It’s that time of year again. Love it or hate it, game companies love to get in on the April Fool’s action, sometimes going as far as to make some super elaborate fake game announcements, or even mess with the actual structure of their current games for a limited time. While there are far too many to keep track of, we love to collect our favorites. Or in this case, my favorites.
Shovel Knight 64: After much demand from the audience, Yacht Club games has finally announced Shovel Knight 64 . Of course, this is the April Fool’s version, which means as you read the announcement you can see the monkey paw’s finger curling in the back of your mind. Yep, this was not the “64” everyone had in mind. It’s Shovel Knight , for the Commodore 64!
Waddle Dee’s 25 Anniversary: Nintendo, of course, has to promote its most recent game for its jokes, and that happens to be Kirby: Star Allies . So this year, Nintendo announced that it’s time to celebrate the series’ greatest hero: Waddle Dee! The Waddle Dee 25 Anniversary Celebration includes the announcement of two new games, Waddle Dee: Battle Royale and Waddle Dee: Star Allies . This one’s just silly, but I love it especially for Nintendo’s extremely Japanese, “there are no actual sales, please understand,” bit.
Pokemon GO: Retro Edition: Pokemon GO actually saw an in-game effect to celebrate April Fools this year. In the UI elements of the game, namely the menus and Pokemon tracker, all the little character graphics have been changed to the 16-bit sprite style used in many of the Pokemon games in years past.
The rise and fall of Eevee’s pro wrestling career: Red-hot wrestling promotion New Japan Pro Wrestling made an emergency announcement over the weekend. The company had a hot new signee out of nowhere – the Pokemon Eevee. Eevee was a huge get for the company, with the ability to dazzle audiences with its immeasurable cuteness. But the little Pokemon also has in-ring chops, and wrestled the notorious EVIL to a draw in a non-televised match. Unfortunately, after the match it was discovered that Eevee doesn’t actually meet the NJPW height requirements, and had to tragically resign shortly after. Unfortunately it was too late to cancel Eevee’s upcoming appearance in Tekken 7 , which was announced alongside NJPW’s press release. What a mess!
Rocket League went big: People playing Rocket League would notice the toppers on top of cars, which are often hats, were ridiculously huge for the day. Blame the Embiggened Mode!
Final Fantasy XIV Online Go : Square Enix revealed a fake mobile app called Final Fantasy XIV Online Gathering Outdoors , which would have people go into the world to allegedly get materials to use in-game. This one even included a fake trailer!