Malcolm Owen
Cult indie game The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is now available to download from the App Store, after previously being rejected by Apple over themes of violence towards children.
Developed by Nicalis, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is a remake of a popular game, itself based on a biblical story about Abraham and his son. In the story, God tests Abraham's faith by commanding him to kill Isaac, but an angel steps in before the sacrifice can take place.
In the dungeon-crawling game's retelling, Isaac is a boy trying to escape his mother, who is also trying to sacrifice him. Players must maneuver Isaac through the basement of his home, fighting off enemies and eventually squaring off against his own mother in a final battle.
Nicalis was informed in February last year that Apple had refused the game, advising the app "contains content or features that depict violence towards, or abuse of, children," content that isn't permitted in the App Store. With its latest submission, the game has now been accepted, though accompanied by a 17+ age rating that restricts it to adults.
Developer of the original The Binding of Isaac Edmund McMillen posted on Twitter that the remake had been rejected multiple times from the App Store, but made it in "with no changes made" to the game's content.
Apple is not the only company to have objected to The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth's themes. In 2012, an attempt to port the game to the Nintendo 3DS was blocked by Nintendo over "questionable religious content," though in 2015 it was released on both the handheld game console and the Wii U.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth is priced at $14.99.
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3 Comments
The App Store approval process is not consistent, this is not the first time a previously rejected app was later accepted with no changes.
Interestingly, the original story is often misrepresented. A careful reading of the Bible story and the wider textual context (taking the details at face value) indicates that Isaac was not a child but a grown man at the time of this incident. Abraham himself was by this time very, very old. In the story Isaac carried the wood for the fire up to the top of the mountain. When up there this strong man evidently willingly complied with what his aged father was told to do.