A surprise visit, and challenge, from the world-famous Pokémon mascot.

Things can be a little unpredictable at SoraNews24 headquarters. On any given day, there’s a chance that your coworkers might decide to wrestle each other, or ask you to help them test out an array of privacy-boosting “sound princess” toiletside speakers. But even by our unorthodox standards, something incredible happened the other day.

It started out like any other workday, with writers at their desks, diligently typing away, and reporters double-checking train schedules and cameras before heading into the field. Then the doorbell rang…

…and when we opened it…

…Pikachu himself was standing there!

We weren’t sure why he’d come all the way to our office, but we’ve had a standing policy at SoraNews24 since our company’s founding: Should Pikachu should ever ring the doorbell, let him in. So we immediately invited the famous Pokémon inside…but…

…we weren’t sure if he could fit through our door! Yes, Pikachu’s expressive ears and round physique make him adorably cuddly, but they also make it tricky for him to navigate human-sized portals.

Pikachu is as determined as he is cute, though, and with enough wriggling…

…he eventually managed to slip inside!

After patiently waiting for several minutes as our entire staff squealed with glee, Pikachu lets us know why he’d come. While we’d have been perfectly happy to let the guy just hang out, the world-famous video game/anime star had a special purpose, which he conveyed to us by handing over a letter. And not just any letter, but a letter of challenge!

The letter was from the development staff of Pokémon Scramble SP, the latest installment of the mobile game series known in the West as Pokémon Rumble Rush. Following an initial release for Android devices in the spring, as of this month the game is available for iOS devices as well, and so Pikachu, accompanied by Pokémon Company representative Shunsuke Takagi, came by to see if we could clear Pokémon Scramble SP’s P Rush mode, in which you have to defeat three different types of Pokémon in just 60 seconds,

Having never played the game ourselves, we weren’t sure if we’d be up to the task, so Takagi gave us a crash course in how to play the game, explaining its simple controls and basic play mechanics.

Pokémon Scramble SP is an action game, in which the player explores an uncharted island, befriending Pokémon and using them to battle more hostile species. For the challenge Takagi was issuing, we’d be trying to take down a Pidgeot, a Gyarados, and a Charizard within the time limit, and with Pikachu himself cheering us on, suddenly we were feeling pretty confident.

▼ With you on our side, we can’t lose, right, Pikachu?

We got off to a good start. Pidgeot isn’t exactly the toughest Pocket Monster around, and we were even able to overcome the fearsome Gyarados by using a Spar Gear item to boost the strength of electricity attacks, targeting the evolved-Magikarp’s elemental weakness.

However, when our fight against Charizard commenced, we only had nine seconds left, and though Pikachu encouraged us to keep fighting until the end, we came up short.

▼ “Out of time! Charizard escaped!”

▼ Nooooo!!!!!

▼ We’re sorry, Pikachu!

But hey, two out of three ain’t bad, especially for first-timers like us, right? And besides, any workday that includes this…

…is pretty much the best day ever, right?

Related: Pokémon Scramble SP for Android, iOS
Photos ©SoraNews24
Pokémon Scramble SP images ©2019 Pokémon. ©1995-2019 Nintendo/Creatures Inc. /GAME FREAK inc. Developed by Ambrella
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[ Read in Japanese ]