Even fish need a break from the pressures of online gaming. The Pokémon video game-playing fish from a Japanese YouTube channel is throwing in the towel after it finished Sapphire, becoming a true Pokémon master.
The Mutekimaru Channel first drew fans in back in the summer of 2020, when it started featuring videos of a Siamese fighting fish swimming around a tank visually divided into separate sections. This was done so the sections were mapped to correspond to a button input on the controller for a Nintendo GameCube running a Pokémon Sapphire game from 2002.
Over the next two years, the fish played the game and won gym badges, uncovered glitches and eventually finished Sapphire to become a Pokémon Master. Despite the incredible ride, the Mutekimaru Channel announced that the fish was retiring from gameplay.
“I started this channel when the pandemic was really bad. I had a lot of free time on my hands living the stay-home lifestyle and started because I wanted there to be more fun video content. I thought I’d probably shut it down in six months or so but thanks to all of your support, I could keep going until now,” Mutekimaru said.
Sadly, Mutekimaru’s fish aquariums, plus the video-making and game-playing equipment take up an entire room in his house. Looking to downsize, the fish are being moved to Mutekimaru’s parent’s house where they can live out their lives as normal fish.
If anyone is looking to have their fish play video games, Mutekimaru created a detailed video about the design system he built so anyone can attempt to remake his successes.
Source: https://youtu.be/5Ze5Eg7Q11k