Foolin’ round
In the present day is April 1, in any other case often known as April Fools Day, aka the day you possibly can’t belief something you see on the Web. To mark the event, we’re taking a fond look again at among the finest gaming pranks of all time. Try our favorites and tell us if we missed any nice gags of yesteryear.
April Fools’ Day approaches yearly with a palpable sense of curiosity and dread. For each half-smile we crack at a gaming firm’s try at a prank, there are different instances we maintain our heads in our fingers, questioning what that firm was pondering.
On this gallery, we have collected among the finest April Fools’ efforts from gaming’s lengthy historical past. From {a magazine} article that despatched road fighters a-flutter to a keyboard consisting of a single key, these are the pranks that made us snigger probably the most. PSA to recreation corporations: These are the sorts of jokes we like. You may as well try our earlier roundups for the 2024 and 2025 April Fools’ Days, and attempt to guess simply what number of corporations joked about releasing relationship simulators.
Spoiler: It was a lot.
GameSpot’s Breath of the Wild Guardian video
Sure, we’re beginning the record with one among our personal pranks. No, we’re not biased within the slightest. On April Fools’ Day in 2017, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was not even a month previous, and gamers have been nonetheless discovering all of its hidden secrets and techniques. We thought we would capitalize with this cheeky video on how you can mount a Guardian, after which flip its laser weapon on different enemies. If solely it have been true.
IGN’s live-action Legend Of Zelda trailer
We’re not the one publication to drag a Zelda-themed video prank. A few of it’s possible you’ll recall when IGN produced a full trailer for a live-action film adaptation of Nintendo’s journey collection, which actually may have served as a very good place to begin for an actual movie. Maybe the upcoming undertaking directed by Wes Ball will take some pointers.
Sport Informer’s Darth Clark
Rounding out a trifecta of April Fools’ media mischief is the ever-irreverent Darth Clark, who has terrorized the Sport Infarcer part of Sport Informer’s April concern for years. His presence was significantly felt in 2013, when a number of GI readers wrote to the editorial workers of Clark’s column–despite the phrase “parody” on the backside of the web page.
Amongst Us Horse mode
Somebody at Amongst us developer Innersloth was clearly watching previous episodes of Mr. Ed in 2022, as the corporate launched a trailer for a mode that includes equine variations of the little spacemen simply in time for April Fools’. The four-legged pals did make their approach into the sport for a restricted time, so whereas some might need been irritated, you possibly can’t look a present (house) horse within the mouth.
Frasier pinball
Additionally in 2022, Stern Pinball created fairly a stir with this limited-edition Frasier pinball set to take pleasure in after consuming your tossed salad and scrambled eggs. Sadly, the hyperlink within the submit rolled proper right into a tune by a man named Rick, which left Frasier followers wanting extra.
World of Warcraft T.I.N.D.R. Field
Typically, even Stage 70 Demise Knights want love. This was the main focus of Blizzard’s World Of Warcraft T.I.N.D.R Field prank in 2015, which gave gamers an in-game merchandise that, as soon as given to a garrison member, may assist them discover their real love. WoW has a protracted historical past of April Fools’ jokes and nice pretend patch notes.
Remaining Fantasy 14’s combating recreation
Technically this entry got here after April Fools’ Day–April 25, to be precise–but the thought of a Remaining Fantasy XIV combating recreation was a tantalizing one. Sadly, Final Struggle by no means got here to be, however for one shining second, we believed.
The Yakuza April Fools’ RPG video that ended up being what Yakuza 7 really was
Whereas Yakuza 7 was in improvement, Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio launched an April Fools’ trailer detailing a shift within the franchise’s fight mechanics from a free-flowing motion type to a turn-based mannequin. Legend has it that fan response was so optimistic, the studio determined to truly make the change, and Yakuza: Like A Dragon as we all know it was born.
Overwatch googly eyes
Typically, the very best pranks are the only concepts. Blizzard got here by means of with an unimaginable thought in 2020, and all they needed to do was put googly eyes on each playable hero in Overwatch. It is onerous to not snigger when a badass like Doomfist is observing you with these huge ol’ eyes.
For Honor tiny characters
Honey, we shrunk the swordsmen! Ubisoft’s contribution to the April Fools’ festivities in 2020 was a small one, nevertheless it made for some huge laughs watching ferocious battles play out amongst such tiny combatants.
NZXT gaming handheld with keyboard
PC maker NZXT’s April Fools’ joke in 2022 had the slight tinge of prophecy connected to it, as they unveiled the pretend H-AND handheld PC. The fictional equipment got here with a “32-core 64-thread APU,” a “tenkeyless pullout keyboard,” “loads of RGB,” and extra. Whereas the keyboard was definitely foolish, moveable PCs have since gained reputation, so possibly they have been on to one thing?
Razer HyperSense go well with
Razer took the “metaverse” thought and kicked it into excessive gear with the HyperSense go well with, a “extremely superior, full-body gaming go well with” powered by haptic expertise. We laughed, then instantly winced excited about its implementation in Meta’s legless Horizon Worlds universe.
