Why does the Wire Coat Hanger go through Isaac’s head after you pick it up? Maybe just for gross-out purposes, or maybe because Isaac’s mother wanted to abort him? Very little exposition is explicitly given in the brief story cut-scenes, leaving ambiguous the extent to which all these horrible things actually happened to Isaac.Īlso, the symbolism does not seem to be especially organized: Judeo-Christianity is the dominant note, but bits and pieces appear from other mythologies such as an ankh, a tarot deck, Polyphemus, the Necronomicon, and many references to other games. Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and Dessert all increase health, but the item images are of dog food and spoiled milk.)īut some links are left vague or underdetermined. (Sometime the notable inferences are not between symbol and functional role but between name and image. The Wire Coat Hanger, a reminder of abortion, would make a good Christian boy cry. Stem cells are both anti-Christian and associated with health. This knowledge is irrelevant to the game’s function but contributes to the underlying “story.” So the Wooden Spoon, as well as another item, the Belt, increase speed because Isaac was beaten and he runs from them. What’s left for the player to infer is why the items have the functional effects they do. These power-up items have perfectly traditional functions, making Isaac faster, giving him more health points, or increasing his tear firepower. It also heals a half heart.Ī fetus grows on the side of Isaac’s face. Isaac gets a coat hanger through his head. (McMillen did the similarly neo-classical Super Meat Boy, a punishing platformer requiring utterly precise split-second timing.)īut the story and the symbols are what concern me, and specifically the mapping of the game’s symbols to the game’s functional roles.Ĭourtesy of the Binding of Isaac Wiki, which has an exhaustive list of items, enemies, and everything else in the game, consider a few game items (that is to say, symbols) and their functional roles in the game : Item While traditional, the game is far more elaborate and skillful than the norm–McMillen clearly has spent a great deal of time thinking about gameplay construction and balance. But for the dextrous it is prodigious, and because of the randomly generated levels and a plethora of unlockable items, secrets, and endings, the game has picked up a well-deserved diehard following. The game is extraordinarily difficult, requiring way more coordination and reflexes than I possess, and it is unforgiving: death sets you back to the beginning every time. (Some items hurt you, some are a mixed bag.) You pick up power-up items that increase your character’s skills in one way or another: speed, damage, health, etc. There are multiple levels, with difficult bosses at the end of each level. The basic mechanics are the same: you control a character moving from room to room in a maze and killing enemies. It is a top-down 2D action game that will look familiar to people who played Legend of Zelda. The game itself is firmly neo-classicist. Bosses include Mom, Satan, Pin, Chub, Fistula, Blastocyst, the Blighted Ovum, Scolex, Loki, the Seven Deadly Sins, and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (image c/o Binding of Isaac Wiki)
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