Wii Posted April 4, 2015 Posted April 4, 2015 (edited) How a love of Nintendo opened the door for The Binding of Isaac and why it's only coming to New 3DS The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth was always meant to be a Nintendo game, but the restrictive rules from the 100-year-old Japanese platform holder torpedoed that idea. When the game was announced for Steam, PlayStation 4 and the Vita instead, most thought that original concept, putting a Zelda-inspired game about the unfortunate son of a crazy zealot on a Nintendo platform, was a complete impossibility. But not game makers Tyrone Rodriguez and Edmund McMillen and not, it turns out, a trio of stalwart fans of the game inside Nintendo. Earlier this week, developer Nicalis announced that The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth was headed to the Xbox One and two Nintendo platforms: the Wii U and New Nintendo 3DS. The game is expected to hit before this year's E3 in June and will cost about $14.99. But how did the game makers suddenly win over Nintendo? "The short simple answer is we were very persistent and had a few big fans at Nintendo that helped with our pushing," McMillen told Polygon. Rebirth is a remake of the original The Binding of Isaac, which was designed by McMillen and Florian Himsl and released in 2011 for Linux, Mac and Windows PC. In the game, players take control of a naked, crying child named Isaac. The child flees to the monster-filled basement of his home after his mother receives a message from God demanding she take Isaac's life to prove her faith. The game plays as a top-down, procedurally generated 2D dungeon crawler. Players must find and defeat a boss on each floor of the basement to proceed to the next level. There are also special items, money, keys and shopkeepers. The mechanics and presentation of the game were inspired by The Legend of Zelda. Useable items in the game include a sanitary napkin, poop and his mom's bra. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth was a 2014 remake released on the PlayStation 4, Vita, Mac, Linux and Windows. "The initial idea that Ed and I had for the game was to do it on 3DS," Rodriguez said. But Nintendo quashed the game's release on 3DS. At the time, McMillen tweeted that Nintendo decided not to allow the game on 3DS because of its "questionable religious content." But Rodriguez said in an interview with Polygon today that that wasn't completely the case. "It wasn't entirely religious related," he said. "I can't speak for Nintendo, but the game was a little controversial at the time. Since then things have changed in terms of what can and can't be on their platform. "My understanding is that they now rely on the ESRB for guidance. Anything that is rated from E (for Everyone) to* M (for Mature) is OK, but AO (Adults Only) can't be on their platform. I think this and a few other games were the impetus for that change." A big part of convincing Nintendo to change its opinion on the game was Nintendo itself, or rather three key employees at the company, Rodriguez said. The trio, vice president of licensing Steve Singer; Mark Griffin, a senior manager in licensing game development at Nintendo; and the company's head of indie development Dan Adelman, all continued to push for the game's release well after Nintendo's official, public denial. Adelman eventually left Nintendo after calling the company out on Twitter over its region-locking practices and a need to be more flexible in terms of what content should be allowed on the company's systems. "They all pushed hard for the game to happen," Rodriguez said. "I've been pushing hard for this to happen too, with their help. I'm a huge Nintendo fan and it was a personal goal, not a stubborn goal, but a goal that I approached very amicably. "I wanted them to know how important they are to me and how important it was to get the game on the platform." Back when McMillen and Rodriguez were first talking about Rebirth they viewed it as a Nintendo exclusive, Rodriguez said. Not because of any existing deal, but because it felt like a good match for a game so inspired in its design by Zelda. It wasn't until they had been working on the game for a bit that they realized it wasn't going to be going to Nintendo. "They never really said no. Maybe this is a nuance, but it was never an official no. They just never said yes," Rodriguez said. "It was a very delicate thing because we have a long-standing relationship with them and pushing too much wasn't advisable." So the team decided to move forward, shifting the game to Steam, PlayStation 4 and Vita. "But the conversations with Nintendo never ended," Rodriguez said. "It was very casual. Every two months I'd check in with Dan and check in with Steve. "Then last year we had a secret meeting and were approved." The secret approval, while not entirely unexpected, came out of one in a long series of meetings near the end of last summer. But now that they were given the greenlight to bring the game to the 3DS they had another, potentially bigger problem, one caused the limited tech of the 3DS. "When we originally had the idea to bring the game to the 3DS we had a feature set that was an 8 ounce cup of water," Rodriguez said. "And then when we shifted to the PlayStation we upgraded to a 16 ounce cup of water. "Then when Nintendo came back and said yes we were like, 'Oh crap, how do we get this back into that 8 ounce cup?'" After some work the team managed to get the game running on