If you like reading videogame magazines or visiting game news websites, you're probably pretty familiar with the increasingly common practice of throwing in an April Fools gag amongst the game news. Classically, the prank has either been the astounding announcement of a nonexistent game or a fake code to a game that might get players to work hard at unlocking something that doesn't exist.

I'm wondering what people think about this... On one hand, it can be fun to guess which news stories are the jokes, and to laugh at those who take the fall. On the other hand, it can lead to wasted time and crushed hopes, as well as a weeklong era of paranoia.

Personally, I hate it. It's spreading so much that even a week before or after April 1st, legitimate news stories are questioned. And the sites and magazines that do pull pranks think they're so clever. I hate the fact that I can visit a games site on April 1st and not even know what to believe.

I think it's fun when they do obviously fake pranks. Those are funny. But I think the trickery's getting a bit old.

I remember falling for the "unlock Sonic in Smash Bros. Melee" trick in EGM a few years back. That wasn't really fun.

How many copies of DOA:Xtreme Beach Volleyball were sold because of that topless cheat...

I don't mind the over-the-top ridiculous ones like the force feedback pants, but the ones where they try to trick you into something that looks potentially really cool (Mushroom Kingdom Hearts, anyone?) I find it quite tiresome. Quite tiresome indeed.

The one that got me was Sheng Long in Street Fighter 3. I didn't even read the story in EGM, but my friends did and were completely convinced it was real. So of course they tell me and we tried our hardest to unlock him. Sure, I still enjoyed the game, but looking back, I wasted a lot of quarters on a lie.

Back in 2005, IGN said that they had the first exclusive trailer for GTA4...

Actually, that one's pretty funny.

I remember the very very first one. The EGM one that had the Shen Long code for Street Fighter 2. I thought it was real, but I actually wasn't interested because it looked like a Ryu palette swap.

That one was so famous, eventually Capcom created Akuma/Gouki based on the idea.

I like what Game Informer does- they devote a small section of the April issue to 'Game Infarcer', a parody of the magazine where all the fake shit goes.

Hehheh, Wii Balls...

Hijuda
I like what Game Informer does- they devote a small section of the April issue to 'Game Infarcer', a parody of the magazine where all the fake shit goes.

Hehheh, Wii Balls...

I loved the Mother Theresa's Feed Starving Children review. Brilliant. "It uses knives. Did you know that the number one use of knives in the United States is gamers killing eachother?"

GameNOW, which is now defunct, had a brilliant prank involving Metal Gear Solid 2 awhile back. Metal Gear Solid X was the prank. It was supposed to be a remake of MGS2. The preview had images of several events from MGS2 though from Snake's eyes.

Shame that was a joke. I really wanted to explore Shell 2.

I remember last year an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto popped up onto one of the larger Zelda fansites within a week of April Fools. It had a lot of juicy information on Twilight Princess, including some new features and the reasons for the delay. Of course all of it was false. But not even a day went by before the whole website vanished from the internet. And it has never come back. I'm wondering if maybe Nintendo stepped in decided it wasn't cool.

If so, I'm wondering if their little gag was worth losing the entire site.