Just had the most intense game of Isaac ever. It was a run with Eve and a few challenge rules (no Brimstone/Mom's Knife, no spending money, complete every room on every floor minus challenge rooms). The game started trolling me right from the get-go, giving me the Poop and a beggar on Basement 1, as well as loading me up with coins. On one floor I wasted 3 or 4 bombs looking for the secret room, finally found it, and got a slot machine. Blew that up, and got a ??? pill that of course had to be Health Down.

Basically what I got was Lard, The Pact, Wire Hanger, Robo Baby, L2 Meat Boy, Halo of Flies, Bob's Rotten Head and Chocolate Milk. I had some soul hearts that lasted me till about Womb 2. From then on, I had to run around with a measly 3 hearts and nothing to give me more. I got some of the tougher Womb 2 rooms (dual Sloth, dual Envy) and not much of a break on hearts, so I just had to not get hit. Thankfully Scolex gave me a health up, but even then it's me vs all of Sheol with 4 hearts.

That floor made me the most nervous I've ever been in this game. Lots of headless horseman rooms, 2 rooms with 6 knights apiece and only a couple of bombs (but I made sure those bombs did some damage), 2 rooms with The Fallen (thank god for Bob's Rotten Head), and I had to face dual Greed 3 times. Halo of Flies and Meat Boy really saved my ass in those rooms. The one break I got was that I only got one room with eye lasers in it.

Somehow, I got to Satan with my 4 hearts intact. At this point my nerves are through the roof because I can only get hit 3 times by this boss. Bob's Rotten Head took care of the Fallen, and Satan 1 is as predictable as ever. Satan 2 though, took a while to kill because Eve wasn't strong. I had to dodge stomps and bomb leeches for a while, and it was very intense. I ended up only getting hit once.



As you can see, I was so nervous I forgot to use The Devil card which I had reserved for Satan.

Phew, that certainly was a game, one I thought I had no chance in hell of winning.

It's finally happened. I have more hours logged played Isaac than I have for SMB. And with Wrath of the Lamb on its way, that gap is only going to widen. The game's very addictive, and it keeps me coming back for more. The only gripe I have with it is certain overpowered items like Brimstone. I really hope that gets weakened, costs more hearts, or becomes more rare. Right now, it obsoletes its more balanced (and rare) version, Technology.

I've been doing challenges to keep things interesting, such as ??? with no devil rooms/boss items/secret rooms/shops. Another interesting challenge is Judas with no teasure rooms/shops/secret rooms, and fully exploring/fighting each floor. With no regen items to speak of, you have to rely on devil deals, which is the last thing you want as Judas. One challenge I don't think I'll do though is no-item Isaac. That's a little too hardcore for me.

Also, is it just me, or is Eve worse than the Blue Baby? She's very frustrating to play as. 1 starting power is such a massive handicap in this game, with the rarity of power-boosting items. Also, her starting items aren't very good if you ask me.

So, what challenges have you guys been doing?

A lot of people are cheating all the achievements to get the Christmas achievement. The bottom 5 (Missile, Demon, Zombie, Girl, Impossible) were at 0.2% and now they're at 0.5%. Tis a sad day.

Would anyone still happen to have the Impossible Boy emoticon?

Edit: Nevermind, got it.

If you look at the global achievements for SMB, you'll see a new achievement, "BBQ Boy". I hope it's not something stupidly hard like beating Expert Remix without dying.

Edit: Could also be related to the Steam summer sale.

Edit 2: Ok, it gave me the BBQ Boy achievement immediately when I loaded the game. The description is: "Spend as little time as possible in Hell". I don't get it.

keyboard, it was awkward at first using left shift to run, but eventualy my fingers got used to it, thumb and index finger. i also recieved carpal tunnel from this game, but like i said, my fingers are now used to it.

You do know you can change the controls, right?

Can you switch a character in level and still complete that level? I know this was posted somewhere, but I can't find the rules for no death achievements.

Yes. You can use that to your advantage and save yourself from a death if you know you're going to die.

People have gotten 100% achievements with both, it really boils down to preference.

Yes, you can use anyone (except Steve and Meat Ninja) and you can switch characters as much as you want. Note that switching characters in a level can also be used to avoid death.

Working on Dark Hell. I hate those fireball things. Well, thank god for Viridian and The Kid. (I just last week found out The Kid can beat 4-3x, so yay!)

4-3x is Char, right? Why would you not use Viridian there?

The last jump on Char (Or it's Light World Counterpart) is somewhat tricky to pull off using Viridian. Even if you can get it down more consistently, I still find it a bit too risky for a no-death run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMFd4RHmhjI

(skip to :55)

I had problems doing the light world version as Viridian (ended up using Meat Boy instead), but the dark world version's pretty easy with him.

And if you'll try to get Girl Boy, you'll soon realize, that it's much easier than Missle/Demon Boy (well, Cotton Alley for sure, Zombie is most anoying to get imo :))

No matter how many times I watch Girl Boy runs, I have a hard time believing this. I die endlessly on Tunnel Blower alone, then having to do levels like Four Letter Word, Train Eater, Pepto, Hopscotch, etc. after that...I don't see how it could possibly be easier than Missile/Demon Boy. Is this assuming Meat Boy only?

Working on Dark Hell. I hate those fireball things. Well, thank god for Viridian and The Kid. (I just last week found out The Kid can beat 4-3x, so yay!)

4-3x is Char, right? Why would you not use Viridian there?

He also said that there's no way to track levels beaten per character, so there won't be any of those achievements in the future.

Steve - Definitely
Meat Ninja - Yes, because he makes Meat Boy obsolete.

This person also has the run, but not the overlay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaxc7IiB1qE

You will never use Ogmo again once you have the Kid, thats what happend to me. I miss ogmo's sprites!

Yeah, it's unfortunate. Even on levels where people have recommended Ogmo over The Kid (like The Red Room [3-3X]), I still find The Kid easier to use. It's a shame because I like Ogmo's animations and sounds.

I really wish his annoying guest commentator would shut up. Couldn't even make it through the first video because of him.