Pet Fish Beats Pokemon Sapphire

A pet fish has conquered Pokemon Sapphire after nearly 3,200 total hours of playing. The Mutekimaru Channel's Pokemon Sapphire fish experiment has finally come to an end with a victory over Hoenn champion Steven Stone. The channel first went viral when the fish discovered a new glitch in Pokemon Sapphire nearly 20 years after the game's original release. The fish (actually four fish, all of whom were named Maurice) took several tries to beat Stone, but the fish finally emerged victorious and brought his nearly six-month campaign to an end.

The channel's owner also later noted on Twitter that the fish cleared the game while they were sleeping. The channel has dedicated several months to watching a fish "play" Pokemon Sapphire, with the fish's movement around a fish tank determining what action was taken next in the game. The fish's movements were tracked by camera, which was then translated via a circuit board that inputted the commands into a Nintendo GameCube.

Mutekimaru Channel noted that they'd like to continue using their fish to play Pokemon in the future, although they might proceed at a different pace, as logging and editing 3,200 hours of Pokemon play into videos was both physically and mentally demanding. The owner also noted that they were able to get through the entire game without losing a single one of their betta fish.

Mutekimaru Channel's experiment follows in the tradition started by Twitch Plays Pokemon, in which thousands of players inputted commands into a Twitch chat to determine actions. The channel showed that any Pokemon game could be beaten by putting enough time into the game.

You can check out the conclusion of the game in the video embedded above. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the Pokemon franchise right here.