The Legend of Bum-bo, Edmund McMillen's "puzzle based deckbuilding roguelike" prequel to The Binding of Isaac, arrived in November 2019, and was pretty good stuff: "A fun blend of puzzle and roguelike that inspires forward-thinking, but cuts your strategy short," we said in our 72% review.
A handful of small updates followed, but almost a year passed between the last of them, in December 2019, and "a long overdue update" in November 2020, in which McMillen explained the long silence, apologized for the "lack of transparency and seemingly abandoning the project." He also said that new DLC was in the works that would add "a few new alt bosses, new items, a few features that were on your most wanted list and a new playable character, Bum-bo the Lost."
That update, called The Lost Expansion, is now live on Steam, and free for all players. As planned, it includes a new playable character called The Lost, a new type of tile called "Ghost Tiles," a trio of new bosses, more than ten new unlockable items, new challenges and achievements, improved audio, and the ability to save and resume your progress mid-game.
"I know its been a long horrible year since this game released and i hope this free update can act as a peace offering from us to you, the players!" McMillen wrote.
The expansion also makes a number of quality of life improvements:
- Added ability to view your current spells and trinkets when choosing new ones
- Added ability to view descriptions for your current trinkets
- Added ability to cancel when replacing a spell/trinket or purchasing a shop item
- Game options menu is now accessible from the pause screen
- Improved visual and sound feedback for critical hits
- Improved cursor feedback for the puzzle board and other UI elements
- Added 'Random Bum-bo' option to the character select screen
- Many bug fixes to spells and enemy behaviors
- Dozens of minor improvements to player UI and other visual details
The Legend of Bum-bo is on sale on Steam for $7.49/£5.69/€6.24 until March 12.
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