conversations are absolutely bizarre. Talk to your health specialist and she'll give you detailed descriptions of the food you should or should not eat, and all Snake cares about is if it tastes good. There's a pervasive weirdness to everything people do and say in this game, and it's really hard to tell if it takes itself seriously.

Snake Eater

http://199.101.98.242/media/shots/150681-Metal_Gear_Solid_3_-_Snake_Eater_(USA)-3.jpg

A gunfight with series favorite Revolver Ocelot.

That sense of weirdness spreads to the actual gameplay too. Like I said, MGS3 is technically a stealth game, and that's certainly the best way to play. There are plenty of tools to help you avoid or eliminate your enemies silently, and there's even the option for a non-lethal playthrough, should you be so inclined. There's also the option to kill everything and everyone, with weapons like the AK-47, M37 shotgun, and the M63 light machine gun. The shooting handles well after a slight learning curve, and using the games cover system will allow you to outlast and out shoot whatever comes your way.

Perhaps the strangest addition to the gameplay is the survival elements. Naked Snake will need to take care of himself throughout the mission, meaning you'll have to eat regularly apply medical treatment when injured. It's strangely hardcore, especially the medical examinations, and probably paved the way for more modern survival games.

http://static.gamesradar.com/images/mb//GamesRadar/gb/Games/M/Metal%20Gear%20Solid%20Portable%20Ops/PSP/2006-10-05/mpo_screen_02--screenshot_large.jpg

It's a stealth game, but it doesn't have to be.

MGS3 also features a camoflauge system, where you can blend in with your environment by changing your clothes. It's an interesting idea and well implemented, and it makes sense in the absence of more modern sneaking technology. Or, alternitivly, you can walk around like John Rambo with a machine gun and ignore this mechanic.

Graphically there's a lot of charm to MGS3. When it was originally released ten years ago it was pushing the PS2 right to it's limits, and the scope of it's detail is impressive. The terrain feel realistic, it has a rudimentary physics engine, and character's change and react based on where they take damage. There's a lot of fine detail to everything, and it still looks great, even on the original PS2 version.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxq3546HgnC_tBIWO1wx9vXR5i9nTN0gheHbFyez3kGOKB7WHWbdvNz-rqvPBh1BqyqStRHM5EBeWUv47EM_PPsAYxeElMhtdzWVXI6oGiqgfTjgtcotu525TK7k4YXW9OqMMZLG5K_fYR/s1600/28.jpg

You fight a man that controls hornets. This is normal.

It's worth noting that the version of MGS3 I played was actually the Subsistence version. This version comes with a fully 3D camera, a function I can't imagine the game without, as well as some other goodies. To my knowledge it's actually very hard to find a non-Subsistence version of MGS3, and both the HD version for the Metal Gear Solid Collection, as well as the 3DS re-release are both based on the Subsistence version.

SNAAAAKE!

http://ps2media.ign.com/ps2/image/metalgearsolidse3a_033104_inline_01_1080789709.jpg

A good 70% of the game right here.

I feel like talking about MGS3 in to much detail gives away most of what I really liked about it. It's a spy fantasy, but it feels like a parody at times.It's down-right bonkers, but yet intricately composed. I know this is the norm for a series with questionable homo-erotic relationships, cyborgs, naked cyborgs, and just a whole whack load of crazy seeping through every pore, but to me MGS3 is a special game, even within the MGS series. It's grounded in it's crazy, and almost believable at points. I'm still waiting the day that I can experience more of the series, preferably on PC, and I'm deffinitly looking forward to the two upcoming MGS games for PC, but until then you'll find me in the Russian jungle, eating snakes.

Looking at: Binding of Isaac Rebirth

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/p22Sj-Zllwk/maxresdefault.jpg

The Gospel of Isaac

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Insanity, now in .GIF form.

Binding of Isaac is an uncomfortable game. Not to play, no the mix of twin-stick bullet hell and rogue-like dungeon crawling is addictive and hugely entertaining. Rather, BoI is uncomfortable to look at and experience, and it likes it that way. Casting you as a naked little boy you must delve into the underworld to face your fears and escape your mother. BoI is certainly weird, but is it, and more importantly, it's recent re-release any good?

