The best April Fools’ jokes in gaming

It’s April 1st, the one day of the year when you have to double-check every news story in order to separate fact from fiction.

Throughout the years the gaming industry has taken advantage of this chaos to publish some of its own hoaxes – showing that some of gaming’s biggest companies have a lighter side.

Street Fighter II – Sheng Long Easter Egg

Before the Internet could disprove an article, EGM announced the existence of a hidden unlockable character in Street Fighter II – Sheng Long.

Beating the game without taking any damage and then drawing against the games final boss M. Bison nine times would supposedly unlock the new fighter.

The hoax proved so popular that it influenced Capcom to create two new characters – Akuma and Gouken.

Playstation Flow

April Fools’ 2015 saw the announcement of “Playstation Flow”, new wearable technology from Sony that would combine the PS4’s hardware with real-life swimming.

When reaching an underwater level in any PS4 game, Playstation Flow would allow users to pause and then resume the section in a swimming pool – allowing them to perform the various motions required of their in-game character.

The “technology” comprises of several flow sensors attached to your arms and legs, a pair of goggles that would display the game while swimming and an ioninizing body dryer to get you warm in seconds.

Google Maps Pokemon Challenge

For April Fools’ 2014 Google Maps announced that they would be partnering with Pokemon to allow users to “catch them all around the world”.

Typing “Press Start” in the Android or iPhone version of Google Maps would cause several Pokemon to appear across your local area map allowing you to catch them all.

It would seem that Nintendo took notice of the prank as they recently announced Pokemon GO, the first Pokemon mobile game featuring similar use of geo-location technology.

Journey’s Deathmatch

Tranquil indie game Journey announced the inclusion of a deathmatch mode on 1 April 2013.

As a response to the original game not featuring enough gameplay, “The Rocket Death Match DLC provides a fresh new take on the anonymous online adventure of a person’s life passage and their intersections with others”.

The team went as far as to create the entire mode in-game for the prank and posted a video featuring two players duking it out.

Razer Talon

On April 1st 2011 Razer announced the “Razer Talon”, a glove peripheral aimed at the hardcore PC gaming market.

The Talon would allow gamers to increase their average actions per minute from 100 to over 300 – giving you the edge in RTS, FPS and MMO games.

The Talon was published alongside a full list of technical specifications and included a tissue restoration massage mode and a bottle of Razer “Snake Oil” Hyperspace Lubricant to help prevent any friction and chafing.