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The Binding of Isaac 3DS REJECTED [Up: Now looking into Sony Platforms]

Kusagari

Member
Heheh..
I'd say that it wouldn't surprise if the game does appear (in some way or the other) in other platforms/consoles; even more with this and upcoming generation which seems to be a race of who can get more digital and exclusive content on their platforms.

Only way it's appearing is if it's censored, and I can't see McMillen agreeing to that.
 

Joni

Member
Heck, Sony rejected BMX XXX back then because of boobs and ass; while the game was allowed like that on the GameCube. Granted, is not like the game was good anyway. :p
The game did get released on the PS2. IT even appeared a week before the GameCube version.
 

Ridley327

Member
The game did get released on the PS2. IT even appeared a week before the GameCube version.

I think he's referring to the game being initially rejected by Sony until they made the content edits, not that they blocked entirely from release.
 

Joni

Member
I think he's referring to the game being initially rejected by Sony until they made the content edits, not that they blocked entirely from release.

Ah, I never noticed it because the European version wasn't censored. (Always amazed at the differences between SCEA and SCEE, for instance the hate for 2D games at SCEA and the insane QA checks at SCEE)
 

eXistor

Member
Goddammit Nintendo, I was holding off playing it 'till the 3DS release. Ain't happening now. I hate the PC controls and the Xbox pad works like ass for it, but it'll have to do I suppose...
 

stuminus3

Banned
Well played, Edmund. Submit a game to Nintendo that has no chance ever in a million years of ever being accepted, then get your name all over the press with the news that they rejected it. Smart man.
 

boiled goose

good with gravy
And this is yet another reason why gaming on open platforms is the superior option.

Of course.

People bashing nintendo and asking for a Vita port are insane.
No way this is getting released by Sony in its current form. They are stricter than nintendo when it comes to censoring.

I probably would be pulled from iOS once the first headline hits.
 

Zekes!

Member
I feel like if BoI had a prior M rating it'd be potentially fine, or if it was a retail release (which it never would be of course).
 

Natiko

Banned
Yeah cause we know Sony and Microsoft would totally allow a game that would upset religious groups on their services.

As I said before, there's been times when Sony/MS censored third party games, and Nintendo didn't censor at all. Nintendo allowed naked breasts in the GameCube version of BMXXX (not just in the gameplay, but live action video of real breasts) when Sony threaten to ban the game if it had nudity.

But people are stuck in the SNES days and want to only remember when Nintendo censored mortal kombat.

A bit late responding, just now got around to checking GAF again. I never once stated that Nintendo was more or less inept than either Sony or Microsoft, that's all an assumption you made. I simply stated that Nintendo has managed to show that they are inept.
 
Goddammit Nintendo, I was holding off playing it 'till the 3DS release. Ain't happening now. I hate the PC controls and the Xbox pad works like ass for it, but it'll have to do I suppose...

If you have a Bluetooth adapter I would use that and try the classic controller.
 

Ridley327

Member
Is there any guarantee this would even get past ERSB/PEGI?

It's not an issue of getting past the ESRB; you can submit any game to the ESRB as long as you have the cash. The issue is that it's a potentially AO-rated title, which no console manufacturer will allow on their systems.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
It's to bad for the devs. Luckily, I already have the steam version and didn't like it much. It's still baffling that religion is still an issue to Nintendo. Even more strange when you take into account that Atlus has been able to put Megaten games on the DS and these do have religious undertones.
 

Boney

Banned
It's to bad for the devs. Luckily, I already have the steam version and didn't like it much. It's still baffling that religion is still an issue to Nintendo. Even more strange when you take into account that Atlus has been able to put Megaten games on the DS and these do have religious undertones.

yeah
 

Kusagari

Member
It's to bad for the devs. Luckily, I already have the steam version and didn't like it much. It's still baffling that religion is still an issue to Nintendo. Even more strange when you take into account that Atlus has been able to put Megaten games on the DS and these do have religious undertones.

You obviously haven't played Binding of Isaac. The game goes far beyond the religious 'undertones' of many JRPGs.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
Does MegaTen directly reference Christianity?

The recent games do not but you still have demons and some biblical figures like the horsemen of the apocalypses and the harlot (whore of Babylon). It also shows angels and the messiah under a negative light as controlling figures that brainwash people into joining their cult while Lucifer is shown as the most interesting option. All of this in SMT Strange Journey on the DS.

You obviously haven't played Binding of Isaac. The game goes far beyond the religious 'undertones' of many JRPGs.