the 3DS, but not to the quality that anyone would have liked. "People would have said it was terrible," Rodriguez said. "So we decided to look at the New 3DS." Initially, they couldn't even get their hands on prototype developer kits for the new console, but thanks to some help from their friends at Nintendo, they ended up being the first studio to get the kits in the U.S. "We found that the New 3DS was a lot more powerful," he said. "There was additional performance, more memory, making it feasible to run at 60 frames per second." A lot of that horsepower comes from the random generation that powers the game and makes it such a delight to play over and over again. Rodriguez said they would have also had to redo the art to make it work on the original system. If the New 3DS hadn't come along, Rodriguez said they would have still figured out a way to make the game work. But, he said, instead of taking six to eight months to build, it would have likely been longer than a year and it wouldn't have been the same game. Will it ever come to the original 3DS? "Officially, I'm going to tell the internet no," he said. The New 3DS version of the game will be identical to the one you can currently pick up on Steam or the PlayStation Network. The only real difference is that the 3DS version has a map on the bottom screen and as much user-interface as they could fit. "Everything else is the same," Rodriguez said. "Every foul thing is still in there." While the game won't ship with any of the new content, like the After Birth DLC, Rodriguez said it's possible they may sell that content down the line for the 3DS as DLC. "If Nintendo's infrastructure for DLC is better than it was during the Wii era, I think it's possible," he said. "We tried to do DLC for Cave Story and the certification process was such a terrible disaster that we canned it and gave it away. "It seems as if over the last five years Nintendo has tried to improve that infrastructure." Rodriguez and McMillen are just happy they can finally bring the game to the 3DS, where they've always thought it belonged. "It's great to finally release something on Nintendo consoles," McMillen said in an email to Polygon. "I never expected my first game would be Isaac though :)" http://www.polygon.com/2015/4/3/8341137/how-a-love-of-nintendo-finally-opened-the-door-for-the-binding-of The Binding of Isaac Rebirth Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLtZW3xIix0 Don't know much about the game but it's supposed to be very good and Zeldaesque. http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-binding-of-isaac-rebirth 86% http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/the-binding-of-isaac-rebirth 88% The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth Release Date Trailer These are old videos. We'll have to wait a bit for Wii U and 3DS specific trailers. Edited April 4, 2015 by Wii Automerged Doublepost
Jonnas Posted April 4, 2015 Posted April 4, 2015 Don't know much about the game but it's supposed to be very good and Zeldaesque. It has a top-down perspective (like the first LoZ), and you can bomb some walls, but that's about where the similarities end. This is a Roguelike. Here's what I wrote about the original Binding of Isaac a few months back: First roguelike I liked. Really addictive, deep gameplay, forgiving to beginners (as long as you don't buy the DLC too soon), pretty successful at everything it tried to be. The aesthetics are a bit more... difficult to digest. Much like South Park, this game tries to be disgusting and cross as many lines as it can. So yeah, just bear that in mind in case you're curious. Mind you, the game is still pretty gorgeous at being disgusting, love the sprite art (and the music, for that matter). The DLC mainly adds extra items, characters, bosses, challenges... more raw content, basically, and it makes the game more challenging/difficult overall. Rebirth is the original game with a double-dose of DLC, so it's pretty difficult from the get-go. Furthermore, the music is different in Rebirth. Overall, I thought it was a very enjoyable game, but I do advise looking at amateur playthroughs (such as the Game Grumps') to get a better grasp of how it plays.
drahkon Posted April 4, 2015 Posted April 4, 2015 Overall, I thought it was a very enjoyable game, but I do advise looking at amateur playthroughs (such as the Game Grumps') to get a better grasp of how it plays. Northernlion all the way. Of course it will spoil things, but to understand a little bit of Rebirth this first episode is not bad.
Jonnas Posted April 4, 2015 Posted April 4, 2015 Northernlion all the way. Of course it will spoil things, but to understand a little bit of Rebirth this first episode is not bad. I recommended the Grumps because they actually didn't know anything in the game before playing Their first playthrough introduced me to what the game was about, and convinced me to get it cheap.
drahkon Posted April 4, 2015 Posted April 4, 2015 I recommended the Grumps because they actually didn't know anything in the game before playing Ah I see. I suppose it was Steam Train. I don't watch that I only watch Dan and Arin episodes.
Fierce_LiNk Posted April 4, 2015 Posted April 4, 2015 I got this on PS+ months ago and haven't managed to look at it yet. Ine played a little bit of it and we both got distracted by something else we were playing at the time, so didn't manage to get back onto it. I'll take a look at some point. It looks challenging and addictive.
