The Binding of Patrick: 02/24/2014

Hah that's some good stuff.

You win!

I like "Shootin' the Shit with Scoops!" as a title for this feature. I guess that's just because I'm a 22 year old toddler.

I wouldn't say that I've come to any conclusions about how to handle this feature in the future, only that I'm paying attention to reaction to the feature, and keeping that in mind!

I don't disagree, but it's a very, very poor descriptor. If someone you knew had never heard of spelunky, but knew about ToME or Nethack, would the best description you could come up with it it's like those games?

The music after you kill a boss is too good.

Boy this game is duuuuuuumb

It's not the same without that epic Spelunky intro music, but I'll learn to love it. :3

Yes! I've been looking forward to watching you play this Patrick. One of my favorite games of all time.

Love this game.

Holy shit, Patrick and the Letter G are friends again!!!

Never thought I'd have to cry on piles of excrement for money, but here we are.

I'm a Christian and this game doesn't bother me. (When I say I'm a Christian, I do my best to live it; not just label myself.) Honestly, I actually really like this game; I just suck at it and have far too many other games to play.

So this looks like..old Legend of Zelda ? Neat.

This game is incredible. Mechanically, Spelunky is perhaps tighter, but this nudges ahead for me in terms of personal preference (they're both right up there among my favourites though). While there is a little more randomness to how items can affect a run in Isaac, a really good player will be able to consistently beat the game every time even with terrible luck, and that's an impressive feat of design. It also has the benefit of nothing causing instant death (like the spikes do in Spelunky), although those moments can be funny to watch. I do hope Scoops sticks with this: there really is plenty to be watched in terms of the skill curve.

Honestly I never even considered the nature of the content when I first played it, but I can understand why it might bother some people for gratuitous or religious reasons. My brain just never registered any of that, I liked the simple design and it felt cohesive. Plus, it may be some disturbing things being depicted, but everything in this game is somehow so cute (see Patrick's reaction during Gemini). Also agreed on Isaac having some of the best music around, Danny Baranowsky does great work.

Put that on the back of the box!

Never seen any Binding of Issac, but immediately that intro screen music is just as - if not slightly more - awesome than Spelunky's.

Ed: Having watched it now, I don't see how deep this can go. I love the themes, the imagery, the music; all are beautiful. However on first impression, there doesn't seem to be anything like the learning curve or random death syndrome that makes Spelunky so interesting to watch over and over again. About half way through, every time he died I just thought, 'fuck's sake, I've got to watch him beat that boss again?'

I'll stick with it, see how it plays out. Maybe I'm seeing a lack of incentive/goals to achieve as a long running feature? There's no monetary challenge, the enemies didn't get any more interesting for me, the level of required strategy - and therefore creative discussion amongst us viewers - seems to be almost nil in comparison, and I didn't feel there was any particular risk to Patrick dying other than having to watch him do it again.

I'm by no means insulting the game itself, just skeptical of it's ability to hold me in as a GB feature.