The Best $4.99 Computer Game You Haven’t Played Yet

Brand new video games come out swinging with a normal retail price of $59.99. It is crazy to think how fast we have all adopted that, paying sixty dollars for a brand new game is now the norm. You would think spending that much money on a single game, you would get a lengthy and significant gaming experience from it.

A game like Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto 5, or my personal favorite Fallout 3 all seem to fit this bill. On average you get about 30-40 hours out of each game, or a heck of a lot more if you wanted to. This seems like the exception, or better than average computer game deal. These three games are all standouts from the crowd.

A majority of the games out there with the $59.99 price tag, frankly just aren’t worth it. Especially when comparing them to the exceptions to the rule listed above. On top of it, a lot of the AAA games released nowadays aren’t even fun to play. There is a lot of regurgitation of the same genres over and over again with little diversity. Over the past few years, this turn and burn of the same old games by AAA publishers have steered me into the refreshing direction of indie games. And because of the lack of AAA worthwhile games, I discovered one of my favorite games of all time; The Binding of Isaac.

The best way to describe The Binding of Isaac is, it’s a twisted version of the original Legend of Zelda. You take on the role of a kid, Isaac, who was trapped in his basement by his Mom. Sure, it sounds weird, but it is flat out fun to play.

If you enjoyed the gameplay of the original Legend of Zelda for the NES, you’ll enjoy this game as the gameplay mechanics are very similar to your favorite Nintendo classic. There are two factors that really make this game stand out as one of my favorites of all time.

1. The Difficulty

Each time you play The Binding of Isaac, you only have one life to beat it. If you die, you start all over again, and so does the game. Each time you play the worlds are randomly generated so every time that you play it becomes a different experience, each being incredibly difficult. There is a learning curve in this game in the form of learning the enemy attack patterns, and understanding what each of the hundreds of items and trinkets do to boost your character, but that is a big part of the appeal.

2. Replay Value

No two play-throughs will ever be the same. This game always keeps you coming back for more. Even after you beat it for the first time, (which is an amazing accomplishment in itself) there is an incredible amount of things to unlock in the game. Because the gameplay is so much fun, you actually want to go through and unlock everything. Every time you play the game, it is a new challenge that surprisingly never gets old.

One word of caution, this game does have some off-color/controversial/weird items and references and also has a unique graphic style that turn some people off, but that is part of the unique charm.

You would expect a game with the depth of The Binding of Isaac to be a $59.99 title, but it is not. The Binding of Isaac is available for $4.99 and after playing hundreds of hours of this game; to say it is worth the price tag is the understatement of the year.