"Where is this? The control room?"
In the dimly lit room, a figure stood with his back to the player, and the BGM became extremely oppressive. When he slowly turned around, revealing a face incredibly familiar from the anime, countless children in front of their televisions gasped.
"It's Giovanni! The Gym Leader of Viridian City!"
The sudden BOSS battle abruptly changed the atmosphere of the game. Giovanni's cold face, coupled with the oppressive background music, made countless young players' hearts pound.
"Why is it him?!"
This was no longer the relaxed and pleasant pokémon land. Machamp, Rhydon, and Kingler, pokémon that had shown terrifying strength in the anime, were even more powerful in the game. Rhydon almost ignored Pikachu's electric shock,
Machamp's four arms swung impenetrably, and Squirtle's Water Gun hitting them was like a tickle.
"No way! We can't beat him!"
"My Bulbasaur was knocked out instantly by its crab pincers!"
What was originally a relaxed and enjoyable park adventure instantly turned into a hardcore challenge testing skill and strategy. In countless living rooms, children's unwilling shouts and the rapid tapping of controller buttons could be heard.
Fail, restart, fail again, restart again.
Many children even cried and sought out their older siblings, or even their fathers, attempting to form a "family Strategy Group" (family strategy team).
This sense of frustration, far from deterring players, instead ignited everyone's competitive spirit.
On forums and in schools, discussions on how to defeat Giovanni reached unprecedented levels of popularity.
"You must use Squirtle! Attack Rhydon from behind, it's surprisingly effective!"
"When fighting Machamp, never be greedy. It punches rhythmically, so watch carefully and dodge!"
After countless failures and attempts, when Giovanni's last pokémon—that giant Kingler—slowly fell after Pikachu's all-out Quick Attack, a thunderous cheer erupted in front of the television. Some young players even jumped directly off the sofa, excitedly waving their fists.
As the victory music played, the young players, breathing heavily and with sweaty palms, controlled their characters to rush into the innermost room, anticipating the final reward.
However, the room was empty.
Just as the players wondered where Giovanni had gone, the main screen in the center flickered, and a never-before-seen pokémon silhouette, covered entirely in cold metal armor, flashed across the screen. The oppressive feeling that could be felt even through the screen far surpassed that of Giovanni's Machamp and other pokémon.
Immediately after, a line of text appeared on the screen.
"This summer, the pokémon movie—'Mewtwo Strikes Back,' please look forward to it."
Silence.
After a brief silence, an even larger explosion occurred.
This discovery, like a nuclear bomb, detonated within all player communities.
"They really did bury clues in the game, just like they said in the anime!"
Initially thought to be just a casual mini-game, who would have thought that the end of the game wasn't a completion of the anime, but a never-before-heard anime movie trailer!
And it was an exact echo of the game GG that appeared after previous anime broadcasts!
"I've seen that armored pokémon on TV, and now it's here again!"
"So it's called Mewtwo? Is it a legendary pokémon? And what does'Strikes Back' mean?"
For a time, speculation about the identity of the "armored pokémon" and discussions about the movie's plot became the hottest topics. The sales of game cartridges also saw a second surge in this unexpected promotional offensive.
Countless players who had previously been on the fence rushed to stores to witness this linked anime movie game Easter egg firsthand.
And after the post-game anime movie trailer fermented, GALLOP, as pre-arranged by Sega, began airing the official "Mewtwo Strikes Back" movie trailer after the prime-time anime slot.
The trailer was only a minute and a half long, but every frame was filled with a quality and information density completely different from the TV anime. It opened with a cold laboratory, a blurry figure curled up in a giant glass container, surrounded by countless flickering instruments and researchers in white coats. This was followed by close-ups of the metal armor, which had flashed by in the game, being assembled piece by piece onto the pokémon, filled with a cold, mechanical feel.
"Who am I? Why am I here?"
A low, confused narration instantly silenced the living rooms.
Countless children who had just completed the game and seen that figure deep within the park immediately widened their eyes, pointing at the TV and shouting, "It's him! It's him!"
The scene shifted, and the laboratory disintegrated in a violent explosion. Mewtwo, clad in armor, floated amidst the flames, its eyes devoid of anger, only a hollow indifference.
It merely waved a hand casually, and an invisible force tore everything apart.
The trailer ended, the movie title appeared on a black screen, but the discussion in front of the television had only just begun.
"It's too strong! Stronger than Giovanni's Rhydon!"
"It's the one that appeared at the end of the game!"
The next day, this topic completely exploded in elementary and middle school campuses across Japan.
Game completers became the most popular people among their classmates, surrounded and asked to describe the final Easter egg over and over again. Those who hadn't completed it, or whose families didn't yet have an MD, were filled with envy and unwillingness.
The trailer, coupled with the game's cross-media breakthrough, instantly provided the movie with a promotional effect far beyond the conventional.
At Sega Headquarters, the Marketing Department's phone lines were almost constantly ringing.
"Mr. Nakayama, the TV stations are crazy." Suzuki Masao hurried into the office, an uncontrollable excitement on his face. "Several TV stations that previously quoted ridiculously high prices for our GG slot are now calling us proactively, asking if they can broadcast the trailer as a 'hot cultural phenomenon' in their news programs, in a report-style format."
Takuya Nakayama was typing something into his computer and merely lifted his eyelids at the remark. "Free GG, why not agree?"
"I've already had the publicity department connect with them." Suzuki Masao smiled, "It's the same with GALLOP. Toho's business manager visited immediately, hoping to obtain distribution rights.
Everyone could see that with such a widespread social promotional effect, "Mewtwo Strikes Back" had a high chance of becoming a box office hit.
Our strategy has succeeded, Mr. Nakayama. We're not just selling games; we've created an 'event' that can only be fully experienced through our game."
The core of this "event" was to make the game itself a prequel to the movie's plot and the first wave of promotion.
Want to know who that powerful armored pokémon is? Go beat the game.
This new interactive narrative mode stimulated players' anticipation like never before.
It transformed the players' sense of accomplishment from "I beat the game" to "I personally unveiled the prelude to a major event."
Takuya Nakayama saved the document, ejected the floppy disk, and nodded unequivocally: "I'm really looking forward to the movie's performance when it's released."