The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Like the original, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a top-down 2D game in which the player controls the boy Isaac, amongst thirty three other unlockable characters, as he traverses the basement and beyond, fighting off monsters and collecting items. into a number of self-contained rooms, including at least one boss battle. A run is completed by beating one of a number of different final bosses. Like most roguelike games, it has permadeath: when the player character dies, the game is over. In addition to expanding The Binding of Isaac number of items, monsters, and room types (including those spanning multiple screens), Rebirth provides integrated controller support == Plot ==

The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth plot loosely follows the biblical story of the same name, similar to the original game. The game's story is primarily told through ending cutscenes obtained from defeating bosses, which are either still images with narration or animations. Isaac, a small child, and his deeply religious mother live in a small house on a hill. Isaac's mother hears what she believes is the voice of God, stating her son is corrupted with sin, and needs to be saved. She removes all his possessions, including toys and clothing, believing they are corrupting agents, and later locks him in his room to protect him from the evil outside. When she receives instructions to sacrifice her son to prove her devotion, Isaac flees through a trap door in his room. After venturing through various floors, Isaac battles his mother. After defeating her, the game cuts back to Isaac in his room, where his mother is about to kill him with a knife. A Bible falls off a shelf and strikes Isaac's mother in the head, apparently killing her. Isaac celebrates, but his mother appears behind him, alive and still wielding the knife, revealing the entire sequence to be imagined. Defeating other bosses unlocks a variety of other endings. These endings generally imply that Isaac, due to overwhelming religious guilt, locked himself in a toy chest and asphyxiated, with the events of the game being a hallucination. Expansions The game's expansions add several more endings. These expand on Isaac's background: his father abandoned the family and his mother has been abusing him since. In the final ending, Isaac ascends to Heaven as his life flashes before his eyes, before the narrator interjects, revealing himself to be Isaac's father. The narrator asks if Isaac wants to change the story, and Isaac agrees. The narrator begins to tell a new story, featuring Isaac and both of his parents. == Development ==

