Geekscape Games Review: ‘The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth 3DS’
Editor’s Note: It should be stated that the handheld version of The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth is only available to New 3DS owners due to technical limitations with the regular 3DS/2DS systems.
After almost a year of fan outreach and many private discussions with them, Nintendo owners have been finally graced with The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth for the Wii U and New 3DS. Created back in September of 2011 for the PC, The Binding of Isaac follows a young boy named Isaac, who escapes into his basement after his religious mother is told by God himself that she must kill her own son to prove her loyalty to him. With 6 playable characters, and more than 100 different items and dungeon possibilities, the original game went to sell over 2 million copies as well as receive a DLC pack which added an additional 100+ items, a new character, and much more.
Now with Rebirth, on top of everything mentioned above the game has received a graphical upgrade as well as an additional 4 characters, another 100-200+ items, and even more things that would take me this entire review to talk about. So, now that the game has finally been reborn on Nintendo systems, was the wait really worth it? The answer without a doubt is a big resounding YES! Not only is The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth just as addicting as ever, but a couple of tweaks and changes made to the handheld version make the 3DS the definitive Binding of Isaac experience.
Art Style
Let’s start with visuals. The game’s 16-Bit visual art style is just as beautiful on the 3DS as it is on the home console versions. All of the characters are nicely animated and the paper drawing cut scenes during the intro and ending of the game provide a charm to the overall presentation. There are also fully animated endings for every attainable finale, each looking very crisp and smooth. You can tell a lot of effort was put into making the visuals the best they can to fully take advantage of the New 3DS’s hardware.
Gameplay and Controls
The gameplay also makes the game stand out from the rest. The game plays as a top down roguelike dungeon crawler. Think of a game entirely based of the dungeons from The Legend of Zelda, but each time you play, the entire dungeon is different. Everything from the dungeon layout, to the items, enemies, and even bosses promises a brand new experience each time you start the game. You can however, play some of them over again. The game has a feature where it gives you a special seed code that you can enter to always get that layout. This is good if you’re hoping to speed run the game or just practice a specific enemy or boss attack pattern.
The controls help on delivering a satisfying experience. You can move and shoot 2 different ways. Moving is done using the circle and the D-pads, while shooting uses the 4 main face buttons and even support for the New 3DS C-stick. L places a bomb, and R activates secondary items such as pills tarot cards, and plying cards. If none of these control options suit you that’s fine. Controls are completely customizable so change and test them to your heart’s content.
Replayability
In terms of replayability, the possibilities are endless. Every time you finish the game, the next run gets just a tad bit longer. From there, the basic length time stretches from about 30 minutes to 45 minutes to possibly even an hour. The game has 16 endings and an epilogue. Trying to get them all will lead to the most frustrating and fun times you’ll have with this game.
Negatives
Now for all of its positives, there are also some negatives about the game that could heavily influence your decision. For one thing, the local co-op that was present in the console versions of the game is no longer here. This may disappoint many, but I don’t mind it since I don’t really think it was very well implemented to begin with. What also surprised me was that there was no support for stereoscopic 3D in the game which I think is a missed opportunity. Hopefully we can get a future patch to add that.
Verdict:
At the end of the day, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth for the New Nintendo 3DS is the most satisfying Isaac experience to date. If this is your first time playing this award winning indie game or wondering which version to get, there should be no doubt. Portability alone is a good enough reason to buy this game. Heck, I’m still playing the game as we speak. Now all we have to hope for is for the future Afterbirth DLC to come to the system.
Final Rating: Buy
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is now available on the Nintendo E-shop for $15.
