Developer Nicalis have revealed some more of the new items and bosses that will be added to The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth †, while Reddit has taken the opportunity to highlight a returning feature mentioned in passing elsewhere.
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The new information comes from developer Tyrone Rodriguez in a post on the Binding of Isaac blog. We’ll go through it in a moment, but for Isaac fans, the bigger news comes via Redditor Gyossaits, who linked to a YouTube videoon thethread associated with Tyrone’s post.
In that video, designer Edmund McMillen (also of Super Meat Boy fame)confirms that you can play the game again after completing the Dark Room. You’ll retain your items, and the game will be harder; essentially, it’s a New Game Plus mode. In Isaac parlance, this is called ‘looping’, and it was present in earlier versions of the game before being removed. There has been no mention yet as to whether players can loop if they pursue the alternate end-game path by going to the Chest instead of the Dark Room.
Back to Tyrone’s post. Via the magical medium of the gif, he discusses three new items in Afterbirth†. First is the Little Horn, which deals damage on collision and has a chance to instantly kill any non-boss enemy. Next is the Poke ‘n’ Go, which has a chance to spawn a friendly enemy on the first visit to a room that contains enemies. No prizes which recently resurgent creature-collecting game inspired this one.
Finally is the ominously named Brown Nugget, a rechargeable item (naturally), which spawns a fly turret. This will select an enemy in radius and shoot it every so often. It seems our news editor Ben may have been closer to the mark than he could’ve known when he wrote the headline for this article earlier this year.
Tyrone concluded the post with a bunch of teases. First up: new bosses. “At least two of the new bosses from Afterbirth will be receiving evolved versions,” says Tyrone. “These aren’t palette swaps or additional attacks on an existing boss, but all-new designs with new art and behaviors.” Suggesting that Edmund won’t let him give too much away, Tyrone concludes with a gif of one of these new bosses:
There’s then a brief mention of ports for other consoles, before a concluding section entitled “SUPER AWESOME STUFF!” that nonetheless doesn’t tell us very much. He says that the Isaac team are “launching a N——”, “planning on putting together a P—”, and “did I mention we already have A——–”. In each case, Edmund cuts him off, promising to tell us more “next time”.
The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth†is due for release before the end of the year. There will be dozens more items, enemies, achievements and other features besides the above, as well as mod support and a bestiary.