I always find it weird that Christian mythology is so underexplored in gaming. The Bible and related Christian historical books are filled with weird shit that could be worked into games. BoI is, in some ways, one of the most biblical games I've ever played outside of strictly Christian games. Much of it's imagery, bestiary and story are references to biblical mythology. Even the name comes from the story of Abraham almost sacrificing his son Isaac to God as a show of devotion.

Covered in horror

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One of the bosses from vanilla BoI.

Of course, there's also the other imagery of BoI. When it's not biblical, it's horrifying. The levels are littered with fecal mounds, your enemies are twisted monsters made of tumours and scabs, your main attack is crying, there's blood and urine everywhere and many of your powerups seem to do bodily harm to your character. I don't know if this is some sort of political statement, but it's certainly enough to freak out most casual gamers. There's an overwhelming feeling of disgust at BoI's visuals, and the thought of what some items or monsters represent, never mind the fact your own character, is enough to make your stomach churn.

Visually BoI is a mixbag. There's an obvious art style here, mixing childhood drawings with horrifying religious imagery and bathroom wall sketches. It's all pretty part-and-parcel for anyone familiar with Edmund McMillen's art style in games like Time Fcuk or Super Meat Boy. The problem comes down to it's actual presentation. The vanilla version of the game was obviously done with Adobe Flash so it always looked like a low/no budget Newgrounds game. Rebirth was built on a new engine and the pixelated graphics definitely look better then their flash counterparts, in theory. I found that on the PC version the stretched graphics definitly took some time to adjust to, and I can only image the problem is exacerbated on the TV console version. BoI:Rebirth probably fits right at home on a small screen like the PS Vita or the rumored 3DS version, but on larger screens it just looks stretched and distorted, not in the good way.

Chocolate and Vanilla

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BoI now features cutscenes reminiscent of Tool music videos.

The graphics aren't the only difference between the 2011 version of BoI and the recent Rebirth version. Rebirth isn't quite an HD version, isn't quite a sequel. It's more of a standalone expansion pack, that just happens to also be on a different engine. Rebirth adds a wealth of new items and upgrades, new room configurations including multi-screen rooms, local co-op, and gamepad support among other additions. It's not skimpy with the new content, and anyone that enjoyed the original will find more then enough to justify the new price tag. Part of the joy of Rebirth was discovering all the new things added and figuring out how it all works together.

The other part of the joy in BoI is it's sublime gameplay. Like I mentioned, BoI is a strange mix of twin-stick shooter bullet hell mechanics that have you dodging and shoot enemies while avoiding the myriad of things being thrown at you, all while you progress through a ranomized Zelda-like dungeon. It's got perma-death and items to find/buy and secrets hidden everywhere. The moment to moment gameplay of BoI is awesome, especially for fans of shoot-em ups, and the new addition of gamepad support just heightens this. Playing Rebirth with my gamepad was insanely enjoyable, perhaps more so then the Kb+M option that the vanilla BoI was locked with.

Unfortunately BoI is no Spelunky, and for every one good world seed you end up with a dozen terrible ones. It's more balanced then Rogue Legacy, actually dropping health pickups at a decent rate, but there's no denying that the level layout and enemy combinations can occasionally come out as blatantly unfair. It might just be me, but many of the enemies in Rebirth are harder to kill then the original, and I've lost count of how many times I've been blocked in a corner with no way out. It's never game breaking, but it can be frustrating to loose so much progress because of one bad room seed.

Then there's the bosses. Rebirth adds a host of new bosses, but they all have the same strategy: avoid hits, shoot back. There's no real standout bosses in BoI and most of them are only memorable for the way they look. Make no mistake, visually their incredibly memorable, ranging from the bizarre, to the downright twisted to the mortifying. But there's no real heart to them, and a lot of them have similar attack patterns that are to easy to figure out. Most of the fight just boils down to slowly chipping away their health bars as you stay mobile to avoid attacks.

Outta hell

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An actual boss you will have to face.

Binding of Isaac was an interesting, if disturbing game back when it came out. It's unique mix of gameplay mechanics coupled with it's use of biblical mythology and disturbing imagery were enough to hook my back in 2011. Now, three years later I can say that Rebirth is worth the wait, mostly. It's additions and new art style are a welcome sight, and local co-op and gamepad support are almost worth the money alone. It's perhaps unfortunate that so many of the issues from the vanilla game persists, but if your looking for a fun, easy to pick up hard to master game, BoI is definitely not run-of-the-mill.