ABSTRACT
Game designer Edmund McMillen may have had his breakout hit with Super Meat Boy, but The Binding of Isaac was more ambitious in terms of game design. The visual design of the game was both striking and polarizing. Even though the game had a cartoon look, there was a strong focus on gross-out humor and body horror, along with the religious overtones. Isaac literally attacked his enemies by shooting his tears at them. Isaac's movements and shooting were controlled via twin-stick controls. The game's isometric perspective was right out of the original Legend of Zelda, even down to the simple mapping system. The basic gameplay of Isaac was on the simple side, but what McMillen did to keep the game replayable is why it's on this list. Despite Isaac being over seven years old, there has not been another game yet that has managed to get the persistence systems as right as this game does.
