Edmund McMillen’s the Binding of Isaac has been a cornerstone of indie games for a while now; being the quintessential roguelike shooter and Nicalis’ bread and butter. In that game, you played as a sad boy that can shoot at enemies with his tears (most of the time), gathering items that alters his stats and playstyle along the way. One of these items is Bum-Bo, a familiar that grows stronger as he gathers money. He’s a bit of a beloved character, so much so that he now embarks on his own adventure.

The Legend of Bum-Bo is a prequel spin-off to the Binding of Isaac where you play as (you guessed it) Bum-Bo. In search for a coin, Bum-Bo has descended into a world rendered in cardboard, with the horrible yet cutesy monsters and gross-out stuff from his host series. While the Legend of Bum-Bo is still a roguelike, that genre’s combined with match-3 style puzzlers, presenting slower-paced and careful gameplay in contrast to Isaac.

Gameplay has Bum-Bo fiddling around with a puzzle board to fight enemies, sliding tiles to create matches of 3 or more. Matching bone and tooth tiles lets you toss an offensive attack down a lane, while matching booger or poop tiles allows you to defend a lane (through disabling enemies or creating a shield, respectively). Adding more depth to battles is the mana system, where you build up mana for each type of tile you match to use items. Much like Isaac, Bum-Bo offers a large bounty of items to keep gameplay fresh and exciting, presenting players with combo potential as they build up items across their run.

Made in collaboration with James Id, Ridiculon and Jay Fernandes, the Legend of Bum-Bo translates the item combination antics of Isaac into a whole new genre. The Legend of Bum-Bo normally goes for $14.99, but as it released just yesterday, there’s a 10% off launch promotion until the 19th.

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