Randomizers are one of the most underrated ways to enjoy the same game you’ve already played, usually shuffling key progression points and making the whole experience a puzzle.
This trend took off with games like Super Metroid, with mods and romhacks being the main way to play randomizers, though a few games incorporate them into the base experience.
The randomizers I’ve chosen have to take a somewhat set experience and shuffle things up while still being beatable. Any points of progression that’d usually be guaranteed get swapped for something else.
I’ve also decided to pick two randomizers for each game on this list, which usually boils down to the normal rando and the Archipelago rando, a multiplayer multi-game randomizer for many games.
10Minecraft
Knocking Out Goals
| Randomizer Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Archipelago | Somewhat customizable, has you knock out Advancements for rewards, which can be crafting recipes or items from other people in other games. |
| MC Randomizer | Fully customizable, allowing for randomized item drops, recipes, structures, and mob spawns, mainly for chaos. |
A Minecraft randomizer might sound like a useless endeavor since Minecraft worlds are already random, but randomizers take that random world and shuffle the progression around.
There are quite a few different randomizers, but I particularly enjoy the Archipelago implementation, namely because you can see what all your friends are doing in other games in the chat.
It randomizes crafting recipes with Advancement unlocks, meaning you have to breed animals for a stone pickaxe or get Elytra for a bunch of rewards in someone else’s game.
It feels similar to Minecraft Bingo, though in an environment that isn’t competitive and with goals that feel less made up. It’s just fun to ration out which achievements you can manage with so few crafting recipes.
9Risk of Rain 2
Slipping Through Stages
| Randomizer Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Archipelago | Very customizable, allows for multiplayer with people playing other games, and has an Explore Mode where you scavenge stages for checks, or Classic Mode, where you simply need to beat the game with more randomization. |
| RoR2Randomizer | Fully customizable, allows every aspect of Risk of Rain 2 to be randomized. All of these randomizers can be toggled on or off, but they only work on a downpatched version of the game. |
Risk of Rain 2 is a roguelike, yet the Archipelago randomizer makes it feel way different, with stages needing to be unlocked through scavenging chests and scouring hidden realms.
Like the previous entry, you can play this in multiplayer with other people playing other games or just do it alone, and I think it’s pretty fun either way. Explore Mode turns the game into a huge scavenger hunt.
Risk of Rain 2 is usually played by just running through every stage, grabbing every item, and leaving, but this randomizer makes you carefully consider all of your options, and explore each stage.
It completely flips the game on its head and feels like a super unique experience, and I think it’s well worth trying out if you’ve gotten bored of the usual Risk of Rain gameplay loop.
8The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
Scattered About
| Randomizer Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Wind Waker Randomizer | Somewhat customizable, allows free travel between all islands from the start of the game, and shuffles every item around, making the game into an exploration-focused open world. |
| Archipelago | The exact same as the above randomizer in theory, but with cross-game multiplayer. In alpha at the time of writing. |
Zelda randomizers are always a great time, though I think Wind Waker is one of the greatest, usually making every island feel more interconnected and puzzling than they are in the base game.
It does require you to do an absolute boatload of traveling around, but I think it’s worth it for a map that has never felt more cohesive, despite it just shuffling all your key items around.
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You can find the Skull Hammer as your first weapon, then be forced to use that to scavenge for the Bow, which you’ll need for solving puzzles that frankly should be way out of your league.
The entire world becomes this massive puzzle that you have to find connections between and figure out, and it’s an endless amount of fun and way less linear than the game usually is.
7Super Mario 64
Getting Slick With It
| Randomizer Name | Description |
|---|---|
| SM64 Randomizer | Fully customizable, randomizes most aspects of Mario 64, including world locations, object locations, colors, star door numbers, and more. |
| Archipelago | Mostly customizable, multi-world randomizer with fewer options than SM64 Randomizer, primarily focused on random rewards for collecting stars with a few options for randomizing star doors, entrances, moves, and keys. |
Mario 64 is known for its open-ended world design, letting you explore in whatever order you wish, which makes the randomizer feel a bit more enticing, as you now have to figure out the fastest stars you can get.
SM64 Randomizer, in particular, goes beyond just shuffling the stars around, but also makes the object placements random, meaning you’ll find stars in completely different locations from usual.
It’s a bit chaotic, and something like the Archipelago randomizer is more toned down, though I find leaning into that chaos and trying to navigate through it is half the fun of this one.
It’s especially cool when you get the caps at random points in progression, meaning you’ll have to strategically pin down all the wing cap-accessible stars or make tricky jumps for those instead.
6AM2R
Built For Fun
| Randomizer Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Community Updates (Built-In) | Slightly customizable, it shuffles items around and removes the lava-blocking progression, leaving most of the world open to you from the start of the game. |
| Archipelago (Unofficial) | Same as above, but in multiplayer with people playing other games. However, it is an unofficial implementation and requires more work to set up than a typical Archipelago game. |
While AM2R might be de-listed, you can still get Community Updates for it if you know where to look, and one of those updates is a built-in randomizer that makes the game open wide up.
Metroid 2 is usually a pretty linear game, sectioning off most of its areas until later in the game and not letting you attempt to navigate them, but the rando removes that restriction.
