It’s April Fool’s Day, and with it will surely come a barrage of fake news. But not the terrible kind of fake news that’s emerged since this last election cycle; this is fake news of the good-natured fun variety. We’ve put together a list of some of the best April Fool’s jokes and pranks to hit the gaming world from the last few years.
The Legend of Zelda Netflix Series
This 2015 April Fool’s prank from Smosh brought together the gravel-voiced narrator from Honest Trailers with some delightfully low-budget cosplay, substituting the fantasy kingdom of Hyrule for what appears to be a public park in Southern California. If you love whacking the hell out of cuckoos and pots in The Legend of Zelda games, give this video a spin and imagine what might have been if Link and Zelda had their own Game of Thrones rip-off.
VR Headsets for Cats
Think back, if you will, to April 2016. A more innocent time in many ways: for one, gaming companies had unbound enthusiasm for VR, secure in the knowledge everyone would buy a headset. Even cats! As their April Fool’s joke for 2016, Asus announced MeowVR, the first virtual reality headset for cats, allowing your feline bestie to experience what it’s like to be gang-brushed by many subservient humans. Cats haven’t had it this good since the days of the Pharaohs.
ASUS Meow VRChocobo Uber
Last year, Square Enix announced (fake) plans to launch a mobile transportation app called Choco-Go, which allows you to hire a chocobo to ride on the fly. Oh man, we wish this one was the real deal, too. “These chocobos are autonomous, friendly, and have built-in WiFi connectivity,” says a (fake) scientist at the (sadly also fake) FFXIV Chocobo Lab. Adorable and efficient! Plus, you even get to pick your preferred chocobo color.
Underwater PlayStation
Expect water-related puns by the gallon in this video for this entirely not-real scuba add-on for the PS4. (Pool sold separately.) “We’re taking gaming out of the living room and into the swimming pool,” says Ariel Ingannare, Wearable Tech Manager, PlayStation Wearable Entertainment Technology. Her title sounds very official -- look at all those capitalized words! -- but we promise it’s not a real thing. Sony released this video for the PlayStation Flow as an April Fool’s 2015 prank. But hey, maybe they’ll reconsider in time for the release of The Last of Us 2.
Ace Attorney… with Dogs
Okay, so this trailer is entirely spoken in barks with Japanese text, but look at those adorable character designs! Back in 2015, Capcom announced Dog Ace Attorney, a (fake) spinoff of the popular graphic novel / adventure series, based on the Miyazaki TV series Sherlock Hound. We happen to think this would have sold well, no bones about it.
Optimus Prime comes to Titanfall
Back in 2014, IGN announced Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots and walking semi-truck thing, would be coming to Titanfall as a playable character as part of the (very fake) Titanfall Prime DLC. Sadly, there would be no Transformers cameo in Respawn’s first-person shooter, and 80s kids wept the world over.
A very bloody Persona 5 trailer with dead birds
Persona 5 finally comes to the Americas and Europe next Tuesday (wheee!), but back in 2014, fans were still hungry for any new info about the latest installment of the beloved JRPG franchise. Some of those fans decided to have a little fun with it, in the form of this April Fool’s Persona 5 trailer. Creepy, dark fun. Yes, it’s a joke, but we’d totally play the hell out of this game.
Are there any of these April Fool’s jokes you would have liked to see make the leap to reality? Some gems you know of that we neglected to include in our list? Let us know in the comments.
