April Fools Day 2019 round-up: Prepare to groan (and wish some were real)

April Fools Day 2019 is here, and the video game jokes are just as clever, cheesy, and all around weird as you could hope. There are hot pink events for otherwise tacti-cool games, intentionally muddy textures or straight-up acid trip color schemes, and a surprising number of voice assistants, just to name a few.

Play these April Fools 2019 pranks

We'll start by highlighting all of the pranks that you can actually play or otherwise experience for yourself right now, because overcommitting to a silly joke that will only be relevant for a few days at most should always be given special consideration.

Rainbow Six Siege has something for everypony

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The Rainbow is Magic event for Rainbow Six Siege is full of pink and unicorns, and it even has a special new mission on a toy plane complete with teddy-bear suited hostages to rescue or restrain. And yes, you can totally unlock all of that pastel gear to use forever.

Cuddle your own official Garrus body pillow

An official Garrus Vakarian body pillow cover can soon be yours (you'll have to provide your own pillow to fill it). BioWare opted not to go with the full booty pose because science has still not determined what Turian butts look like.

Capcom gets presidential

Capcom honors its arcade roots with this bizarre shoot-em-up you can play in your browser. You control the President of the World and belch endless fireballs at Balrog from Street Fighter.

 Rabbids invade For Honor 

Think Rabbids are played out? Why not log back into For Honor and start slaying them by the dozen? For one day only Ubisoft has swapped out all the minion units for every faction with its screaming rabbity things.

Totally Accurate Battle Simulator arrives with a rickroll

After years of teases (and some fun side projects like Totally Accurate Battlegrounds), Totally Accurate Battle Simulator has legitimately hit Steam Early Access. But given it's April Fools, the devs couldn't resist kicking things off with a rickroll.

Yooka-Laylee gets actual 64-era visuals

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Yooka-Laylee gets even more retro-inspired with this new 64-Bit tonic update. Hit up Vendi, grab the tonic, and explore a world of simplified textures, a low-locked framerate, and even a glowy CRT filter for your screen.

League of Legends goes to the dogs

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I haven't played League in years so I was really confused when I opened up this trailer, but it's legit. Several characters received new puppy-themed skins, including Fizz, who is literally a puppy now.

World of Tanks goes back to 2011

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World of Tanks has changed a whole lot since 2011, but you're free to go back to the old days of tanks free-hanging off of ledges and leaving utterly immovable wrecks for the next few days in this special classic-mode event.

War Thunder gives you the keys to a flying saucer

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Flying saucers beat jets any day of the week.

Watch these pranks now, realize you actually want them later

You can't play these for yourself (at least not right now) but pretending is fun too.

Rage 2 gets an NBA Jam announcer cheat

Everything's better with the announcer from NBA Jam shouting "boomshakalaka" in the background. That goes double for the antics of Rage 2. I think this one might actually be real, though we won't be able to play with it until Rage 2 comes out.

Control goes technicolor

Remedy Entertainment isn't huge on bright colors, as we've seen in Quantum Break, Alan Wake, and Max Payne. A Technicolor Mode from them is long overdue, IMO.

Prepare for the Yakuza RPG

The problem with prank April Fools' announcements is there are always at least a couple I wish were real. This turn-based Yakuza RPG is one of them. And yes, I know Yakuza Online exists but it's not out in the US and it's not the same!

Final Fantasy gets a home assistant/assailant

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This prank converts the sentient, unknowably powerful weapon that appears across multiple Final Fantasy games into your own Alexa-style voice assistant. Alexa would be cooler if she could float around your house. Less cool if she killed you though.

Nvidia Ron wins your internet arguments for you

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Another voice assistant, but instead of overtly trying to ruin your life and ultimately end it, this one will win your comment section arguments for you.

World of Warcraft's patch notes have Tinder for dungeons

We've come a long way from teasing Guitar Hero controller support for in-game rocking, but at least these WoW patch notes have some good laughs. Special props to "New Death Knight travel form: Death Leopard".

Conan Chop Chop looks kind of fun actually

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The joke's on you Funcom, I'd probably rather play this goofy top-down cartoon Conan game than Conan Exiles. That's not really Exiles' fault, I just hate online survival games.

Chief Executive Omni-Weapon Ken-ichi fights for Platinum

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Platinum Games gave its president and CEO Kenichi Sato a Vanquish-style robot suit complete with a thruster that comes out of his ass. The best part of the whole video is the slide that shows his 57th birthday like it's a release date.

The EDF 6 rap was inevitable

Listen, it's a bunch of EDF soldiers rapping in Japanese and dancing alongside giant mascots. It just works.

Now that's what I call Warhammer: Vermintide

One of the characters in Warhammer: Vermintide  and Vermintide 2 has a habit of bursting into song. It's more drinking ballads than wholesome musical, but the developers still put together a songbook for them (though I think it might have been "sold out" to begin with).

Corsair Game Launcher Launcher

With Epic Game Store starting to shake up Valve's near-monopoly on PC gaming launchers, Corsair Game Launcher Launcher has a solution for folks who just can't stand all those desktop icons.

The Lightning Round

Ready for more? These April Fools' pranks speak for themselves.

Kirby's gone square

And BoxBoy's gone round

Tekken boss joins Tekken

A Sniper Elite gun dating sim

Doom slays a happy little demon

Worms for Teletext

For more games that you can actually look forward to, check out our list of new games 2019. Or watch what's coming up in the week ahead with our latest Release Radar video