Time for another Kim Justice video post! It is Monday, after all. Today I've got two games that are more classics from the generation just gone by than anything else, although they do have a fair touch of the retro stylings about them, and chances are pretty good that you know them quite well. They are Super Meat Boy and The Binding Of Isaac, two highly popular games from the mind of Ed McMillen. As ever, the video can be seen right here:
Both games are something I've wished to put down on video for a while, if only because of the amount of time that I spent on the pair of them -- both games dominated my life for months, and that's certainly not a period of time that I regret losing. Super Meat Boy does certainly have its retro touchings, mind you -- the initials speak for themselves, there's the 8-bit, Game Boy and Atari-styled levels, the cutscenes that parody classic games like Street Fighter II, Adventures of Lolo and Mega Man amongst others...there's a lot of nostalgia bolts there, although the game itself is a very fast-paced and challenging modern platformer with around about 300 quickfire blasts of fun to get through, and a whole host of secrets to find.
Binding of Isaac is another matter -- a somewhat grotesque at times, scatological others and visceral more so than anything title that has its roots more in Ed McMillen's religious upbringing more than the games and comics he loved, although it is a curious game that plays like Robotron and The Legend of Zelda getting into a bar fight. One of those games that almost lasts forever due to the random nature of it and how no single playthrough of it is the same, it's one that easily dominates lives if it gets its nails in...as shown by the millions of copies it has sold. But while neither of these are particularly retro, they'll always remain among my own favourites and some of the best times I've had gaming -- hopefully that's what people get from the video. Enjoy!