Mario vs. Azazel
My love letter to The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth.
I’ve been wanting to do this piece for a looong time.
Let’s be clear here, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth was easily my favorite game of 2014. I have put (and will continue to put) dozens of hours in it and I wanted to do something to show my love for this game art wise. Usually, when this happens, I do a Mario Versus piece (Guacamelee, Josef from Machinarium are good examples of this) but I had already done one for the original Isaac and I didn’t want to repeat myself. I like my old Isaac piece but I hate that I did it when I was still such a noob at that game that I didn’t know about any of the cooler items in it (I mean, I put Dead Bird in there. Dead Bird. Come on.) so I thought about updating that old piece with new items but I kinda hate revisiting old stuff. So what was the solution? Simple: Rebirth has 11 characters so I just used a character other than Isaac (even though they’re all Isaac technically). I also made it a point to use one of the new characters so I picked Azazel because fuck the Lost and I only used items that are new to Rebirth (except the flies, I guess).
Picking the items was fun. I put some of my personal faves (Dark Buuuuum!) but also a couple that are just cosmetically interesting. Some cool items I had to cut either due to overlap (Tech .5) or because they changed the character too much (Abaddon, Leo, Death’s Touch). I even pixelated the floor to fit the new art style. This piece also is a good example of, compared to the last one, how much better I’ve gotten at effects.
The role reversal compared to the last piece was also fun as I’m always eager to show Mario with an expression other than anger.
Anyway, enough rambling. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is amazing and you should go get it.
PS: I unlocked Godhead today. Woot!