I did? I beat it and I even shared my savefile with GAF so they could get the achievement during the steam winter objectives. Can we please ban this attack? Oh no you don't agree with me you obviously didn't play the game. It's annoying and counterproductive to the discussion.
 

Kusagari

Member
I did? I beat it and I even shared my savefile with GAF so they could get the achievement during the steam winter objectives. Can we please ban this attack? Oh no you don't agree with me you obviously didn't play the game. It's annoying and counterproductive to the discussion.

It's not an attack. I seriously don't know what to say if you can't see the differences between the two after playing BoI. Especially in regards to America.
 

Instro

Member
Sadly I don't think any of the console manufacturers would allow this game on their services. It possibly getting an AO rating, and the offensive nature of its religious aspects make it very difficult

It's to bad for the devs. Luckily, I already have the steam version and didn't like it much. It's still baffling that religion is still an issue to Nintendo. Even more strange when you take into account that Atlus has been able to put Megaten games on the DS and these do have religious undertones.

The introduction to Binding of Isaac portrays Isaac's mother as an insane Christian who hears voices from God telling her to abuse and then kill her son, which she follows with blind devotion. Being outright offensive to specific groups, particularly religious ones, is a far different problem then a narrative involving the player killing an "evil god".
 

Enco

Member
Yeah, as much as I would have liked this game on the eShop, anyone who thought this stood a chance on anything other than PC was deluding themselves. I wouldn't be so quick to accuse Nintendo of being too controlling; I strongly doubt Microsoft or Sony would have allowed this game on their platforms either.
This.

I didn't buy the game partly because it looks boring and partly because I think the story behind it is moronic.
 

Codeblue

Member
The recent games do not but you still have demons and some biblical figures like the horsemen of the apocalypses and the harlot (whore of Babylon). It also shows angels and the messiah under a negative light as controlling figures that brainwash people into joining their cult while Lucifer is shown as the most interesting option. All of this in SMT Strange Journey on the DS.

You don't see the difference between that and a game that shows an insane Christian mother trying to kill her kid?

Edit: Instro pretty much covered what I was getting at. There's a difference between alluding to the bible and creating fiction around it and what BoI is portraying.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
The introduction to Binding of Isaac portrays Isaac's mother as an insane Christian who hears voices from God telling her to abuse and then kill her son, which she follows with blind devotion. Being outright offensive to specific groups, particularly religious ones, is a far different problem then a narrative involving the player killing an "evil god".

In my view both can be viewed as offensive. SMT games pretty much paint chrisitianity as a cult and something negative too. The path associated to them is as violent as the one associated for the demons for instance and they ask you to kill in the name of angels and god.

If you want to censor things you have to be consistent. Personally I think it's questionable to censor one and not the other.
 
The game did get released on the PS2. IT even appeared a week before the GameCube version.

Yeah, Sony required censorship, as was said. Microsoft did too, in fact -- only the Gamecube version is uncensored. Another similar case is Conker's Bad Fur Day, where the N64 version had only minimal censorship, while the Xbox remake had every single swear censored over. I'm sure there are some other such examples as well. Usually when Nintendo-platform versions of third party titles are tamer it's because of publisher self-censorship; Nintendo is quite rarely involved. This has been true since late 1994 and the launch of the ESRB system, and people still don't get it just because Nintendo's own games are never M rated? It's kind of annoying... I mean, when Nintendo approved entirely uncensored releases of Doom and Mortal Kombat 2 for SNES in 1995, I'd think that people would realize that the era of Nintendo banning such things that had previously existed was over. Just because Nintendo doesn't make such things in house doesn't mean they've blocked third parties from releasing them ever since the ESRB rating system came into being, besides for the AO rating ban that all console manufacturers have of course, and stuff like this game that none of them would approve either, and a few other specific cases.

So yeah, while religious content is different from swearing or nudity, I don't expect Sony or MS to approve this for their consoles either, if they try, for the same reason Nintendo didn't.
 

Ridley327

Member
In my view both can be viewed as offensive. SMT games pretty much paint chrisitianity as a cult and something negative too. The path associated to them is as violent as the one associated for the demons for instance and they ask you to kill in the name of angels and god.

If you want to censor things you have to be consistent. Personally I think it's questionable to censor one and not the other.