This makes for a challenging game where you test your luck by diving deep into the underground for better items, or because you’ve completely run out of other options.
It’s like a completely new game that still tests you on the skills you’ve picked up by playing through the normal game, and I can’t recommend it enough, as long as you’ve found a way to experience it.
5Pokémon: Legends Arceus
Shuffled Around
| Randomizer Name | Description |
|---|---|
| pkNX | Very customizable, can randomize trainers, shops, Pokemon, and most encounters in the game, but is very manual and requires a lengthy process to work. |
| Randomized Pokemons | Not customizable, just randomizes wild Pokemon encounters, but is far simpler to set up. |
Pokemon randomizers are typically straightforward, throwing you a few curveballs in the early game but never really evolving past that, but with Legends Arceus in particular, it’s completely different.
You’ve got new requirements for areas, all the items you can find are completely different, and given each Pokémon feels unique in this game, them being randomized makes the experience wild.
You could find an Alpha Lucario in the first area, which means the entire area around them is practically inaccessible until later in the game unless you’ve got an excellent strategy in mind.
It’s great if you want to find some wild encounters early on and have funny moments acquiring gods in the first area, or if you’re looking for a shake-up of the Pokémon game that already shook up the formula quite a bit.
4Stardew Valley
Built-In or Built-Out
| Randomizer Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Bundle Randomizer (Built-in) | Barely customizable, it randomizes the content of the Community Center bundles, including adding brand-new bundles to the mix. |
| Archipelago | Very customizable, allowing randomized unlocks, bundles, entrances, skills, and locations of items. |
Stardew Valley is unique because it has a randomizer for the Community Center bundles built into the base game, which is a pretty great shakeup if you’ve got a few hundred hours in already.
Each bundle can randomly pick from a small pool of items to have, and you can get unique bundles that you’ll never see just playing the base game, though there’s an even more randomized experience out there.
The Archipelago randomizer for Stardew shuffles items into shops, community center rewards, and pretty much anywhere you can get a unique item, and it’s great when you’re playing with friends.
Due to Stardew’s open-ended nature, gunning for any goal in particular only takes around 30 minutes at most, and you have a ton of goals, which will make you the goat of the friend group.
3Kingdom Hearts 2
A Streamlined Maze
| Randomizer Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Kingdom Hearts 2 Randomizer | Fully customizable, it has you start with every world available, allowing for randomized items, unlockable second visits to worlds, random boss locations, random shops, and better-starting abilities and items. |
| Archipelago | Same as above, but in multi-world multiplayer with fewer options, namely missing boss randomization. |
The regular and Archipelago versions of Kingdom Hearts 2 randomizer are mostly the same, but with one having boss randomization and the other letting you play with friends on other games, so pick your poison.
Either way, it’ll put you in the Garden of Assembly, where you can pick any world in the game to go to, either risking higher-level worlds for better loot, or playing it safe and slower in the earlier worlds.
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It feels like playing through an abridged version of Kingdom Hearts 2, hitting all the same beats as before, but making you navigate through these worlds and grab chests as quickly as you can manage.
It’s one of the most fun randomizers to watch speedruns of since runners will be collecting items constantly and using the craziest setups to get through combat for half the game, and it’s great fun to play yourself.
2Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Incredibly Open-Ended
| Randomizer Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Randomizer | Very customizable, allowing for a multitude of different modes and settings, but typically just putting major progression items behind bosses and shuffling every item around the castle. |
| Archipelago | In theory, the same as above, but with multi-game randomization that lets you play with friends in other games. Currently in Beta. |
Metroidvanias are pretty much the entire reason that Randomizers are as popular as they are, and Symphony of the Night is no exception, with every major item getting shuffled around the castle.
There is once again very little difference between the normal and archipelago versions of the rando, as both will have you navigating areas that feel entirely out of your league with items you shouldn’t have yet.
It’s especially cool to play this one in multiplayer, as you can usually brute force or speedrun skip your way through sections if someone needs an item, especially if you’ve stocked up on Life Vessels.
Bouncing around one area of the castle to another feels pretty similar to playing the game for the first time again, and it’s fun for speedrunning if you just want to casually replay the game.
1Hollow Knight
Complete Freedom
| Randomizer Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Randomizer 4 | Fully customizable, allows for randomizing every item, including charms, key upgrades, mask shards, and more, can also randomize rooms and areas, starting positions, or make you do sequence breaks for items. |
| Archipelago | Same as above, but with no room and area randomization options, instead letting you play in multi-world multiplayer. |
Finally, perhaps one of the best Metroidvanias ever, Hollow Knight made its way to the top, since its randomizer is just so damn well-made, with options for room randomization and random starting positions.
Randomizing the rooms and layouts of Hallownest can make things pretty confusing and annoying to navigate for some, but I find it more of a tricky, cool puzzle to solve.
The main attraction to me is having your spawn point set in a random part of the map, with no guarantee that it’ll be safe, and having to claw your way out with whatever items you can find.
Hollow Knight’s items and progression work so well with a randomizer that I’m pretty surprised it’s not a base game feature, it’s akin to playing a new game every time, and gets more fun the more you replay it.
