GameChallenge

A GameChallenge is some self-imposed variant on a VideoGame that makes it much more difficult. This is generally accomplished by removing some abilities from the character's list, but occasionally is done by requiring a certain path to go through, or a certain time limit, etc. They are usually more complicated than the standard "no dying on level whatever" challenges, and are generally things that the average person wouldn't think of.

One of the more famous GameChallenges is the FourWhiteMageChallenge, which is to beat FinalFantasyOne with four white mages as your party.

A list (feel free to add more if you can think of them):

• FourWhiteMageChallenge (et al), for FinalFantasyOne
• No espers, for FinalFantasySix
• NoGreenMateriaChallenge (et al), for FinalFantasySeven
• Playing FinalFantasyEight without drawing spells from monsters
• NoRandomBattleChallenge, for FinalFantasyTactics
• Playing with only one hand, for Super Smash Brothers
• Fighting the Master Hand in Super Smash Brothers without ever using shields or other cheapo tactics along the same line, such as playing Kirby and rocking. This is really easy... I think we'd have to add that you can't get hit... now that would make it more of a challenge. Also, up the difficulty level, although that probably doesn't change too much for Master Hand. --NateCappallo
• Beating EinHander without firing a shot until the last boss
• Playing versus BustAMove at ninety-second odds
• Beating SuperMario64? without having any coins recorded on the status screens (If you're feeling really suicidal, don't get any coins at all, including the bonus stages)
• Beating various GoldenEye? levels with only using slapper. (shooting at the lock on the dam and other various non-enemy targets is allowed)
• Beating Castlevania:SOTN without equipping any weapons/armor/items (save for brief usages of the Holy Glasses and Spike Breaker, which are essential to advance the plot.) Relics are OK to use. Believe it or not, I even managed to beat Galamoth this way... see if you can figure out how. :) - IanTullis
  • I'm currently most of the way through a game without weapons or the double jump, and it's actually been pretty easy so far. I think the only bosses left are Galamoth, Shaft, and Dracula. You can get very fast hits with the punch if you stand close enough. Knowing Soul Steal from the beginning also helps. - ChainMaille
    • And Dracula is dead. He went down fairly trivially, actually. The Sword familiar can score a ton of hits since the target's so big, and he doesn't have as high a defense as Galamoth does, strangely enough.
• Beating Castlevania:SOTN with ~200% map coverage as Richter (I can't imagine this is easier than the above...)
• Beating Castlevania:SOTN without equipping any weapons except for two-handed ones (and don't use your fists, either...) I must say Doppelganger10? is damn funny when he's cursed...
• Beating Castlevania:SOTN without equipping anything except *random* monster drops (i.e. the Red Rust and Short Sword don't count).
  • Not hard. The beginning is interesting, since you're mostly naked, but later on you're liable to get at least one of the really strong weapons (e.g. Fist of Tulkas, Vorpal Sword, Masamune, or possibly the Crissaegrim). The Masamune in particular is very easy to get and will absolutely slaughter anything you run into. Low defense (from not having much armour) doesn't matter much when everything dies before it can hit you.
• As a modification of the above, beat Castlevania:SOTN without equipping anything except random monster drops from the first castle. This eliminates all of the really broken items except the Ring of Varda.
• Beating Castlevania:SOTN without killing anything you don't have to (I don't remember if Rayhawk did this or not; he got pretty far...) (Well, no non-bosses anyway. My visit ended shortly after Galamoth, but I figure the game would all have been downhill from there. Does something more reasonable happen when you equip a weapon with a *positive* attack rating alongside the charged Alucard shield?)
• Beating SuperMetroid with no High-Jump Boots (wall-jumping is no longer optional; getting out of lower Brinstar without it would require a metric assload of bomb-hopping).
  • Yeah, I did that once. Bomb-jumping is your friend and a number of areas that were previously reachable by wall-jumping (such as the grappling beam) now require it. Occasionally requires wall-jumping off of vertical door-frames. :P -AlexUtter
• Beating SuperMetroid with no Grapple Beam (yes, it is possible!).
• Beating SuperMetroid with no IceBeam? (if Nick can get up the notable Brinstar shaft without it, this should be possible)
  • You'll only have to do this once, as well; after the first time, you can take the secret exit from Maridia instead
    • Not only can you do no ice beam, i'm pretty sure you can do no ice beam and no high jump boots (having jumped up said brinstar shaft without either) --NickJohnson
• Beating SuperMetroid while minimizing item percentage. Apparently the online record for this is in the range of 33%.
  • That's odd; I'm pretty sure my "standard" route only picks up ~35% of the items...
    • I was wrong; the uber-itemless game involves these items: Morph Ball, two or three Missiles, three or two Super Missiles (total 5 ballistics), 1 powerbomb, bomb, 3 energy tanks, charge beam, varia suit, gravity suit, speed boots. That's 15%, and Ridley is a postive bastard.
• Beat DeusEx without killing anybody. (Darts don't count as kills, but ammo is limited. Enemies that self-destruct don't count as kills either :P, nor do people in buildings or ships that collapse.)
  • I remember reading that some people who played the game were annoyed that there is one person that absolutely must be killed to advance the plot, but they didn't say who. Obviously, this person is an exception, whoever he may be. Also, just to clarify, self-destructing enemies don't count only so long as they are taken down by non-lethal means. (For the ridiculously masochistic, try not engaging any of them, ever... I don't know if it's possible).
    • Most people think you have to kill one person; it's not actually true. If you are very good and very lucky, you can chuck a grenade in her direction, and she will go into scared-bat-AI-mode, and if you are lucky, she will run through the locked door that she guards (unlocking it.)
  • Although Deus Ex 2 is an inferior game than the original, it's still worthwhile, so let's throw up some challenges for it: kill nobody (this also means no digesting unconcious people with the health leach drone), kill everybody as soon as possible (yes, it can be done and still advance the plot all the way through! *spoiler* this means the Omar win */spoiler*), use only drone biomods (not difficult, just entertaining).

