In a truly bizarre series of events, a Pokémon Sapphire glitch has been found by a Japanese YouTuber’s pet fish during a project that uses a tracking camera and circuit board to determine inputs for the game based on where the fish was swimming at the time. Pokémon Sapphire first released in November 2002 and has since been given a remake alongside its Ruby counterpart with Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire in 2014, with both the original and the remake receiving extremely positive responses from critics and fans.

For those unfamiliar with the concept at work in this new Pokémon Sapphire glitch discovery, it’s quite similar to the Twitch Plays phenomenon, which sees the streaming platform’s chat given the power to determine inputs in a given game being streamed at the same time. It’s a huge mess and will often result in funny moments, but it’s also an interesting endeavor because games do genuinely get completed during these events, even if it takes far longer than normal.

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Now, however, a Pokémon Sapphire glitch has been discovered thanks to a similarly absurd premise, but it’s even more ridiculous because a Japanese YouTuber’s pet fish will ultimately who is credited with it. A report from Kotaku details how Mutekimaru’s pet betta fish, Lala, accidentally discovered a Seafloor Cavern glitch involving the rock puzzle, creating a method to duplicate rocks.

It’s an astonishing feat, one that is even more unlikely given the nearly 18 years that have passed since Pokémon Sapphire was originally released. Discovering a new glitch in a game that old is often reserved for speedrunners who spend hours of dedicated time in small portions of a title trying to break it – not for fish who don’t even know they’re playing a game in the first place. It’s also a testament to the longevity of these projects, which can be run for years at a relatively low cost and can sometimes create incredible moments in gaming.

Mutekimaru’s project has yielded some unexpected results, and a new Pokémon Sapphire glitch might cause other players to go back and look at the old favorite to see what else might be lurking in its code. Hopefully, this particular glitch somehow gets turned into something that’s crucial to speedruns of Pokémon Sapphire – it would be pretty incredible if, during a broadcast of a world record-breaking run, the list of shoutouts include Mutekimaru’s betta fish Lala as one of the contributors.

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Pokémon Sapphire‘s 18th anniversary is coming up on November 21, 2020. The game is available for Game Boy Advance, and a remake, Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, is available on Nintendo 3DS.

Source: Mutekimaru (via Kotaku)

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Cody Gravelle
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Cody is Screen Rant’s Game Reviews Editor. He joined the team in 2018 and has been reporting on games pretty well every day since – except on weekends, where he’s typically playing them instead. Despite being in a field ostensibly about critiquing and enjoying quality games, his most played game of 2019 was Fate/Grand Order – something unlikely to change in 2020 and beyond.

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