Corsair 1% keyboard
Corsair riffed by itself K100 keyboard with the K1–a single key hardwired right into a PC and surrounded by RGB lighting. What’s extra, the one key on the K1 was the “F” key, so we needed to pay respects to the joke.
FFXIV Techniques Alexander
Typically April Fools’ jokes are humorous, and typically they’re simply merciless. Techniques Alexander, a very fictional retro turn-based RPG “revealed” by Sq. Enix in 2017, is one such instance of April cruelty. Why cannot this be actual?
Ms. Pac-Man Google Maps
Google likes to show its engines like google right into a joke throughout April Fools’ time, and typically which means the Google Maps platform turns a map of the world into an enormous recreation of Ms. Pac-Man. That is the sort of April Fools’ innovation we like; possibly we get a Google Maps Mario Kart course in due time?
PlayStation Movement
No, we’re not speaking concerning the console-exclusive indie hit from Thatgamecompany, we’re speaking concerning the 2015 video Sony launched of submersible gaming tools. The goggles in your eyes and the bands in your legs and arms would mix to allow you to really swim by means of underwater moments in your favourite video games. So far as elaborate April Fools’ Day pranks go, Sony had a winner right here.
Sanic Assortment
The “Sanic” meme that includes a baby’s drawing of Sega’s iconic hedgehog reached new heights in 2018, when Sega created precise official merchandise that includes the off-shoot Sonic. The merch was solely out there for every week, though–“gotta go quick,” certainly.
Struggle Sheng Lengthy in Avenue Fighter II
Lastly, we have now one of the crucial iconic pranks in online game business historical past: Here is the time Digital Gaming Month-to-month satisfied a legion of gamers that Sheng Lengthy–a mistranslation became a person–was hidden in Avenue Fighter II someplace. A model of the character ultimately did debut in Avenue Fighter 4, and whereas he was below a special identify, Gouken bore a really actual resemblance to the previous prank model.
Dave the Diver goes to look a little bit higher in a number of a long time
Dave the Diver has lengthy been a favourite right here within the GameSpot workplaces, thanks partially to its retro-inspired pixel-art visuals. However may the sport be even higher with an injection of ultra-realism? The reply is a particular possibly, however you are going to want the endurance of a saint to expertise the ocean depths in superb 3D. In 2025, developer Mintrocket introduced Dave the Diver: Remastered, and the dangerous information is that you will have to attend till 2049 to play it. The excellent news is that it will be out earlier than The Elder Scrolls 6, no less than.
Delta Drive changed people with kitties, was immediately higher
Take a look at you, along with your human senses and opposable thumbs, taking part in your PC video games. You lack the hunter’s intuition of nature’s perfect–and cuddliest–killing machine, and it is no surprise that Delta Drive determined to ditch people for cats. Tactical gameplay with additional fluff, these killer kitties have been introduced to be the right replacements for fallible people, due to their evening imaginative and prescient, instincts, and normal disdain for human life.
The Talos Precept addressed the brainrot era
Due to years of doomscrolling and brainrot web content material tradition, our brains are extra cooked than an egg that has been microwaved for too lengthy. Thankfully, Croteam noticed a chance and carped that diem by introducing a “streamlined” model of its puzzle recreation, The Talos Precept. Excellent for anybody who did not really feel like charging up their neurons to assist them overcome the sport’s riddles, this new model of the sport changed partitions of textual content with emoji and added Severe Sam video games for background noise.
Heck, you would even generate your individual puzzles within the recreation, utilizing a stage editor. However as a result of having an thought and really executing it are two various things, Croteam added a one-button immediate to do all of the onerous be just right for you.
Cyberpunk 2077 floppy disks appeared cool and cumbersome
Cyberpunk 2077 has been straightforward to buy, however in a really evil act, CD Projekt Crimson introduced {that a} floppy disk model was in development–97,619 3.5-inch floppies, to be actual. It will most likely take a whereas to repeat all that knowledge over, and the acquisition did not embrace a storage container for all these neon yellow diskettes.
Powerwash Simulator turned to grime
In an replace that made us really feel unwell, developer FuturLab introduced an replace for Powerwash Simulator that sucked all of the hygienic pleasure out of the sport. As a substitute of with the ability to blast filthy environments with streams of purifying H20, gamers would as an alternative make these areas worse with instruments that sprayed mud and slime in all places. Please give us a minute; we have to go lie down for a spell.
Sega CLC was the ’90s tackle online game expansions
Humanity known as it hubris once we constructed a gaming tower to the heavens, however we known as it the subsequent logical step in preserving our nostalgia. Sega’s Cartridge Loadable Content material allowed us to have all of the Sonic video games we may ask for on our Sega Genesis, able to play and utterly steady if constructed on a day with none wind stress in any respect.
Rainbow Six Siege you later
Now these are good optics! Whereas there isn’t any all-in-one answer to a scope that works effectively at any vary in Rainbow Six Siege, this little joke recommended the subsequent smartest thing. As a substitute of a single scope, how about all of them? A few years again, Ubisoft recommended attaching a number of of them to your weapons, and it positive was a sight to behold.
