Challenging Yourself, Making it harder for fun! ^_^ Options

[Little Lynn]

I've been recently getting into really challenging myself in video games lately. The kind of challenge where you as the player give yourself some kind of handicap to make the game significantly more challenging for yourself; and not just playing it on "Hard Mode" or something. For instance, earlier this year, I completed Dragon Quest 3 (the SNES version) completely solo, without recruiting anyone (except for that one Merchant I was obligated to use for like five minutes). It took a lot longer and it certainly was tricky, but man, did I have fun with it! I had to experiment with a lot of different tactics I wouldn't have otherwise done and it made a game I've already beaten like a dozen times into something a little newer. (If I were really daring though, I'd do it in the original NES version!)

But I enjoyed it so much, I've been trying to look at other games to see what I can do. The one that's really caught my eye is the Pokemon "Nuzlocke Challenge". It sounds vicious, but like it'd be a fun and very involving way to play the game. To give the short explanation, the idea is that in this challenge, if a Pokemon faints, you must treat it as though it's died and release it! Furthermore, you can only catch ONE from each area (and no repeats/Legendaries/etc.). There are further optional rules restricting evolutions, items, switching and/or Pokemon Centers, but I don't know if I'll go quite that far. Anyway, it can be done with any main series Pokemon game, but I think I may try this one using Emerald (my personal favorite).

Also, debating trying another DQ solo quest, this time using Dragon Quest 9, which I think might actually be a little trickier than DQ3's version due to the Vocation setup.

I can't think of - or am not aware of - any other really nifty ones though. So how about you folks? Have you ever done anything outside the normal scope of the game to challenge yourself? What'd you try to do and did you pull it off?