Realistically, it's not just about the religious content; it's the entire package, and you'd be hard-pressed to successfully argue that the SMT games step over that line like Binding of Issac does. I know SMT has its fair share of weird stuff, but vaginas that shoot blood? Your character stabbing himself in the head with a wire hanger to power up? Even without the juxtaposition of the religious connotations, that's some extreme stuff.
 

sfried

Member
This is why I dislike Nintendo and their brand, because of their policy on the values of the content available on their platform being judged and controlled by them. It's in my opinion quite counter-intuitive that a platform holder actually narrows the potential expressions of that platform's content, because Nintendo holds the opinion that no one should ever be offended by the controversial content: No swear words, no nudity, no religious statements/criticism, etc.
You know everything you've said is just bullshit? Nintendo has released games on their system with swear words, suggestive themes and even nudity, and even Sin & Punishment had some references to God or another?

I wonder where people draw the line between "censorship" and "outright religion bashing"? I mean, it's like asking publishers if they want to releae a Columbine Simulator or something like that.
 

Instro

Member
In my view both can be viewed as offensive. SMT games pretty much paint chrisitianity as a cult and something negative too. The path associated to them is as violent as the one associated for the demons for instance and they ask you to kill in the name of angels and god.

If you want to censor things you have to be consistent. Personally I think it's questionable to censor one and not the other.

I've played my share of the SMT games but I don't think the storylines present there are nearly as blatant as BoI. BoI is pretty cut and dry about its message and the way it bashes religion/Christians. Retail vs DD probably plays a role in it as well, and it obviously doesn't help that BoI hadn't already been rated by the ESRB.

Realistically, it's not just about the religious content; it's the entire package, and you'd be hard-pressed to successfully argue that the SMT games step over that line like Binding of Issac does. I know SMT has its fair share of weird stuff, but vaginas that shoot blood? Your character stabbing himself in the head with a wire hanger to power up? Even without the juxtaposition of the religious connotations, that's some extreme stuff.

His later tweets seem to indicate that Nintendo was fine with all that stuff. Perhaps they were not entirely honest with him though.
 

Kusagari

Member
I've played my share of the SMT games but I don't think the storylines present there are nearly as blatant as BoI. BoI is pretty cut and dry about its message and the way it bashes religion/Christians. Retail vs DD probably plays a role in it as well, and it obviously doesn't help that BoI hadn't already been rated by the ESRB.



His later tweets seem to indicate that Nintendo was fine with all that stuff. Perhaps they were not entirely honest with him though.

I think that it's when you combine all that stuff in the one package. I mean the stabbing in the head with a wire hanger is basically the game mocking abortion. It's just the entire package that combines into this thing that's just unpublishable in America.
 

JJD

Member
It's flash, so you have to use a workaround like JoyToKey or Xpadder. It'll take 20 seconds to set up. Also, it's not Team Meat. If Tommy had worked on the game, you'd probably have your controller support.

Do they work on a mac?
 

Ridley327

Member
His later tweets seem to indicate that Nintendo was fine with all that stuff. Perhaps they were not entirely honest with him though.

On paper, it's not that much more extreme than some games they've published, like Conker's Bad Fur Day or even Eternal Darkness (which also has its fair share of anti-religious sentiments). But I think that taken as a whole, it's a game that really didn't stand a chance of getting a M-rating from the ESRB and I think that at the end of the day, that's all they're really concerned with. Nintendo may not actually have that much of a problem with the religious content, but they know enough to know that it's that much of a tipping point beyond the M.
 
This is so fucking stupid. Quality and artistic merit of the game aside, whenever game companies pull shit like this, they're taking choice away from the consumer. What the hell's the point of ESRB ratings and parental controls on consoles if they're gonna act like this?

Situations like these make me appreciate titles like Xenogears or even El Shaddai so much more. It's kind of amazing that we got those.
 

Instro

Member
On paper, it's not that much more extreme than some games they've published, like Conker's Bad Fur Day or even Eternal Darkness (which also has its fair share of anti-religious sentiments). But I think that taken as a whole, it's a game that really didn't stand a chance of getting a M-rating from the ESRB and I think that at the end of the day, that's all they're really concerned with. Nintendo may not actually have that much of a problem with the religious content, but they know enough to know that it's that much of a tipping point beyond the M.

Yeah I think that pretty much sums it up. In any case, its probably not something I would have double dipped on. I put enough time into the PC release already.
 

angelfly

Member
This is so fucking stupid. Quality and artistic merit of the game aside, whenever game companies pull shit like this, they're taking choice away from the consumer. What the hell's the point of ESRB ratings and parental controls on consoles if they're gonna act like this?

Situations like these make me appreciate titles like Xenogears or even El Shaddai so much more. It's kind of amazing that we got those.

