Pokemon Nuzlocke Challenge

I just heard about the Nuzlocke challenge a few days ago and I thought it sounded very cool and exciting. So basically, it is just a way to play through a regular Pokemon game, where you have to challenge yourself on several levels and the difficulty is somewhat harder.

The basic rules of the Nuzlocke Challenge is:

1. You can only catch the first Pokemon you encounter in any area, and if the Pokemon faints or flees, you will not be able to catch any Pokemon from that area. And you must nickname every Pokemon you catch.

2. Any Pokemon that faints is considered dead, and must be released (or it can be put in a special box, but it cannot be used).

There are many other variations and rules, but these are much up to the user to decide.

Here are some of the optional rules:

• Adjusting the first encounter rule to ban duplicate captures.
• Considering a black out/white out to be "game over," even if there are Pokémon left in the PC.
• Going to options and making the battle style "set". Making you unable to switch out between your foes' Pokémon.
• Banning the use of potions and healing items, relying only on Pokémon Centers for healing.
• Banning the use of Pokémon Centers, relying only on potions and healing items for healing.
• Limiting Pokémon Center visits to a certain number per town.
• Banning the use of held items.
• Limiting the number of Poké Balls to purchase per Poké Mart.
• Banning the use of Master Balls.
• Rather than releasing the Pokémon, it can be migrated or permanently boxed should it happen to faint.
• The player may not evolve captured Pokémon, but evolved Pokémon may be caught.
• No catching/using of legendaries.
• As a mercy rule, allowing 1-3 "second chances" or revives of fallen team members

This way of playing Pokemon was invented by a person who was bored and had played through the same Pokemon game over and over again, and so he wanted to make it more fun and more difficult. What he had not expected though, was that he grew very fond of his Pokemon, and got attached to them in a new way. So that is also one of the intentions of playing Pokemon in this way. However, this can actually work against its purpose, because if you lose a lot, and have to start over again many times, you will not gain the same attachment to your Pokemon as if you were playing and training them over a longer period of time.

I just started playing the Nuzlocke Challenge, and it is hard, I really don't like to loose. Unfortunately I had to release one of my favorite Pokemon, and that really sucked. But it also made me a lot more careful when battling, and it really did make the game more interesting to play.