April Fools’ Day seems to be loved and disliked in almost equal measure nowadays, but when done well it can at least make us think “huh, it would be cool if that was real” or even raise a smile.
We’ve been looking around at some Nintendo and gaming-themed pranks from this year and there’s a decent range of both. Plenty to make you roll your eyes into infinity, but some good ones, too!
All of the ones below have some link to Nintendo gaming, so let’s get to it.
We’ll be updating this list with more as the day goes on…
The Best April Fools’ Day 2022 Video Game Gags
The Switch ‘Stacker’ – Vooks
This was one of the first to emerge this year courtesy of Vooks, which gets away with being ‘early’ by virtue of time zones and being based in Australia. It definitely qualifies as a good one, with a decent mock-up and a concept that would actually be pretty nifty if it existed. The idea is that a new dock would allow you to insert up to 12 game cartridges at once, then swapping between them with ease on the Switch. It’s rather like an old-school CD swapper, but better.
It’s not an entirely practical idea, but it’s one that we wish was on the cards.
SEGA’s Sonic Frontiers Limited Edition – Sonic.Sega.jp
This came to our attention thanks to @Nibellion on Twitter, with the actual ‘product page’ showing an impressive amount of effort. The joke is probably that it’s not inconceivable for the meme-obsessed Sonic marketing team to actually have an edition like this for Sonic Frontiers – it has a ‘high-quality’ bath tub, a silk towel, a waterproof Mega Drive, a Game Gear (can’t be used in water) and a duck.
Hey, we’d consider buying it.
The Nintendo ‘Flex’ – @Retro_Dodo
This is another product that, actually, would be kind of cool. The pitch is that Nintendo is unveiling the ‘Flex’ to tackle the challenge of the popular Analogue Pocket. It would play Game Boy / Game Boy Color / Game Boy Advance cartridges, connect online for trading and downloads, have a fingerprint reader (for some reason) and wireless charging. It’s a fun one, and kudos on the design.
Yeah, we’d consider buying this too.
The Bearitron Convertible Monitor – LaserBear.net
This is a website that actually sells cases to make modern monitors look like old-school CRTs, just because some of us are old and can’t let go. This April Fools’ goes beyond being a mere ‘case’ to having some magical (fake) technology of a ‘flexible’ screen. It has a fanciful “mechanism that allows the monitor to transition from a completely flat panel to the iconic barrel shape of the Trinitron”, called the ‘Bearitron’.
New Blood Game Development ‘Delayed’ Until 2023
New Blood Games brought us the rather fantastic Dusk on Switch last year, and is definitely a publisher and developer to watch. Its gag was that it was having to delay all of its development work to next year due to its team all being too busy playing Elden Ring. While it’s a decent joke, we suspect some people in the real world have let actual work slide while playing the hugely hyped title from FromSoftware.
We like the ‘announcement posted on Twitter’ format as well — CD Projekt Red have a lot to answer for.
Bulbapedia Became Duckpedia
Popular Pokémon Wiki Bulbapedia has become ‘Duckpedia’, which must be in honour of the rather awesome Quaxly, one of the starters in upcoming release Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.
Those are some of the larks from this year’s 1st April festivities; be sure to share some of your favourites in the comments — we’ll be adding to the ones above throughout the day. If any more really good ones appear, that is.
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