For some seasoned fans, the original The Legend of Zelda for the NES has lost some its magic over many, many repeat playthroughs. Luckily, the Zelda Randomizer project has strived to eliminate this staleness by making every playthough of the game a brand new experience. Since its release in March of last year, the Zelda Randomizer has allowed players to customize and randomize several aspects of the Zelda experience, from cave / dungeon locations, to item placements, to enemy spawns. The project recently released its 2.3 update, adding several new features to the mix.

The Zelda Randomizer was launched on March 14 of last year, promising Zelda fans the chance to completely reconstruct the NES original in a variety of ways. A patched NES Zelda ROM, the Randomizer introduces a series of check-boxes that let players shuffle game assets as they see fit. The result is a completely fresh and unique Zelda quest, wherein items, enemies, and locations can be shuffled around. And according to the project’s website, every permutation of the Randomizer can be fully explored and completed.

Over the last year, the project has released consistent updates that improved the experience and added even more crazy features. For example, players now have a choice for randomized hints spoken by the game’s Old Man characters, with some relevant to the current randomized quest, and others humorous quips submitted by the community. Players can also shuffle Link’s sprite, swapping out the hero’s normal appearance with that of an in-game enemy.

Just last week, the Zelda Randomizer released its 2.3 update, which added a ton of cool, new features to play around with. The new features include:

  • Change Start Screen – Link can now start on almost any overworld screen.
  • Change Bomb Upgrade Men – the bomb upgrade men will be shuffled with other old men, possibly moving to other dungeons (dungeons 1-8). I bet you’d like to have more bombs!
  • Change Hungry Goriya – The hungry Goriya can be moved to any dungeon (including 9). He may even block your path to Zelda!
  • Randomize Dungeon Rooms – now rooms can be moved between dungeons (for example, the “reverse C” room may be found in level 4). Now you’ll need better intuition to determine which dungeon you’re in.
  • Allow Other Item to Block 9 – This option allows different items to possibly block level 9, instead of the triforce. Now you may need the Letter or Book to get in, as well as possibly the triforce. For more information, see the Features page (may take a couple of minutes to update).
  • Randomize Boss HP – The boss HP (like regular enemies) can now be changed plus or minus up to 4 HP. Ready for a multi-bomb manhandla?
  • Set enemy HP to 0 – You can set enemy/boss/Gannon HP to 0 now. A single hit can now possibly kill Gannon! Go go gadget wood sword!
  • Blackout – makes the dungeons pitch black. How well do you know your dungeons?
  • New Palettes added!
  • New Link Shuffle sprites – thanks to LEmental for the great work!
  • Random % – now you can customize the features you want in random percent. Each check box has three states – when the checkbox contains a box, that option will be randomly selected as either on or off. Now have fun not even knowing your flags before you start!

With all the fun and craziness offered by this creative project, the Zelda Randomizer continues to breathe new life into the classic game. We only wish had learned of it sooner!

You can try out the Zelda Randomizer yourself by visiting the Zelda Randomizer website right here. The site also offers plenty of useful links, materials, and FAQ’s, as well as ways to support the project.

Are you going to try the Zelda Randomizer for yourself? Have you already finished a quest generated by the Randomizer? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Zelda Randomizer

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