• BaseBall?: Score at least 30 runs in a single game (see the Rangers-Orioles game of 8/21/07)
  • *cry* - DavidLapayowker

• The MarathonTrilogy? has the so-called [Vidmaster Challenge]...
• Also, reading through the [Marathon Story Homepage] is a challenge in and of itself.

• Beat Eternal Darkness only casting required spells.
• Beating FinalFantasyTen without using the Sphere Grid.
• Beating everything in FinalFantasyTen's monster arena without using the Sphere Grid. No, I haven't done these, but there are FAQs for them, so I assume that they can be done...
• Beat Expert Mode on SuperMonkeyBall with the TV turned upside-down.
  • .... damn ....
• Beat any Zelda game without ever picking up any heart containers
• Beat AlphaCentauri without ever controlling more than one city.
  • Beat AlphaCentauri by being elected Supreme Leader without ever controlling more than one city.
• Beat AlphaCentauri without micromanaging your build queue. Everything you build (including Secret Projects) must be the work of the city's governor.
• Beat AlphaCentauri, doing everything in as close to alphabetical order as possible (play with directed research and always research the alphabetically earliest tech available; if you're building a base improvement or a wonder, you must always build the first one in the alphabet).
  • Or some similar arbitrary restriction on the order you do stuff in.
• Beat AlphaCentauri without building any Secret Projects (with the sole possible exception of the Ascent).
• Beat a Civ game with one of the alpha centauri challenges (or more). Note that Civ3? is remarkably harder with 1 city than AC. Oh, Civ3? incidentally, should allow 'capture' by culture if your enemies are stupid enough to put cities next to you. (Ive done 1 city in civ3 on Chieftain with a small map and the early game is still rough, even with culture captures. Culture victory in 2000AD having just cracked modern techs --NickJohnson)
• Beat PrinceOfPersia (Sands of Time) without collecting any life extensions or sand clouds.
  • And now I will be playing it yet again...
    • Done. 4:27 at the last save point, and for the most part, it wasn't too hard. Interestingly enough, some of the hardest fights were the ones AFTER getting the uber-sword. I think the enemies get more agressive and smarter in that last section of the game. Also, I think learning to heal during battle can be critical to this challenge, too, especially considering that the larger enemies will drain your health very quickly.
• Beat PrinceOfPersia (Sands of Time) as a pacifist--ie, if you are able to advance without killing a set of enemies, you must not engage them in combat. This may require you to solve puzzles under duress . . . to say nothing of the bat swarms. ;)
  • No, Will. Just no. Even if you memorize the fights you can run past (read "the ones Farah is willing to bypass"), it occurs to me that the monsters will likely continue to teleport after you, which would be, in a word, bad. So, no. Bad Will. No biscuit.
    • Agreed. It is my expert opinion, forty minutes into this challenge, that it can not be completed without an obscene number of exceptions.
    • The monsters don't continue to teleport after you- once you and Farah both leave the room (read: door shuts behind you), they crumble. I'm 28% in and only had to fight four fights so far- Right after breaking the hourglass (door does not open until you kill them), fighting the sultan (plot), fighting the group right after the sultan (plot/Farah?), and the guards on entering the zoo (this can almost be gotten past, but Farah doesn't seem willing to enter the open door. It may be possible if you knock out all the guards _and_ have the door open, and just not kill them, but didn't seem worth it). The section right before the zoo where you have to push blocks onto switches with the spear-guards swarming you was rather entertaining. I suspect you'll have to except all the bat swarms, as there are sections where they'll kill you if they hit you even once, but otherwise it seems vaguely reasonable. I haven't had to do any of the jumping puzzles while sand vultures attack me, though, so this opinion might change. --EvilSouthie
• Beat PrinceOfPersia (the original) -- 'nuff said.
• 100% the Spider-Man 2 game. That means completing all token sets, all Mary-Jane missions, all pizza delivery missions, all Daily Bugle missions, all challenges, all mega-challenges, and getting all the various awards. I'll see you in a year or two.
• Beat Fable (not sure what title to page that as) without spending experience.
• Beat Fable using only the lightning spell (sword use for the training and for the single flourish required to beat the game allowed)
• Beat Fable using only the stick (sword use for the one required "hit Whisper with your sword!" section allowed)
• Get 100% Completion on GrandTheftAuto? 3 or Vice City.
  • But first, try it without help from online guides to find all the hidden packages, unique jumps, and rampages.
• Win a round of UnrealTournament? using only the translocator (No I haven't tried it, I'm not awesome...)
• Win any console game other than DDR, using only a dance pad as an input device.
  • Playing fighting games (like Soul Calibur) with a dance pad is just about the best workout you can get in your life, since to move left while attacking you have to jump up and down. Also, it's awesome.
  • Pulling off a dance pad hadouken is awesome.
• Play Guitar Hero (or any sequel) with your eyes closed. Assuming you have decent rhythm, this is doable with a reasonable amount of memorization (you have to know the song, which button to start each riff on, and when the game "shifts" on you).

