Amazingly generous arcade makes the diabolically difficult game super easy in celebration of something that had the entire town feeling good.

In any Japanese video game arcade you’ll find rows and rows of UFO catchers, the machines in which players manipulate a mechanical claw to try to pick up and win prizes. Belying their popularity, though, is the fact that UFO catchers are fiendishly difficult, even for experienced veterans.

As such, UFO catchers are pretty big revenue earners for arcade operators. But the management of one arcade in Hiroshima was feeling pretty generous this weekend, seeing as how the local professional baseball team, the Carp, had just clinched their first divisional championship in 27 years. In celebration, the arcade decided to cut UFO catcher players a break, and while the most obvious way to do that would have been letting players get two chances for the price of one credit, this momentous sports occasion called for an even grander gesture, as captured in this video by Twitter user @akapemaru.

https://twitter.com/akapemaru/status/774881711066710016

After @akapemaru’s friend grabs the controls, he sets his sights on a cute penguin plushie. Down comes the claw, wrapping around the stuffed animal, but as so often happens, the prize slips out as the apparatus raises back up. The Twitter user’s buddy gives out a good-natured laugh, no doubt having been in this situations before, but then an arcade attendant suddenly comes by, reaches his hand into the open showcase, and casually knocks the penguin into the prize collection area.

“Wait, did he get to keep it?” asked online one commenter, to whom @akapemaru replied, matter-of-factly, “He sure did!”

With their divisional championship clinched, the postseason playoffs are the next stop for the Carp, with the Japan Series overall championship contest hopefully beyond that. We’re sure that after seeing this video not only sports fans, but also gamers all over Hiroshima are rooting for them.

Source: Hamster Sokuho
Featured image: Twitter/@akapemaru

Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s pretty psyched about the possibility of a Hiroshima Carp/Yokohama Baystars playoff series.