The Binding of Isaac was developed by Edmund McMillen and Florian Himsl in 2011 during a game jam after the completion of Super Meat Boy, McMillen's previous game. Since Super Meat Boy was successful, McMillen was not concerned about making a popular game; he wanted to craft a game which melded ''The Legend of Zelda's'' top-down dungeon approach with the roguelike genre, wrapping it in religious allegory inspired by his upbringing. They used Adobe Flash, since it enabled them to develop the game quickly. McMillen quietly released the game to Steam for PC, where it unexpectedly became very popular. After The Binding of Isaac release, McMillen was approached by Tyrone Rodriguez of Nicalis (a development and publishing studio which had helped bring the PC games Cave Story and VVVVVV to consoles). Local cooperative play would also be added to the game, but McMillen said that they could not add online cooperative play because it would drastically lengthen development time. After polling players about which art style to use for the remake, McMillen and Nicalis brought in artists to improve the original assets in the new style and began working on the new content. McMillen commissioned a new soundtrack for the remake from Matthias Bossi and Jon Evans. McMillen and Nicalis opted to move development from the PlayStation 3 to the new PlayStation 4 in August 2013, announcing its release at Sony's Gamescom presentation. The PlayStation 4 and Vita versions were released with the PC versions on November 5, 2014. During development, three senior Nintendo employees—Steve Singer, vice president of licensing; Mark Griffin, a senior manager in licensing, and indie development head Dan Adelman—championed the game within the company. The announcement of the New 3DS and Wii U versions was made with plans for an Xbox One version, and the game was released for all three systems on July 23, 2015. In January 2016, Nicalis reported that it was working on an iOS port of the game. The company reported the following month that Apple rejected its application to Apple's app, citing "violence towards children" violating content policies. Nicalis has worked with Apple to obtain preapproval and will release a universal iOS version of Rebirth (including the Afterbirth+ expansion) with improvements for that platform, including the use of iCloud for ease of play on multiple devices. Although Nicalis wants to add this to the Vita port, the company said it was a low priority due to the Vita's limited ability to handle many weapon combos. The initial iOS version of the core game, without expansions, was released on January 11, 2017. After hinting at a release on the upcoming Nintendo Switch console, Nicalis confirmed in January 2017 that Rebirth (with both expansions) would be released for the Switch in March 2017 as retail and digital titles. Scheduled for release on March 3 as a launch title, last-minute adjustments required the company to delay it until March 17. Because of the existing relationship with Nintendo for the Wii U and New Nintendo 3DS versions, Rodriguez said that they could obtain developer-prototype hardware for the Switch to port the game to that system. McMillen said that they could get Rebirth working on the Switch easily due to their approach to developing the game (with hooking integrated into respective system features, such as achievements, to simplify porting) and the ease of the Switch's development platform. The game was released for Switch on March 17, 2017. The version allows up to four players in a drop-in/drop-out cooperative mode, with the other three players using Joy-Con to control one of Isaac's "buddies" (similar to the two-player cooperative mode for PC). The physical version of the Switch game includes a manual similar to the manual which shipped with The Legend of Zelda for the Nintendo Entertainment System. In October 2025, Amazon featured a listing of a Nintendo Switch 2 version. Nicalis later revealed that the port will be released on Q1 2026. Expansions Afterbirth McMillen announced The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth, the first expansion for Rebirth, in February 2015. Afterbirth added items, enemies, alternate floors and bosses, and endings (including Greed Mode, which differs from the main game by its focus on money, and is reportedly more difficult). Afterbirth was released on October 30, 2015, for Windows, OS X, and Linux computers. The expansion was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions on May 10, 2016. The expansion is unlikely to be released on any other platforms due to limitations in the platforms' hardware capabilities and Afterbirth more complex mechanics. McMillen had programmed a number of hidden secrets into The Binding of Isaac (which fans were discovering and discussing on a Reddit subforum), and took additional care to hide them in patches and updates. He knew that players would be looking for hidden secrets in Rebirth, and took steps to completely hide the Lost (a new playable character). Unlocking it required a number of steps (including having the player-character repeatedly die in specific circumstances), and hints for what needed to be done were scattered among the game's assets; therefore, McMillen and his team anticipated that it would take a long time before players would discover the Lost. McMillen wanted to hide the Keeper (another character) and elements already hinted at in the game about Isaac's father in Afterbirth, but knew that players would data-mine its program files to find them; instead, he planned an alternate reality game (ARG) which would require players to discover real-world clues. Following additional clues (including locating a buried figure of one of the game's mini-bosses), they unlocked the Keeper and additional in-game items to collect. Although McMillen thought that the ARG ultimately worked out, he would not engage the community in a similar manner again to avoid seeming egotistical. The expansion was released for Windows on January 3, 2017, and for PlayStation 4 on September 19, 2017. The expansion later released to Xbox One as downloadable content on October 24, 2019. The Switch version of the game was released in North America on March 17, 2017, and in Europe and Australia on September 7 of that year. This version includes Afterbirth and Afterbirth+; limited-time launch editions of the game are available physically and digitally, making it the first Nicalis-published game to be released physically. The last two packs include material developed by players who created the Antibirth fan expansion and whom McMillen enlisted. Repentance Before the release of Afterbirth+, The Binding of Isaac: Antibirth (a fan-made mod of Rebirth) was released in December 2016. Similar to the official expansions, Antibirth adds playable characters, bosses, power-ups and other content, and reverts some gameplay aspects (which had been changed in the Afterbirth expansion) to their original Rebirth version. Alice O'Connor of Rock, Paper, Shotgun called the mod "more difficult than [The Binding of Isaac]" and a new challenge compatible with the official game expansions. The expansion was released for PC on March 31, 2021. Repentance was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on November 4, 2021. Repentance+ Announced in 2023, the next expansion was released as an open beta on December 18, 2024 for the 10th anniversary of the game, and features online multiplayer, a much-requested feature from fans of the game. The end of an online match features an arena where players battle one another using items found throughout the run, or preset builds. The expansion also features a number of item and quality of life tweaks, like the highly requested "internal Item Descriptions" feature which was added to the Repentance+ Beta on September 10, 2025. Future development Although McMillen wanted to support the modding community and its expansions as part of The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, he found that several ideas began overlapping with his own thoughts about what a sequel to The Binding of Isaac should be; in addition, further expansion of the game would require him to rework the base game engine. With the last booster packs (containing Antibirth content), he considered The Binding of Isaac complete. He plans to continue to develop The Binding of Isaac franchise; a prequel, The Legend of Bum-bo, was released on November 12, 2019. During an investigation by Kotaku exploring questionable business practices and behavior from Nicalis, McMillen announced that he would sever his working relationship with the company, with Repentance being their final planned collaboration. McMillen recanted his stance with Nicalis in January 2021, citing Rodriguez's adjusted behavior. Nicalis published McMillen's further works, including the console versions of The Legend of Bum-bo in 2022. Nicalis also released the Repentance+ expansion in 2024. == Reception and Legacy ==

According to review aggregator Metacritic, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth received "generally favorable" reviews; the iOS version received "universal acclaim". GameSpots Brent Todd wrote that while the game's story and imagery may be initially disturbing, Rebirth has "speedy, varied gameplay and seemingly never-ending new features" which would keep the player entertained for a long time. Simon Parkin of Eurogamer said that Rebirth "feels like the product of the psychotherapeutic process", but is "the most accessible Rogue-like [game] yet made" due to its easy control scheme and randomization of each run. Nic Rowen of Destructoid said that Rebirth was a great improvement on The Binding of Isaac, "an incredible experience that can't be missed". Afterbirth+ received mixed-to-favorable reviews from critics. Rock, Paper, Shotgun was critical of the DLC's difficulty, which it thought was largely derived from random, untelegraphed enemy behavior. About Afterbirth+ design cohesion, reviewer Adam Smith characterized its DLC as "mashing together existing parts of the game and producing either a weak cover version or a clumsy remix". Review website Beastby criticized Afterbirth+ fairness: "The question isn't always 'Will I enjoy the gameplay loop?' but rather 'How many unfair runs will it take for me to have one in which I stand a chance? The expansion's modding application programming interface was called "a disappointment" by members of the Team Alpha modding group, who expressed frustration with the API's "massive shortcomings" and Nicalis' lack of support. Jeffrey Yu of Game Rant attributed the game's enduring popularity to its accessible and addictive gameplay loop, which allows players to jump in easily while offering depth through countless item combinations and secrets. Yu also highlighted the strength of the fanbase, noting that the Let's Play community on YouTube significantly contributed to the game's success by showcasing its replayability and progressive learning curve while pointing out that the game's inclusion in Steam sales and the developer's previous success with Super Meat Boy helped garner attention, leading to increased daily sales months after its initial release. == Notes ==