And then there are a number of creative challenges for assorted RoguelikeGames...

NetHack actually goes so far as to keep a conduct list for your character so that if you happen to complete the game while fulfilling the criteria for one of the more popular challenge games, you'll know about it. The following is an incomplete list of challenges mentioned on rec.games.roguelike.nethack, some of which the game does keep track of...

• Vegetarian: eat no meat.
• Vegan: eat no meat and no animal products.
• Foodless: don't eat anything (it has been done).
• Atheist: don't pray; don't use altars (except at the end of the game).
• No Magic: as I recall, the person who tried this used no wands, no scrolls, no potions, and no spellbooks (except once, when the game requires it). Less severe versions suggest themselves.
• Wishless: not a severe challenge; don't use any wishes.
• Blind Samurai: all Samurai start the game with a blindfold in their inventory. On the first turn of the game, put on the blindfold; you are allowed to remove it for one turn only, when you must read the Book of the Dead.
• Naked Weaponless: like it sounds; for a slightly less rough challenge, play a class that gets martial arts skill...
• Artifactless: this one may not have been specifically mentioned on rgrn, but it seems obvious enough; use no artifacts except when the game requires it.
• Polyselfless: Never polymorph yourself into another form.
• Polypileless: Never polymorph an object.
• Pacifist: Never kill anything .
• Expless: Complete the game with 0 experience.
• Genocideless: Don't genocide any monsters.
• Extinctionist: Make every monster type that can be extinct extinct (typically by killing 120 of that monster).

All of these have been successfully completed (except as noted) (!).

AngBand also lends itself to a few handicaps (some of which may now be enforced with game options):

• Artifactless: use no artifacts.
• Bookless: only a challenge if one is playing a class that uses spellbooks. Rangers are a popular choice, as bookless rogues and paladins are just slightly crippled warriors.
• "From-the-top": use no up-staircases, level-teleport abilities, or Recall abilities (in short, never decrease your dungeon depth). Alter Reality is legal (but cheesy) in most states.
• Ironman: Top-down, taking every down staircase as soon as you can. In other words, no sitting around on a level waiting for more monsters to spawn.
• No shops: use no shops; typically combined with from-the-top
• ZAngBand has a nightmare mode; like the DooM? option, it's not even remotely fair
• Artifact-only: you may *only* equip artifacts. To reduce annoyance (as opposed to difficulty), you are allowed to equip a non-artifact light source.
• Never ID anything. Do not carry items until they pseudo-ID. (Admittedly, you can find out what most scrolls and potions are by trying them, but at some point you want to stop doing this... drinking potions of detonations is bad). Note that this requires you to decide if you want to keep an item (and thus put it on) immediately, or just leave it. Once you have worn it till it pseudo-IDs, you may hold onto it.

Artifactless has been done several times, as has from-the-top no shops. At least one person has beaten nightmare mode. The artifactless bookless ranger (a high elf) won.

• --Comment: Artifactless isn't as bad as it sounds, because I've already found that many non-artifact items can be the most powerful in the game, such as a scythe of sclicing of extra attacks and a shadow cloak of Aman [6, +35]. Iron Man and from-the-top are much more difficult, though still well within the realms of doable. The most difficult would be a bookless mage, regardless of anything else. --NunchuckFrosh
  • It's true that artifactless isn't *so* horrible, all things considered, but covering all of the high resists and such that you need/want is no picnic. There aren't so many ego-items that give constitution boni, either, so you lose more equipment flexibility if you want more HP to make up for the lack of resists. With the addition of the JLE patch to Vanilla, things are a bit easier, since there are more than two useful amulets and more good non-artifact stuff in general... (but no, it's not as bad as from-the-top).

This page made me lose TheGame (>.<)

• It should be noted that this is completely different from the TheGameChallenge.