A fools errand
The tradition of April Fools Day on the internet is becoming a bit of a dangerous one. You constantly have your guard up for the entire 24-hour period, lest you be crushed by some awesome product announcement that turns out to be a total prank.
But plenty of people out there still have the good-natured April Fools spirit in them. We rounded up 12 of our favorite April Fools pranks of 2014--some were good, some were bad, and some you just need to see. And yeah, we forgot to include your favorite one. Just... consider that to be another April Fool's joke!
Optimus Prime DLC in Titanfall
Kudos to IGN for striking a good April Fools balance of ever-so-slightly believable in the context of a headline and preposterous enough that you know its a gag once you see it. IGNs endearingly poorly produced video of Optimus Prime DLC in Titanfall is a great example of an inoffensive prank--though it did get our hopes up, if only for a second.
Frostbite is coming to the Wii U
EAs Frostbite 3 engine is not supported Wii U hardware, and an official Twitter account for the product had a snarky post saying that EA had decided to port the engine over after realizing that the Wii U is actually the most powerful of the current systems. The tweet has since been deleted, and was followed by an apology from EAs Peter Moore. You know things went wrong when your boss has to apologize for you.
Sega is making a wearable MegaDrive
Sega had a number of April Fools pranks this year, but the most notable was this wearable Mega Drive, dubbed the Megane Drive (megane being a Japanese term for glasses). Id be way more excited about this than any sort of Google product. Also, you can also find a bunch of other Japan-specific April Fools jokes here, in Kotakus round-up.
Blizzard Outcasts: Vengeance of the Vanquished is releasing soon
Blizzard is known for their elaborate April Fools pranks, and this one didnt disappoint. Blizzard Outcasts: Vengeance of the Vanquished is apparently 2D fighting game with heroes from all of Blizzards franchises, including Dirt Devil from Rock n Roll Racing, this is probably the fake Blizzard game that Id be most interested in playing.
You can catch Pokemon in Google Maps
Google is known for adding funny functionality to its products on April Fools Day, but this addition of collectible Pokemon to its Maps app is the most directly gaming-related in recent memory. Theres not much to it; all you do is hunt around the map and tap on Pokemon to add them to your Pokedex, but its well fleshed-out for what it is.
Fez II is back on!
Oh, Phil Fish. One of the more volatile game industry personalities, the Fez creator shut down his Twitter account several months back after a very public feud. But before stepping out of the spotlight, he announced that his new game, Fez 2, was canceled. He made his Twitter public again on April Fools Day with an update that said only im back! FEZ II is back on! He hasnt updated since.
Huge heads in Guild Wars 2
Its one thing to say youre doing or making something as a joke, but ArenaNet actually went in and made some changes to their game, effectively turning on something of a big head modefor all characters in Guild Wars 2. Hopefully the big noggins didnt hamper visibility too much.
There's going to be a Garrus Vakarian Body Pillow
Bioware actually had a couple of fake items up in their store, but the most amusing is this Garrus Vakarian body pillow. Garrus is objectively the sexiest character in the Mass Effect universe, so the only disappointment about this joke is that the product wasnt actually available for purchase.
Arma 3 is getting Karts
I dont know much about Arma 3, but it seems to have a bit of a reputation as a hyper-realistic, serious military simulator. This prank, detailing the introduction of a karting mode for the game, also parodied a certain recent car ad featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Firefly is coming back!
Look, I know we specialize in games over here (weird, right?), but this Firefly prank managed to raise my ire. In case you werent aware, the TVAddict story claiming that Netflix would revive the beloved series is a total falsehood. Low blow, fellas. Low blow.
IGNs lists its Top 7 Games Radars... wait
Pulling double-duty with a second prank late on April Fools Day, IGN posted a list of their top 7 radars in games, featuring, among others, Dash Radar from Shadows of the Empire and Tomb Raiders illustrious protagonist, Tomb Radar. You know its an April Fools prank because we didnt make the list. Jerks.
Half Life 3, The Last Guardian, Shenmue 3, and Psychonauts 2 reviewed!
Sorry, but this Half Life 3 review review we posted is only one of four April Fools reviews we posted this year, sitting among several other hotly anticipated titles that may or may not actually see the light of day. Check out our hopeful reviews of Shenmue 3, Psychonauts 2, and The Last Guardian. And yes, we included this because it was our joke.
Foolish
So those were the pranks that caught our eye. Did you see any other hilarious pranks? Any other mercilessly disappointing gags? Let us know in the comments!
And if you're looking for more, check out our prank from last year and game tie-ins that radically changed the movie's plots.
