[Update: Full comment from Binding of Isaac creator Edmund McMillen after the jump]

For those who've never heard of the game, The Binding of Isaac is a smart, well designed, randomized little shoot 'em up RPG that's already a big hit on Steam. The game's aesthetic and design both pay homage to the original Legend of Zelda, which is just the start of why the game would have been a perfect fit for the 3DS eShop. Sadly, it looks like the game's "blasphemous" themes are not something that Nintendo will allow on their handheld.

This is insane. Can you imagine if Sony didn't allow the DVDs of the movie Sleepers to play on their TVs or DVD players because they didn't want a movie about childhood sexual abuse to be "associated" with their hardware? That sort of thing would never fly in the world of cinema, but it looks like that kind of thought policing is still acceptable in "lesser" art forms like videogames.

It's a disgusting and sad situation, and I can only hope that something is done soon to change the way both Nintendo, and the industry in general, views the role between the hardware developers and software artists. Videogames as a medium will never reach their full potential if they are continually treated with the kind of fear and disrespect they receive from the gaming industry itself, let alone from outside influences. To see that kind of totalitarian action coming down from one of the industry's most powerful entities is very troubling. This does not bode well for 3rd parties' relationship with Nintendo, or for the immediate future of creative freedom in the medium on the whole.

[Via Edmund McMillen's Twitter]