[Myth Bustin'] April Fools 2009

EvilBadman

We find ourselves at the magical time of year where print magazines, if they still existed or if anyone read them, would have overwhelmed us with ridiculous April Fool's gags. This thread is to wade through the bullshit that will be inundating our internet tubes in the coming week and to relive some of the previous years pranks.

In Recent Memory:

2008 - IGN Releases The Legend of Zelda Movie Trailer
Strangely preceded by .gifs appearing on various websites, IGN drops the bomb, and it doesn't look as terrible as many other video game movies end up being.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oqwFNKN8MA

2007 - Think Geek's 8-Bit Tie
Stylish and nerdy, Think Geek eventually produced and sold the tie due to incredible demand.

2003 (?) - Pandarens join Warcraft 3 as 5th Race
Blizzard shot up an entire mini-site to the lovable furballs. The Frozen Throne did see the birth of Pandaren Brewmaster mecenary units, and the pen and paper gamers based on World Of Warcraft allows the creation of Pandaren heroes.

2002 - EGM "reveals" how to unlock Sonic and Tails in Super Smash Brothers Melee
And the internet is still reeling, even after Brawl's release.

2001 - Bungie announces Pimps at Sea
And every year they add a little to it. There's even a T-Shirt. A man can dream.

April Fool's! It's Actually REAL!
Games that have been announced during late march that lead to skepticism are few and far between, but Nights (Wii), Mario and Sonic at the Summer Games, and Rock Band were in fact not figments of our collective imagination.

What's in-store for '09?


Habitual offenders such as Blizzard, ThinkGeek and IGN undoubtedly have tricks up their sleeves, and until then the following images are placeholders.

• Bemanistyle announces Beatmania IIDX 17 Casino

• Nomura does or does not announce a new Kingdom Hearts game in Famitsu. [1up/IGN]

Until that magical day happens stumbles us again, let's talk about our favorite gags from yesteryear.

Brian

I remember I think it was SOE did one a couple years back saying all the big MMO companies agreed to make all of their games unite and people could take their chars and play in the other games with their friends and vice versa. EQ bards rolling with FFXI warriors and such.

UnbreakableVow

Man, how do you not mention Sheng Long?

Mouschi

Don't forget Google, as far as geeky April Foolery goes. Remember GMail Paper?

EvilBadman

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Man, how do you not mention Sheng Long?

Because I wanted someone else to. Please enlighten us.

Vincent Grayson

What about GIA's somewhat infamous FF8 Gaiden, which was one of the first really well-done fake videogame April Fool's jokes?

Arcibi

Every year there's been a new Street Fighter game since SF2 - EGM has claimed Sheng Long is a hidden boss character with insane requirements to encounter (like, eight perfects and going five or so rounds with Bison ending in ties)

Viscountalpha

Arcibi wrote: »

Every year there's been a new Street Fighter game since SF2 - EGM has claimed Sheng Long is a hidden boss character with insane requirements to encounter (like, eight perfects and going five or so rounds with Bison ending in ties)

Well, EGM can go die in a fire

Oh wait....

Ultimanecat

All Bonds. Goldeneye. EGM.

Friendships were destroyed.

EvilBadman

High five, viscount.

Arcibi

Viscountalpha wrote: »

Arcibi wrote: »

Every year there's been a new Street Fighter game since SF2 - EGM has claimed Sheng Long is a hidden boss character with insane requirements to encounter (like, eight perfects and going five or so rounds with Bison ending in ties)

Well, EGM can go die in a fire

Oh wait....

I'm sure they would have done it yet again this year if they were still around

Arcibi

Oh, and let's not forget Mushroom Kingdom Hearts and Lego Halo

Feriluce

Arcibi wrote: »

Viscountalpha wrote: »

Arcibi wrote: »

Every year there's been a new Street Fighter game since SF2 - EGM has claimed Sheng Long is a hidden boss character with insane requirements to encounter (like, eight perfects and going five or so rounds with Bison ending in ties)

Well, EGM can go die in a fire

Oh wait....

I'm sure they would have done it yet again this year if they were still around

Technically Sheng Long is in SFIV under his real name, not the confusion from Ryu's win quote in SFII.
One of Gouken's titles is even "Also known as Sheng Long".

