Frasier Pinball, Horses In Among Us, And More Of The Best Gaming April Fools’ Day Jokes Ever
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Foolin’ around
April Fools’ Day approaches every year with a palpable sense of curiosity and dread. For every half-smile we crack at a gaming company’s attempt at a prank, there are other times we hold our heads in our hands wondering what that company was thinking.
In this gallery, we’ve collected some of the best April Fools’ efforts from gaming’s long history. From a magazine article that sent street fighters a-flutter to a keyboard consisting of a single key, these are the pranks that made us laugh the most. PSA to game companies: These are the kinds of jokes we like.
GameSpot’s Breath of the Wild Guardian video
Yes, we’re starting the list with one of our own pranks. No, we are not biased in the slightest. On April Fools’ Day in 2017, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was not even a month old, and players were still discovering all of its hidden secrets. We thought we’d capitalize with this cheeky video on how to mount a Guardian, and then turn its laser weapon on other enemies. If only it were true.
IGN’s live-action Legend Of Zelda trailer
We’re not the only publication to pull a Zelda-themed video prank. Some of you may recall when IGN produced a full trailer for a live-action movie adaptation of Nintendo’s adventure series, which honestly could have served as a good starting point for a real film. Perhaps the upcoming project directed by Wes Ball will take some pointers.
Game Informer’s Darth Clark
Rounding out a trifecta of April Fools’ media mischief is the ever-irreverent Darth Clark, who has terrorized the Game Infarcer section of Game Informer’s April issue for years. His presence was particularly felt in 2013, when multiple GI readers wrote to the editorial staff of Clark’s column–despite the word “parody” at the bottom of the page.
Among Us Horse mode
Someone at Among us developer Innersloth was clearly watching old episodes of Mr. Ed in 2022, as the company released a trailer for a mode featuring equine versions of the little spacemen just in time for April Fools’. The four-legged friends did make their way into the game for a limited time, so while some might have been annoyed, you can’t look a gift (space) horse in the mouth.
Frasier pinball
Also in 2022, Stern Pinball created quite a stir with this limited-edition Frasier pinball set to enjoy after eating your tossed salad and scrambled eggs. Unfortunately, the link in the post rolled right into a song by a guy named Rick, which left Frasier fans wanting more.
World of Warcraft T.I.N.D.R. Box
Sometimes, even Level 70 Death Knights need love. This was the focus of Blizzard’s World Of Warcraft T.I.N.D.R Box prank in 2015, which gave players an in-game item that, once given to a garrison member, could help them find their true love. WoW has a long history of April Fools’ jokes and great fake patch notes.
Final Fantasy 14’s fighting game
Technically this entry came after April Fools’ Day–April 25, to be precise–but the idea of a Final Fantasy XIV fighting game was a tantalizing one. Sadly, Ultimate Fight never came to be, but for one shining moment, we believed.
The Yakuza April Fools’ RPG video that ended up being what Yakuza 7 actually was
While Yakuza 7 was in development, Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio released an April Fools’ trailer detailing a shift in the franchise’s combat mechanics from a free-flowing action style to a turn-based model. Legend has it that fan reaction was so positive, the studio decided to actually make the change, and Yakuza: Like A Dragon as we know it was born.
Overwatch googly eyes
Sometimes, the best pranks are the simplest ideas. Blizzard came through with an incredible idea in 2020, and all they had to do was put googly eyes on every playable hero in Overwatch. It’s hard not to laugh when a badass like Doomfist is staring at you with those big 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, but it made for some big 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 attached to it, as they unveiled the fake H-AND handheld PC. The fictional kit came with a “32-core 64-thread APU,” a “tenkeyless pullout keyboard,” “plenty of RGB,” and more. While the keyboard was certainly silly, portable PCs have since gained popularity, so maybe they were on to something?
Razer HyperSense suit
Razer took the “metaverse” idea and kicked it into high gear with the HyperSense suit, a “highly advanced, full-body gaming suit” powered by haptic technology. We laughed, then immediately winced thinking about its implementation in Meta’s legless Horizon Worlds universe.
Corsair 1% keyboard
Corsair riffed on its own K100 keyboard with the K1–a single key hardwired into a PC and surrounded by RGB lighting. What’s more, the single key on the K1 was the “F” key, so we had to pay respects to the joke.
FFXIV Tactics Alexander
Sometimes April Fools’ jokes are funny, and sometimes they’re just cruel. Tactics Alexander, a completely fictional retro turn-based RPG “revealed” by Square Enix in 2017, is one such example of April cruelty. Why can’t this be real?
Ms. Pac-Man Google Maps
Google likes to turn its search engines into a joke during April Fools’ time, and sometimes that means the Google Maps platform turns a map of the world into a massive game of Ms. Pac-Man. This is the kind of April Fools’ innovation we like; maybe we get a Google Maps Mario Kart course in due time?
PlayStation Flow
No, we’re not talking about the console-exclusive indie hit from Thatgamecompany, we’re talking about the 2015 video Sony released of submersible gaming equipment. The goggles for your eyes and the bands for your arms and legs would combine to let you actually swim through underwater moments in your favorite games. As far as elaborate April Fools’ Day pranks go, Sony had a winner here.
Sanic Collection
The “Sanic” meme featuring a child’s drawing of Sega’s iconic hedgehog reached new heights in 2018, when Sega created actual official merchandise featuring the off-shoot Sonic. The merch was only available for a week, though–“gotta go fast,” indeed.
Fight Sheng Long in Street Fighter II
Finally, we have one of the most iconic pranks in video game industry history: Here’s the time Electronic Gaming Monthly convinced a legion of players that Sheng Long–a mistranslation turned into a person–was hidden in Street Fighter II somewhere. A version of the character eventually did debut in Street Fighter 4, and while he was under a different name, Gouken bore a very real resemblance to the old prank version.
