On the morning of April 8th, even before the first light tore through Tokyo's night, the streets of Akihabara were already alive with noise and excitement.
The air was thick with the long-suppressed, feverish energy of an impending eruption.
In front of Sega specialty stores and major electronics retailers, lines stretched down the blocks and around corners. Every face in the crowd was lit with anticipation and exhilaration.
Months of self-restraint had compressed like a coiled spring—and today, it finally snapped back in full force.
The flashy advertising campaign for the GAME POCKET had completely ignited their pent-up desire to buy.
"Look! They're opening!"
Someone's shout rippled through the crowd, and the tense order of the line burst into motion. People began shuffling forward, clutching their wallets and lists, driven by raw excitement.
"I want the limited edition of Super Robot Wars II!"
"Give me the pink one! And Pokémon Red! My daughter begged me to get it!"
"Don't push! Don't push! They've got enough stock, right? Sega wouldn't pull that 'limited supply' trick, would they?"
Inside the store, clerks who had braced for this moment were nearly swept off their feet by the surge of customers. They could only mechanically take money, hand over boxes, and shout to keep order.
Behind the counter, limited-edition consoles—one printed with the sleek mecha from Super Robot Wars II, another with adorable Pikachu and the starter Pokémon from Pokémon—were disappearing at lightning speed.
Many young buyers didn't even start playing right away. Instead, they eagerly pulled out their pre-bought charms and keychains, attaching them to their new GAME POCKETs and showing them off proudly to their friends.
The real storm began when the first players, GAME POCKETs in hand, gathered with their friends at small parks and cafés across the city.
A middle-schooler who had bought the Super Robot Wars II limited edition, already a veteran of the previous game, expertly commanded his units.
When he reached the Mashin Hero Wataru stage and saw the enemy's combined mecha, his instincts told him to unleash Ryujinmaru's strongest move—the "Blazing Ascension Slash."
But he hesitated. In the anime, Ryujinmaru exhausts itself after using that very move, turning into a dragon orb.
"What if… I don't use the ultimate move this time?"
The thought shot through his mind like an electric spark.
Just like the first game—unexpected paths always led to hidden surprises.
He took a deep breath and chose to chip away at the enemy's HP using regular attacks instead. The battle dragged on painfully, Ryujinmaru narrowly avoiding defeat several times.
Finally, when the enemy's last sliver of health disappeared in an explosion—there was no scene of Ryujinmaru's sacrifice, no Wind Godmaru appearing to protect him, and therefore no fusion into King Ryujinmaru.
He froze. Was that… it?
But in a later mission, when Evil Tiger Maru joined the team and Ryujinmaru, Evil Tiger Maru, and Wind Godmaru stood side by side, a brand-new option appeared in their weapon list.
"Ryuko Flash?!"
He pressed confirm.
On-screen, the three mechas blazed with brilliant light. Ryujinmaru and Evil Tiger Maru gathered their power into Wind Godmaru, who unleashed a sweeping rainbow beam that vaporized all enemies in front of them.
An original combo ultimate attack!
"I—I triggered a hidden combo move!" the boy shouted, jumping up from his seat.
It was a gift from the developers themselves—a reward for players who loved to explore.
His friends crowded around him, demanding to know how he did it.
Elsewhere in a café, a bespectacled high school student looked up from his GAME POCKET. "Major discovery!" he announced. "There's a hidden Char storyline! Quess can actually be persuaded by Hathaway! I just unlocked the Alpha Azieru!"
"What? How? I tried that so many times—Quess and Chan always die after one dialogue!"
"The trick is, Kyra can't die. And Hathaway has to survive three full rounds of dialogue! What kind of mad genius would design something like this?"
Alternate storylines like these—branching "what-if" paths that gave new mechs or special moves—spread quickly among fans over the following days.
"This is it! This is the Super Robot Wars we wanted!"
The mecha fanbase erupted into collective excitement once more, like a grand puzzle-hunting festival reborn after a year.
Under the morning sun in a small park, a circle of grade-schoolers chattered happily, faces glowing as if they'd just received New Year's money.
They were the first wave of Pokémon Red/Green players.
The chubby boy who led their group proudly pushed the new game cartridge into his GAME POCKET with a satisfying click.
The screen lit up.
As the pixelated intro animation played, a never-before-seen prompt appeared in the center of the screen, carrying a strange, sacred sense of ritual:
"Would you like to connect with a Pokémon Virtual Pet or another version of Pokémon?"
The boy's eyes widened. He immediately pulled out the electronic pet hanging from his neck—his trusty Snorlax, a companion of two and a half years.
When he connected the communication cable between the two devices, his heartbeat skipped.
"Each Virtual Pet can only connect with a Pokémon game once. Proceed?"
"Yes!" he shouted without hesitation, pressing confirm.
A cute animation appeared—his pixel Snorlax jumped from the Virtual Pet icon into the GAME POCKET icon, as if crossing dimensions.
It felt like a sacred handover between worlds.
After an automatic save, the game began.
When the boy moved his in-game character out of bed and down the stairs, he froze.
In the living room, a massive Snorlax lay sprawled across the floor, taking up half the space, snoring softly.
It was his Snorlax. His own partner—now inside the game world.
"Whoa!!" The other kids gasped in unison, crowding around his screen.
Another boy who'd linked a Lapras found a graceful Lapras swimming in his home instead.
A line of dialogue from the in-game mother told him he'd need to earn enough Gym Badges before such powerful partners would truly obey him.
Rather than disappointment, this only lit a fierce determination in his heart.
The adventure had just begun.
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