If someone anomalously put a gun to my head and demanded that I list my ten favourite games of all times, they’d be more than a couple big-budget AAA games on there (I love you Mass Effect), but sitting proudly amongst them would be Edward McMillen’s humble flash game, The Binding of Isaac.

Now that the game has been ‘re-made’ and re-released for PS4/PS Vita, we can enjoy Isaac’s blasphemous little adventure into his basement and beyond again but with a whole range of improvements and added features.

For the unfortunate few of you who haven’t played The Binding of Isaac yet, it’s about an innocent little boy called Isaac and his insane mother, who begins to victimise Isaac after God apparently tells her that he is sinful. Fearing death at the hands of his mother, Isaac flees into the basement, only to find a series of chambers filled with vile creatures and his twisted siblings.

Still retaining its retro ’16bit’ look, but with the smoothness of 60fps, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth improves on the original game’s aesthetics without sacrificing any of the charm. The core gameplay is largely unchanged, with the player moving Isaac around small, square levels, dodging enemy attacks and ‘shooting’ tears at foes to defeat them.

It’s a truly harrowing concept, and if analysed it could possibly be symbolic of all manner of disturbing things. One of most impressive things about The Binding of Isaac was that it managed to be completely disgusting and unsettling, despite its cartoonish visuals.

The creatures, and in particular the bosses that guard the trap doors at the end of each level, are all as bursting with character as they are with faecal matter. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth simply adds more creatures and more faecal matter, which has to be a good thing.

When I first bought the original game, I got it for next to nothing, which is not at all bad for a game I’ve spent over twenty hours playing. For PS Plus members, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is completely free this month.

It’s especially pleasing because it’s a game that prides itself on being endlessly replayable. It has rogue-like elements and procedural generation, meaning when you die you completely lose all your progress and have to start from square-one. Where in some games its just an annoyance (cough… Heavy Bullets… cough), in this game its a blessing.

Every single playthrough is unique, with various different items to boost and disfigure Isaac in effective ways and with randomly generated levels offering different challenges and foes with each new start.

Once again, Rebirth simply improves upon the original by adding more items, features and unlockables to further increase the replayability, as well as a whole roster of new characters to play with, each with their own quirks. 

The Steam page also boasts a whole range of new, ‘feature film’ quality animated endings, but I’m not ashamed to see I’ve only witnessed a few of them thus far. I’m unashamed because The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is as a difficult as the original.

Getting to see an ending to this game is a huge achievement in itself. Apparently, it wasn’t achievement enough because inevitably, ‘real’ achievements have also been added to the remake.

It has to be said that a couple of the new features don’t really work and were unwarranted. The aforementioned achievements are an annoying but ultimately harmless addition that will make some gamers happy, but co-op isn’t really a great fit for a game like this. The screen tends to be stuffed with enemies and projectiles when played single player, but when played multiplayer it’s a step too far.

Apart from those petty gripes, Rebirth is a completely fitting remake of the fantastic The Binding of Isaac, and if you missed a chance to play it first time, grab your mother’s bra and a handful of flies and get involved!

9/10

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