The best part of playing Mina the Hollower with difficulty modifiers is that I don't have to read tweets about it

I don’t think I’ll ever truly love Mina the Hollower – the nostalgic charm of its retro-mandated clunkiness is lost on me, a man who’s only played Zeldas under duress, and never the GameBoy Colour ones. Liking it, though? Ah ha, now that’s something I can do. I like the character of its pixel-built castles. I like the skittishness of its chiptune melodies. I like how much of a character’s voice comes through in its brief snaps of dialogue. I like the sad beeping of defeated foes as my oversized hammer thwacks them so hard, their corporeal form ceases to exist.

I especially like the difficulty modifiers. Because they let me see more pixel forts and extract more agonal beeps, yes, but also: is filling one’s own game with Action Replay-degree cheats not the most brazenly self-assured stunt that a developer could pull? It’s brilliant. Just a lack of insecurity so absolute that the resulting void is incapable of reflecting light.

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