April Fools’ is finally upon us, or as our UK editor John Walker likes to call it: “International Lying Day.” Never fear, readers. We Kotaku bloggers are vigilantly keeping alert for any announcements that seem a little bit too good or too weird to be true. Not me, though. Some April Fools’ jokes are too good to not post–and many of them are actually real. Here are some of the ones that I’ve spotted in the wild:
Today, Sonic’s official Japanese account tweeted the details for a collector’s edition of Sonic Frontiers. It includes a wooden bath bucket, a Sonic print towel, a waterproof Sega Genesis, a non-waterproof Game Gear, and a rubber duck. If it were real, then it would retail for a little over $260. Alas, our dreams of playing a Sega Genesis in the bathtub may never become reality.
Goat Simulator already sounds like just a fantasy, but the official account took it a step further. The poster notes that the movie is accepting open casting calls, but don’t expect your audition to go anywhere. It’s nothing personal. You can watch a short trailer on Tiktok. All this said, PR for Coffee Stain Studios did tell Kotaku, “As history has proven, with Goat Simulator anything is possible. If the internet demands it, we will deliver!”
Spec? We go specs.
Includes an AMD Ryzen 9, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 in a 14" display with QHD 1440p resolution and a 160Hz refresh rate.
Hoyoverse knows that a significant chunk of the fandom wants to kiss the evil Abyss Lector, and they’re not afraid to capitalize on the thirst for April Fools’ clout. Today, the official Genshin Impact Twitter account retweeted a stop-motion video from their official fanworks account that showed “gameplay” of an adorable chibi Abyss Lector. Players previously met the so-called “Enjou” during the Enkanomiya event, where he captured the community’s heart by being a massive flirt. Unfortunately, Abyss Impact is unlikely to ever be playable.
Innersloth needs to be stopped. This year, the Among Us developers not only reused an old joke about horsey crewmates, they also fully committed to the bit. From now until 8PM eastern time, you can play a special “Horse Mode” by updating to the latest version of the game. It features a “neigh” kill sound made by Innersloth’s programmer and a new kill animation for imposters. While the rest of us might ask “Why?,” Among Us asks us “Why not?”
Originally spotted by Polygon, the mobile strategy RPG Cookie Run: Kingdom was turning its cookies into… well, humans. Apparently, that’s what counts for bizarre when your game is about cocoa and raspberry cookies. To be fair, some of the transformations are a lot more odd looking.
I am once again asking video game companies to not fake announce things that I actually want. I am devastated to tell you that the official Fire Emblem: Three Houses tea set was revealed today on April Fools.’ The set features a gorgeous gift box, a cute tea cup and saucer, and blends of every type of tea in the game. Intelligent Systems, I will never forgive you for this.
This is what I like to see: a joke that becomes something that I could play in reality. If you want to play A Short Hike with up to 99 friends, you can download the creator’s multiplayer mod on itch.io for free. The developer won’t be supporting the mode forever, but he encourages players to host the mod on their own server. The mod will have server support for two weeks.
Corsair “announced” the CORSAIR K1 RGB today. No matter how “technologically advanced” the K1 is, I don’t think that anyone is going to be able to play Elden Ring with it. Just to be extra cheeky, the key mainly used in the video is “F.” So you might not be able to jump or move around, but at least you’ll be able to pay your respects.
Have you ever wished that you could more easily watch your favorite content creators eat pizza, silently read, spend twenty years in the character creator, finish chores, or stream without either mic or audio? Well, now you can, at least for today. Twitch has added these categories as part of an April Fools’ gag, though it’s unlikely they’ll be around for long.
We’ll continue to update this list as more companies post their jokes.
Update 4/1/22 4:02 PM E.T.: This article has been updated with more information about one of the jokes.