Kris

I thought Youtube Rick-Rolling everyone was pretty good. :^:

Arcibi

Feriluce wrote: »

Arcibi wrote: »

Viscountalpha wrote: »

Arcibi wrote: »

Every year there's been a new Street Fighter game since SF2 - EGM has claimed Sheng Long is a hidden boss character with insane requirements to encounter (like, eight perfects and going five or so rounds with Bison ending in ties)

Well, EGM can go die in a fire

Oh wait....

I'm sure they would have done it yet again this year if they were still around

Technically Sheng Long is in SFIV under his real name, not the confusion from Ryu's win quote in SFII.
One of Gouken's titles is even "Also known as Sheng Long".

This is EGM we're talking about here

The only thing that would stop them from doing it again would be if they stopped making EGM

And oh hey, would you look at that

Sir Platypus

EGM does it best.

Feriluce

One I remember reading and was foolish enough to believe at the time was in C&VG I think it was. They had a preview for a fighting game that included characters from many games from a couple different companies. Tekken, Soul Blade, Virtua Fighter, Fighting Vipers etc... it may have been just Namco and Sega games, but I'm not sure.

EvilBadman

Feriluce wrote: »

One I remember reading and was foolish enough to believe at the time was in C&VG I think it was. They had a preview for a fighting game that included characters from many games from a couple different companies. Tekken, Soul Blade, Virtua Fighter, Fighting Vipers etc... it may have been just Namco and Sega games, but I'm not sure.

Just so we're clear, you're not talking about Fighters Megamix, right?

Feriluce

EvilBadman wrote: »

Feriluce wrote: »

One I remember reading and was foolish enough to believe at the time was in C&VG I think it was. They had a preview for a fighting game that included characters from many games from a couple different companies. Tekken, Soul Blade, Virtua Fighter, Fighting Vipers etc... it may have been just Namco and Sega games, but I'm not sure.

Just so we're clear, you're not talking about Fighters Megamix, right?

Nope, definitely not. I think that's where they got the idea though. It was called something similar, like Fighters Ultramix or something to that effect.

Viscountalpha

this is my favorite one of all--

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/hats-ties/9352/

The joke was on them when everyone actually wanted one.

Kelor

Kris wrote: »

I thought Youtube Rick-Rolling everyone was pretty good. :^:

As much as I loathe Rick-Rolling that was easily my favourite one last year.

I saw that and thought to myself well played Youtube.

Well Played.

Ultimanecat

Viscountalpha wrote: »

this is my favorite one of all--

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/hats-ties/9352/

The joke was on them when everyone actually wanted one.

No good sir, the joke is on you.

edit: it's already mentioned in the op

Gunstar

Kelor wrote: »

Kris wrote: »

I thought Youtube Rick-Rolling everyone was pretty good. :^:

As much as I loathe Rick-Rolling that was easily my favourite one last year.

I saw that and thought to myself well played Youtube.

Well Played.

the best rick roll i ever got was being awake at 4AM, watching MTV, and seeing a show called busted. It was really stupid, basically, but ridiculous and easy to laugh at in my sleep-deprived state.

So anyways I fumble into MTV's section on on demand and see they have a few episodes. Flipping through the descriptions I found most of them were just really boring "getting busted" stories.

Until I hit the motherlode. This episode was gonna be so awesome, it had sex and drugs and violence. So I hit OK to order it, and Rick Astley pops up on the screen.

I sat there in quiet silence for the 4 minute duration of the song. With my mouth wide open. I had been fooled, just when I thought it was safe.

Hell MTV even went through the trouble to lie about the runtime of the video in the description.

Chrono Helix

I still remember EGM had one where you could unlock nude mode in one of the DOA Beach Volleyballs. "Rock on, you pervs!" The letters sent in the next issue were great.

Viscountalpha

Ultimanecat wrote: »

Viscountalpha wrote: »

this is my favorite one of all--

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/hats-ties/9352/

The joke was on them when everyone actually wanted one.

No good sir, the joke is on you.

edit: it's already mentioned in the op

Feriluce

C&VG also had a nude cheat for the original Tomb Raider on the PS. You had to tap a bunch of buttons on the controller to the beat of the Spice Girls song Wannabe.