Game wasn't rated by the ESRB yet and even if it was it would have most likely been AO in which case they wouldn't have had to bother bringing it to Nintendo.
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
This is so fucking stupid. Quality and artistic merit of the game aside, whenever game companies pull shit like this, they're taking choice away from the consumer. What the hell's the point of ESRB ratings and parental controls on consoles if they're gonna act like this?

Situations like these make me appreciate titles like Xenogears or even El Shaddai so much more. It's kind of amazing that we got those.

It would be hard to see an A-O rated game on the Nintendo store, though.
 
It would be hard to see an A-O rated game on the Nintendo store, though.

Game wasn't rated by the ESRB yet and even if it was it would have most likely been AO in which case they wouldn't have had to bother bringing it to Nintendo.

This is a whole another issue that I think is completely ridiculous. Why is an AO rating the kiss of death? What's the point of even having it then? I'm surprised no retailer has stepped up to fill the void left by all other suppliers. Of course I'm not saying that an AO rating on its own makes a game worth playing, but (again) don't take the damn choice away from the consumer.
 

Ridley327

Member
This is a whole another issue that I think is completely ridiculous. Why is an AO rating the kiss of death? What's the point of even having it then? I'm surprised no retailer has stepped up to fill the void left by all other suppliers. Of course I'm not saying that an AO rating on its own makes a game worth playing, but (again) don't take the damn choice away from the consumer.

There's about two dozen games rated AO, and they're nearly all PC titles.

Think of it in terms of the perception of the NC-17 rating in films; the big, mainstream theaters won't carry them and mainstream papers won't advertise them, but they can still get made and there are theaters that will play them and there are publications that will advertise them.
 
There's about two dozen games rated AO, and they're nearly all PC titles.

Think of it in terms of the perception of the NC-17 rating in films; the big, mainstream theaters won't carry them and mainstream papers won't advertise them, but they can still get made and there are theaters that will play them and there are publications that will advertise them.

No console manufacturer allows AO titles on their platforms.
 
Would unrated be better than A-O from a sales perspective? Both are things retail channels won't take...

Anyway [re:the game getting rejected], like most things Edmund McMillen related I feel this is making a mountain out of a molehill (or ends up overblown that way).
 
There's about two dozen games rated AO, and they're nearly all PC titles.

Think of it in terms of the perception of the NC-17 rating in films; the big, mainstream theaters won't carry them and mainstream papers won't advertise them, but they can still get made and there are theaters that will play them and there are publications that will advertise them.

Yeah, that's a good analogy. I just hate that works with such ratings commercially become a liability, so limits are set on creative-freedom when making new stuff.
 

Nairume

Banned
I don't think Strange Journey really presents religion in that much of a negative light, because the whole point is that it is supposed to give you an argument for each side and let you make the decision as to which one to follow. If you find the argument for the Lawful side, then you are free to see it for being positive and follow that path through the game's finale. If you don't, then you don't have to take it.

Not to mention that Mastema is actually super supportive most of the way through, while Lucifer just shows up to harass you most of the time.

Binding of Isaac doesn't give you the opportunity to see things from the other side. It just presents the game's sole religious character as being an psychopath being driven to murder her own son because God is telling her to.
 

cj_iwakura

Member
Yes, it's not like they certified Manhunt 2 for the Wii. This game would without question be rated Adults Only by the ESRB and therefore be refused by all 3 platform holders.

I'm sure you're being sarcastic, but contrary to popular belief, religious content does not affect ESRB ratings. This is all Nintendo being jerks.
 

fernoca

Member
I'm sure you're being sarcastic, but contrary to popular belief, religious content does not affect ESRB ratings. This is all Nintendo being jerks.
Then until Sony and Microsoft go and allow this game, they're also "jerks" because they're even recalled games with islamic chants for to avoid problems.

And this is not just a matter of "religious content" as in someone insulting God in one scene or whatever.There are games that are more.."abstract" when it comes to said topics (like the Shin Megami Tensei) games which even have characters "committing suicide"; and others that is seen as a parody with overt eh top violence (liek God of War); but as noted already:

Instro said:
The introduction to Binding of Isaac portrays Isaac's mother as an insane Christian who hears voices from God telling her to abuse and then kill her son, which she follows with blind devotion. Being outright offensive to specific groups, particularly religious ones, is a far different problem then a narrative involving the player killing an "evil god".

This is not just Nintendo censoring blood or fuck or whatever; none of the three main console/handheld manufacturers allow for said content on their hardware.
 
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