Reason: Questionable Religious Content.

A very biased article response that makes some points that made me smile:
http://www.gamefront.com/questionable-religious-content/

Personally I find much of that to be true, if you're not positive about religion (especially Christian and Jewish based faiths) you get crapped on hard in the US. Also, Christians have a serious persecution complex over here. I'm sure there's exceptions but most folks I talk to really do think they are the minority and that they're getting steamrolled by a pagan government.

I honestly don't blame Nintendo for this, they're doing it out of self preservation. If certain groups of people would grow the hell up then there'd be no negative press for Nintendo to be scared of.

Nintendo is the media's video game darling, I'm not sure even FOX could be genuinely venomous towards them.

I think it's Nintendo protecting not just their squeaky-clean image, but the experience the public has come to expect them to provide. The fact that they even considered the game tells me that they are a company that is desperate to branch out of their universe, while remaining at odds with idealism that made them who they are.

And I know the big N has had products like Madworld and RE4 that have been violent, but I think this is different. The Binding of Isaac is grotesque in a way that makes you discuss its meaning. Is it anti-Christian, or a commentary on paranoid schizophrenia, an observation of mental defense to child abuse, or even an artist's rendition of innate body horror?

Questionable religious content is a pretty succinct catchall, but I think the denial goes beyond mere religious ethics. I think that Nintendo is afraid of being associated with a game that pushes the status quo, a game that isn't afraid to illicit intriguing conversation through grotesque theme. Nobody has to think when Mario jumps around or Link swings his sword. The good/evil lines are clear and everyone can smile at the end. In the Binding of Isaac, what you do at the end is stroke your chin and question your experience.

The worst part is not denying it because of the content but denying it when they have a pretty dull lineup right now. Might've had more sympathy in a few years when there's a glut of good games and not like right now when the only interesting stuff is their 20th variation on a couple storied franchises.

One kind of enemy was a giant walking vagina that shot blood lasers at you.

This was never going to cut it on a Nintendo system.

Even on the e-Shop?

EDIT: Wait, wtf, didn't Nintendo publish Manhunt 2 on the Wii? I'm pretty sure that puts your whole argument back in question. It might really have had nothing to do with the extreme body horror in the game and everything to do with exactly what Nintendo said: the unfavorable (to Christians and Jews in this case, though the dev grew up Christian, so primarily them) religious content.

I'm not too surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised.

I'm not even buying that. There's plenty of e-shops that sell adult only material and do so via credit card verification and other means. I haven't taken a look at Nintendo's 3DS e-Shop, it's probably anemic right now, you can bet there will be (if there isn't already) a variety of violent titles to choose from.

There's a big difference between violence compared to religion and sex in the United States culture.

Doesn't make much sense, but it's AOKAY for a child to watch a violent movie where people are torn in half by machine guns, but it's bad for a child to see religious symbolism or boobies.

Well, Nintendo always did that. Even on DuckTales they replaced crosses with RIPs in the Transsylvania level.

Terranigma was never released in NA for the same reason.

Funny thing is, if you replaced some religious content the game looks like something fucked up only Japanese people can think up.

I'm not surprised. Of all the games ever made, The Binding of Isaac is easily the second-most unlikely to be accepted by Nintendo. Submitting it to them is something between a publicity stunt and a shot in the dark. It would play well on a DS though, if they improve the performance.

On the other hand, this little indie game probably got lots of publicity for its PC and Mac (and possible future IOS/Android?) versions of the game with this stunt. Maybe it was intentional from them to try to get their "sicko" game rejected by e.g. Nintendo, of all game companies.

I haven't heard about the game and what it is about before (which is not saying much, as I don't follow (Steam-only) indie games that closely anyway), but now I have.

Bad press is the best kind of press!