Mr_Grinch

I can't remember which magazine it was but someone put up a gore code for Mortal Kombat on the SNES and then showed screenshots of extra special gory finishers, like Kano ripping someone in half.

I must have spent 2 days trying to get those cheats to work on a friends SNES.

Echo

No April fools is complete without a gag race/class/unit from Blizzard for one of their games.

Viscountalpha

Echo wrote: »

No April fools is complete without a gag race/class/unit from Blizzard for one of their games.

Something like the new protoss in SC3 will have hybrid human/protoss infiltrators.

UnbreakableVow

Echo wrote: »

No April fools is complete without a gag race/class/unit from Blizzard for one of their games.

They should actually do one on April Fool's Day this year.

Monsty

I was a fan of Blizzard's low-tech Molten Core console game. Sure, it was supposed to be obviously fake... but it was still funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGom_CCz4so

Feriluce

Viscountalpha wrote: »

Echo wrote: »

No April fools is complete without a gag race/class/unit from Blizzard for one of their games.

Something like the new protoss in SC3 will have hybrid human/protoss infiltrators.

I want a bard class wielding electric guitars... that looked awesome.
At least they have the Tauren Chieftains.

Rhesus Positive

Wizards of the Coast brought out a sneak preview of the 4th edition D&D character sheet last year, which was chock full of jokes; I can't seem to find it online any more, though.

Traikan

Marked for reading + 4e joke sheet.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4dnd/20080401b

Rent

Oh, we're talking about the best April Fool's jokes, huh?
In my mind, nothing beats EGM's AFD 2005.

EGM wrote:

Preorder deals for videogames tend to fall into three categories:enticing(like the Resident Evil 4 making-of DVD), typical (the Metroid Prime 2: Echoes T-shirt), and incredibly lame (one extremely useless Need for Speed Underground 2 cheat code). But not Nintendo's upcoming giveaway--this one's easily in a class of its own.

Beggining the first day of April, those who plop down at least $10 on this fall's highly anticipated and mature-looking The Legend of Zelda for GameCube will receive a bonus disc that features a visually remade version of Link's 2003 adventure, The Wind Waker. So instead of a cartoony look, the ever-popular elf will be traveling the oceean blue in search of his little sis with the same superslick and grown-up graphics as the next console installment.

But that's not all: The game will also include two full-length dungeons that were cut from the original Wind Waker because series creator and legendary game designers Shigeru Miyamoto felt "it had gotten too big for all ages to play." Told you this oh-so-sweet deal deserves its own category.

I fell for this one hardcore. Really didn't help that the local EB Games was swearing it was real and accepting pre-orders whilst trumpeting "updated Wind Waker" as a bonus.

Monsty

Wow, that's evil. I had no problems with how Windwaker looked(it was awesome), but still I would punch a nun to get that version.

That's just mean mean mean!

Peewi

One year, Blizzard's aprils fools was that there would be playable two-headed ogres in WoW, controlled by two players at the same time and I actually believed it.

Sixfortyfive

Man, how did anybody fall for any of EGM's stuff after Street Fighter 2?

Ampix

So since this is the Bustin' thread, I chalk up Onlive as a definite April Fool's joke. It just wouldn't work, the lag is way too noticeable. Wikipedia says that the transfer speed through a DVI cable (so from your computer to your screen) is 3.96 Gbit/s, that's what it would have to match. They say that 1.5 Mbit/s will be enough for SD... sure fellas.

Dehumanized

Vincent Grayson wrote: »

What about GIA's somewhat infamous FF8 Gaiden, which was one of the first really well-done fake videogame April Fool's jokes?

Yeah, I miss that site. They always had great April Fools' stuff. The FF8 Gaiden one even got picked up in a pretty decent number of print publications, as I recall.

Vincent Grayson

Dehumanized wrote: »

Vincent Grayson wrote: »

What about GIA's somewhat infamous FF8 Gaiden, which was one of the first really well-done fake videogame April Fool's jokes?

Yeah, I miss that site. They always had great April Fools' stuff. The FF8 Gaiden one even got picked up in a pretty decent number of print publications, as I recall.

I thought it quite fitting that their "We're closing forever" announcement came on April Fool's Day (2002, IIRC), and no one was sure if it was real.