Pokemon just got much much harder

December 3, 2011 5:47 PM

Rule no. 1: Catch the first Pokemon you encounter in each route/cave/whatever and nothing else. If you fail to catch it, too bad, continue onwards. Rule no. 2: If your Pokemon faints, consider it dead and release it. In 2010 a 4chan user posted these rules for making Pokemon more of a challenge, as well as a short comic on his exploits in a world where Pokemon can die. The "Nuzlocke" comic became wildly popular, spawning dozens of elaborate offshoots in comic and story form.

Nuzlocke users have their own forum for posting and discussing their challenges. Many have added extra rules to make their challenges harder. Some Nuzlocke enthusiasts have even hacked roms to spice up the challenge, randomizing the world's Pokemon, making the actual game much harder, or adding in entirely new Pokemon.

posted by melissam (15 comments total)

I guess this is the place where I admit I play Pokemon at 25. I went home for Thankgiving and promptly got sick. Only my old DS and a copy of Heartgold + Nuzlocke challenge saved me from utter boredom. I felt like a kid again.
posted by melissam at 5:51 PM on December 3, 2011

This actually sounds like a somewhat interesting challenge (though, not much of a challenge, considering how easy the games are). When I play Pokémon, I almost always wind up using my starter exclusively. That is, until I decided that was kind of boring, so I use a cheat to give myself an EXP Share (gives whatever Pokémon has the item equipped EXP from any battle fought, even if it didn't take part in the battle) and some Lucky Eggs (increases the amount of EXP one receives after battle). I lack the patience required to train each and every Pokémon in my party individually, largely because the game moves so slow. When I emulate the older games, I always assign the speed up command to a shoulder button on my controller so I can keep my finger pressed on it and have the game move at like, 50x the original speed. I don't know why they don't include this kind of option in modern Pokémon games, because even those are slow as all fuck.
posted by Redfield at 6:01 PM on December 3, 2011

I am both slightly relieved and extremely disappointed this has nothing to do with Herman Cain's apparent Pokemon obsession.
posted by item at 6:30 PM on December 3, 2011 [5 favorites]

I'm just upset that Cain won't admit to playing Pokemon.
posted by melissam at 7:06 PM on December 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I guess this is the place where I admit I'm turning 40 and have never played Pokemon.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 7:13 PM on December 3, 2011 [2 favorites]

I was positive before I checked that there would be a Nuzlocke subreddit. It has more users than the CFL subreddit, which I think makes it an official sport.
posted by Gary at 8:17 PM on December 3, 2011

I bought Black when it came out. It was my very first Pokemon game ever, at the age of 28. And I just beat the Elite Four last night.

And found out that when you beat the Elite Four the game's not over and there's a ton more stuff to do and they gave me another pokedex and I hadn't even filled up the FIRST one and now I'm like what, I need to catch HOW MANY? I think I'll just fill the Unova dex and that's it... unless I end up going on a road trip or something and I need to kill time. Pokemon is good for that.

(It took me this long to beat the Elite Four because I kept putting my DS down for weeks at a time.)

... OH MAN there are version-exclusive Pokemon and nobody I know has White. I'm never gonna have that eagle guy :c
posted by titus n. owl at 8:19 PM on December 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing writes "I guess this is the place where I admit I'm turning 40 and have never played Pokemon."

My daughter is getting a 3DS and whatever the new hotness in Pokemon is and having never played I'm quite excited to be able to finally give it a try.
posted by Mitheral at 8:22 PM on December 3, 2011

Isn't that what Christmas is for?

Even though I never played it, I do know the mechanics of Pokemon, as there's a doujin game I've picked up recently that apparently has the same gameplay and scoring system. I think it'd be fun to get another emu and the roms and give it a shot.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 8:30 PM on December 3, 2011

I played Red/Blue/Yellow when they first came out and were huge, and then Gold/Silver and forgot about it for a while. Then, when Diamond/Pearl came out, I played those, but since I sold my DS I haven't played any since. I fear this post may be inspiring another relapse.
posted by Gordafarin at 8:35 PM on December 3, 2011

I haven't tried the Nuzlocke challenge. I've been tinkering with the hidden stats of my pokemon.
Yeah, the games are pretty easy. It's the Nuzlocke and the meta-game of battling and breeding that makes the game so addictive and hard.

Just a bit of the hidden stats are Effort values and Individual values. These are the hidden number are the DNA of the pokemon. You can't see them in-game but you can control them. Having good EV's and IV's means you have better than average pokes. You can spend a lot of time breeding and battling specific pokemon to max your team's stats. If you want any success in online battling, you have to have the best stats. Otherwise you just lose all the time.

While everyone is confessing, I'm pushing 40 and I've played FireRed Ruby/Saphirre Pearl Black/White. And yes, I've caught 'em all.
posted by hot_monster at 9:18 PM on December 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

I guess this is the place where I admit I'm turning 21 and STOP RUINING MY CHILDHOOD THERE ARE ONLY 151!
posted by Seiten Taisei at 9:33 PM on December 3, 2011 [6 favorites]

Indeed, how many are we up to in this latest gen?
posted by Gordafarin at 9:54 PM on December 3, 2011

I guess this is the place where I admit I play Pokemon at 25. I went home for Thankgiving and promptly got sick. Only my old DS and a copy of Heartgold + Nuzlocke challenge saved me from utter boredom. I felt like a kid again.

I attest that the Mario & Luigi series has the same effect (sans level grinding).
posted by ersatz at 5:02 AM on December 4, 2011

I've been wanting to play a Pokemon game again, and this sounds like a good challenge. Thanks for sharing.
posted by dragonplayer at 1:32 PM on December 4, 2011