If you don’t already know what The Binding of Isaac is about, it’s a bit touchy to explain. You’re a small boy trapped in a basement full of monsters, and… look, just check out the description on Steam, okay? What’s important now is that as of last year, it’s also a card game, and now you can find it on store shelves in the United States.
The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls was a runaway success on Kickstarter last year, pulling in $2.6 million (£2.2 million) for a goal of a mere $50,000. Backers were after various editions of the Binding of Isaac card game, designed by Edmund McMillen, the creator of the original game (and, full disclosure, I was among those backers).
Now fans in the US can find the game at their local Target, thanks to a retail publishing deal between McMillen, Studio71, and the superstore chain. You can also order the retail edition from Target.com.
The retail edition features three exclusive new Soul cards to the game, including the Soul of Greed and the Soul of Gluttony. Yes, it’s a cheerful game about crying children and the concepts of sin and the afterlife.
As in The Binding of Isaac, players each pick a character and set off on a quest for pennies and powerful loot, fighting monsters along the way. The first player to finish a turn with four souls is the winner, and the game encourages both cooperation and backstabbing.
The retail version also comes in an updated box. The Kickstarter editions were packed in a long, narrow box, while the new retail edition comes in a more conventionally-shaped shallow, flat box.
Both versions feature tons of new Binding of Isaac artwork, plus a couple of dice and 100 plastic “pennies” to use in the game.
“Designing and kickstarting this game was one of the high points of my career,” McMillen said in a press release. “The success of the Kickstarter was amazing and it feels great to release the game in retail.”