Jonnas Posted April 4, 2015 Posted April 4, 2015 Ah I see. I suppose it was Steam Train. I don't watch that I only watch Dan and Arin episodes. Oh yeah, I tend to forget they're different shows, I just collectively call them "Grumps" I took a look at those episodes again, and ... Dan: "Ross, attack the enemies!" Ross: "How?! By touching them?" Dan: "With the arrows. It was on the first screen." Ross: "No wait, I think it's the bombs. Yeah, that's it." Dan: "You have your hand on the mouse and you're doing nothing with it!" They later had a Rebirth playthrough with Barry, who was actually experienced at the game, but it isn't as entertaining.
drahkon Posted April 4, 2015 Posted April 4, 2015 It looks challenging and addictive. It is I'm only missing ONE item to get the Platinum trophy. But this might take a loooong time Spent possibly 70-80 hours with this game and in a couple of months the announced expansion Afterbirth gets a release. : peace:
Grazza Posted April 4, 2015 Posted April 4, 2015 "My understanding is that they now rely on the ESRB for guidance. Anything that is rated from E (for Everyone) to* M (for Mature) is OK, but AO (Adults Only) can't be on their platform. I think this and a few other games were the impetus for that change." To be fair, I remember Reggie saying that many, many years ago. M-rated has been allowed for ages.
Fused King Posted April 4, 2015 Posted April 4, 2015 I wonder if they'll ever promote this via a NINTENDO Direct
Wii Posted April 7, 2015 Author Posted April 7, 2015 [TWEET]585206230903349248[/TWEET] [TWEET]585251821112942595[/TWEET]
Wii Posted April 14, 2015 Author Posted April 14, 2015 [TWEET]587783302720819201[/TWEET] [TWEET]587784422671257600[/TWEET]
drahkon Posted April 14, 2015 Posted April 14, 2015 I swear to God, if I don't see this thread exploding with posts once this has been released I'll...I'LL...get mad.
dazzybee Posted April 14, 2015 Posted April 14, 2015 I have it on PSN, I've only played about 10 minutes admittedly, but I really don't get what the fuss is about... Maybe I need to keep playing but it wasn't an instant grab!
Sheikah Posted April 14, 2015 Posted April 14, 2015 This is the game that I always come back to on my Vita. A surprisingly deep game with insane replayability and tight gameplay. Love it.
Wii Posted April 29, 2015 Author Posted April 29, 2015 Some tiny snippets of footage from both versions of the game. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth on Wii U Gamepad Preview 3ds thumb nub disorder!
Wii Posted May 12, 2015 Author Posted May 12, 2015 THE BINDING OF ISAAC REBIRTH TO BE RELEASED IN "THE COMING MONTHS" The Binding of Isaac is a game that has struggled to make its way onto Nintendo platforms. Due to the game featuring various religious content, Nintendo previously decided to not allow its release on their platforms. However, it was recently announced that the game would finally be released onto both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS. While an exact release date has not yet been announced, the team behind the game announced on their Tumblr page that it would be released in "the coming months." Although it may be a vague answer, it is at least progress. Updates will also be released for the game once it becomes available. "in the coming months rebirth will be released on Xbox 1, WiiU and the new 3ds. the guys have been spread quite thin when it comes to this + afterbirth dev, but as soon as they get time there will be a new rebirth update featuring a big change from last weeks post." http://gonintendo.com/stories/233091-the-binding-of-isaac-rebirth-to-be-released-in-the-coming-months http://bindingofisaac.com/post/118734743319/monstro-mash-afterbirth-update-6
Wii Posted May 22, 2015 Author Posted May 22, 2015 The Binding of Isaac Rebirth 5.avi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VxgF3_HtRA
drahkon Posted July 27, 2015 Posted July 27, 2015 This has been released last Thursday. You should buy it. It's amazing. Still play it regularly even though I've 111%-ed it. It has been released on PS4/PSVita 8 months ago and it's still my most played game right now. Edit: Nevermind. Only out in the US currently...sorry about that.
darksnowman Posted September 8, 2015 Posted September 8, 2015 Will there be a demo, does anyone know? I'm a fan of roguelikes but this game has always looked meh to me.
MindFreak Posted September 8, 2015 Posted September 8, 2015 Now that my 3DS is busted I might go for a New 3DS so I can play this game. It seems like the better fit on a handheld.
Sheikah Posted September 8, 2015 Posted September 8, 2015 Everyone should get this game. My favourite indie game of all time.
drahkon Posted December 10, 2015 Posted December 10, 2015 Not sure if it's been posted anywhere but the daily on December 6th has been themed in memory of Iwata. It's worth sharing, I think.
Recommended Posts