Video promises the song is going to be “electric.”

With the first pieces of Pokémon media, Pokémon Red and Green, debuting for Nintendo’s Game Boy in 1996, the franchise is now celebrating its 25th anniversary. The Pokémon Company is promising a year-long celebration of the milestone, and it’s gotten the ball literally rolling with a cute and cool Poké Ball Rube Goldberg machine video.

Bringing to mind Japanese public broadcaster NHK’s Biisuke’s Big Adventure series, the video starts off with a first-gen Game Boy knocking the Poké Bal into motion. It first rolls through a bright woodland setting, just like the early stages of any Pokémon video game, passing by a variety of Pocket Monster species represented by plushies, figures, and cards from the Pokémon collectable trading card game.

The journey continues through a pagoda courtyard covered in brilliantly colored maple leaves, past an active volcano, and eventually into a modern metropolis. It may not be done all in one cut, but the clever use of momentum and other physics to keep everything moving is cool to see, especially with various versions of Pikachu along for the ride.

▼ Thank you, Gengar, for keeping your tongue inside your mouth.

Eventually, we arrive at an arena, with Pikachu about to engage in a friendly battle with Venusaur…

…but the final stop is a music club, where we get the surprise announcement that there’s some sort of Katy Perry Pokémon song on the way!?!

The video doesn’t give us any more of a preview than a few notes of techno-pop and Perry’s distinctive voice singing the word “Electric” (as in Pikachu’s Pokémon type). The official Pokémon 25th anniversary website, though, says “Pokemon is teaming up with some of the biggest names in music including pop icon Katy Perry, and you’re invited to join the fun!”

It’s unclear whether or not Pikachu will get to show off his vocal skills again on the track, but we do at least know that the guy can dance, and also that Pokémon and music can make for a very powerful combination. And hey, maybe if the song is a big enough hit, Perry will come back to Japan to promote it and be able to get some of that Lawson convenience store fried chicken she loves so much.

Source: YouTube/The Official Pokémon YouTube channel
Top image: YouTube/The Official Pokémon YouTube channel
Insert images: YouTube/The Official Pokémon YouTube channel, Pokémon 25th anniversary website
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