This extremely hard Pokémon randomizer is the best thing on Twitch right now

For the past two weeks, I have been checking out the streams of Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen so I can watch people play the classic games in difficult ways.

You might be able to get through the game without too much trouble if you have played a mainline game before. I am pretty sure all of my friends used to let their starter carry them to become the champion. There is a community of players who make the games more challenging by applying certain rulesets.

IronMon is a difficult randomizer. The items you pick up are randomized, while the pokémon you fight in the wild or those owned by trainers have increased levels. You won't just pick between Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle if you start with a random pokémon. You don't have to look at which pokémon are available to make your decision; you just have to accept what you get. After they have decided which one to pick, streamers check the other pokéballs to see what they missed.

IronMon challenges are more difficult than Nuzlocke runs. To me, the IronMon rules sound like a level of difficulty that would make even the strongest Metapods blush. The challenge doesn't end there. You can't use it again if you put it back in storage. The harder version of the challenge, called Kaizo IronMon, requires players to battle with one pokémon. The run begins if the pokémon faints.

If you want to read all the rules, you can check them out here, but if you want to learn about an even harder IronMon ruleset, survival, you need to check out some streams.

A lot of streamers will be stuck in Professor Oak's lab. It is difficult for a pokmon to survive in the early areas. When the chat picks wrong and the streamer loses, it is hilarious, though it might sound boring. Sometimes streamers will switch to a new main pokémon, and sometimes they will debate the merits of picking one or the other.

It's exciting when a run starts. Even though the streamer's pokémon is dozens of levels ahead, opposing pokémon pose a potential danger. An opponent can ruin an hours-long run with a status effect or a countermove. I will get invested in the fates of creatures with silly names like "STEELEDUP" and "SMILE" because players nickname their pokmon.

I keep watching because I want to be there when things fall apart. I watched streamer Iateyourpie destroy a run with a powerful Blissey, who is credited with creating IronMon. I looked at Iateyourpie's feed to see what happened. You can watch what happened in the last battle of the game.

It's really sad. I want to catch the next great run, even if it is stuck in Oak's lab.

Jay Peters is the creator of the Screenshots.