Fish Play Pokémon Violet… And do some shopping on the eShop

Mutekimaru Channel, a YouTube channel known for its Fish Play Pokémon live stream series, has been drawing attention after a strange mishap involving the fish spending money on the Nintendo eShop.

Mutekimaru Channel uses hardware like the Game Boy Player and the Nintendo Switch, along with a USB camera, a program made by Mutekimaru, and circuit board to control Pokémon through the movement of swimming fish. The backdrop of the fish tank is sheets of paper with various directions and A and B inputs displayed on them that reflect those inputs in the game when a fish swims by. So far, the fish have played for 20,000 hours and entered the Hall of Fame in 6 Pokémon titles.

It’s these pet fish that found themselves using a credit card on the Nintendo eShop during a Pokémon Violet live stream on January 15 (JST). Due to an abrupt error while playing, the game was forced to close and the fish found themselves in control on the Switch’s home menu. They quickly made their way to the My Page settings and changed the user nickname from “Mutekimaru” to “Rowawawa¥.”

Next, they started poking around with the Friend Suggestions feature to search for friends and showing what games Mutekimaru had been playing during their free time by showing their profile. Nothing was off limits for the fish as they did whatever they pleased.

Later, the fish suddenly opened the eShop and disclosed the credit card information on file despite the stream being live on YouTube. Ultimately, they ended up using the credit card to add 500 yen (roughly $3.88) to the eShop balance, acting as if they were taking conscious actions.

But their human-like behavior didn’t stop there. They went to the Minecraft page on the eShop and looked at some screenshots of the game before looking at the related titles and visiting the Minecraft Dungeons page as well. It was as if they were trying to decide what game to buy.

Finally, they went to the Nintendo Switch Online page and exchanged some login bonus points for icon elements. Now seemingly done with their shopping, the fish returned to the home screen and proceeded to put the Switch into sleep mode.

As an aside, the Mutekimaru Channel has announced in December that Fish Play Pokémon will come to an end after the ongoing Pokémon Violet playthrough. After that, the channel will continue on with a different format. We’re looking forward to seeing these fish perform their final challenge with their Pokémon Violet Let’s Play.

Written by. Nick Mosier based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2023-01-17 11:27 JST)