The Binding Of Isaac: Rebirth celebrates 10 year anniversary with online co-op announcement and sale

Double, triple, quadruple bind

Beloved roguelike traumatic-childhood-em-up The Binding Of Issac: Rebirth turned 10 yesterday, and it’s half off on Steam to celebrate. What’s more, maker Edmund McMillen has announced that the foretold online co-op update is due on the 18th of this month, alongside a “considerable” balance update. Consider me considering the considerability of said considerable update!

“Isaac online will feature a full online co-op mode (with completion markers) alongside a considerable balance update that heavily focuses on buffing items you guys believe are lackluster/bad,” Ximbled McMillen. The game has had local mate mode for a while now, but BinHeads have been anticipating this online update since McMillen said it was coming “soon” last year.

“[Y]ou will be able to play with random matches or friends” - four of them - confirmed executive producer Tyrone Rodriguez at the time. Also confirmed were tracked winstreaks, the ability to load up specific seeds, and one item per player for boss rooms and treasure chests.

McMillen’s Xeet also features a load of concept art, boss designs, and storyboards, so worth having a looksie if you’re a real BumHead. “TBOI takes over people's lives, despite being a short and entirely beatable game, because every new combination of random enemies and random items manages to feel like a brand new adventure, infinitely more important than any you've had so far,” wrote Alec Meer (RPS in peace) back in 2014.

McMillen is currently working on Mewgenics - a game I’ve been waiting for since it was announced over a decade ago. The last we saw of the turn-based strategy feline fuse ‘em up was this here shaky cam footage last year. The creator has previously described the game as "like a bunch of things, but not like anything else. It really feels like Final Fantasy Tactics meets Pokémon meets some sort of D&D-type adventure game, with an Animal Crossing hub". Stop. You had me at cats.