Your April Fools' Day 2017 Round-Up

April Fools' Day is always kind of a toss-up when it comes to gaming. On one hand, I think the fundamental concept of a bunch of gaming companies creating fake products or features for games that are usually not very funny is kind of lame. On the other hand, sometimes the jokes are really good. On your newly-spawned, incredibly useful third hand, the absolute best jokes are usually stuff I'd like to see happen but probably won't. On the final, robotic and fully sentient fourth hand, sometimes those things do become real, and April Fools' Day can occasionally act as a proving ground for outlandish-but-cool ideas.

Anyway, here's the best April Fools' Day-related gaming stuff we've found.

Check back throughout the day for regular updates!

Street Fighter EX Characters Return In New Fighting Game
This one straddles the line between real and fake. The game featured in the above video, which features characters from the long-forgotten Street Fighter EX series, is fully playable, according to Arika's Ichiro Mihara. In fact, the game was playable at an exhibition event in Japan, though Mihara was a bit concerned that no one was going to show up because everyone thought it was fake. The "Fools'" part was supposed to be that this was the game the previously-announced exhibition would be centered around. Considering the amount of effort put into this, I'm going to guess it's in the "gauging interest" category where, if the reaction is positive enough, it could move forward. And I really want it to.

Netflix Live
It's technically not about video games, but Will Arnett was in a game once, which is close enough. Anyway, Netflix Live has Arnett narrating random goings-on in the Netflix office, supposedly live (it showed up on March 31 as "sneak peek" to a new show). It's surprisingly well done considering the premise. And although you'll now have to view on Netlfix it with a big "CANCELED" sticker on the whole thing, it's worth watching.

Fire Emblem: Battle Of Revolution
Because Japan's quite a few hours ahead of us, the official page for the fake Fire Emblem game it announced yesterday (our time) is no longer available. So let me paint a picture of it for you: it was going to feature retro-style graphics and be out for the 3DS and Switch, and would launch the same day as the actual Fire Emblem game out this month in Japan, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. It was kind of funny. You had to be there.

SNEAK PEEK: The Future of Clan Battles pic.twitter.com/qlv1HMdHoK

— Clash Royale (@ClashRoyale) April 1, 2017

Clash Royale's Ultra Magical Chest And Clan Wars
Clash Royale's Ultra Magical Chest would have required you to score a perfect match of the game (which is statistically impossible), and you have netted you thousands of rare cards. The video highlighting how to get a perfect match in the game (again, you cannot do this) is pretty good. Additionally, SuperCell released a screenshot of the much-anticipated Clan Wars feature, which looks like a huge mess.

The Street Fighter Academy Quiz
Capcom has cooked up a legitimately difficult quiz of Street Fighter minutiae featuring Chun-Li, Ryu, and Juri in school attire. you can play it here.

Va-11 Hall-A: A Good Boy Edition
The Switch version of Va-11 Hall-A would feature Dante from Devil May Cry, a 3D mode, and make good use of the system's HD Rumble feature.

AMC's Grand Theft Auto
IGN has a penchant for producing high-quality fakes, and this year's GTA TV series is no different. The trailer captures the feel of an AMC show more than the satire-meets-reality tone of the games, but it's still a decent watch. You can watch it here. 

8-Bit Bayonetta
This technically isn't fake because the game is real (that's how that works! I think), but whenever a company goes out of its way to make an actual game people can play for free, I'm all for it. 8-Bit Bayonetta doesn't quite capture the eclectic aesthetic of Bayonetta's combat (it's more focused on shooting than fighting), but the 8-bit themes alone are worth the free download.

Injustice 2's Wonder Twins
Oh, Ed Boon. You kidder. This would have actually been pretty cool. Even though ice powers are way less cool than transformations, Zan would have ended up being way higher on the tier list than Jayna, because that's just how fighting games tend to work; the boring picks are almost always the best ones.

Crazy Galaxy
A new game starring WarioWare's Ashley? Yeah, I'd play that. This is actually strong effort to fool people on Nintendo's part: the Japanese eShop updated with a short video of the game, using the 3DS shope caretaker Baito. You can head here for more images of this game that is unfortunately not coming out anytime soon.

Jelly Beans of the Wild
Gaming site Vooks did a pretty good job mocking up some photos of Breath of the Wild-themed Jelly Beans supposedly available through the My Nintendo store. It's a pretty good collaboration, too: the bean flavors include "Electro Elixir," "Hyrdomelon," and of course, "Dubious Food." Check out the rest of the flavors here.

Geforce GTX G-Assist
Nvidia's latest USB dongle would basically play games for you, imitating your own actions while getting pizza,  helping you through bosses, and telling you when the best time to eat was, and more. At first I thought this was going to be a video card you could install through USB, which would have been something I'd really want.

Geralt of Rivia Taking A Bath Figure
I could very easily be convinced to buy this.

Hyperkin Retron Jr.
The Hyperkin Retron Jr. would output GBA, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy games to your TV through HDMI. Whether our that would look good is another question.

Final Fantasy XV: Episode Kenny
The fake DLC would have you playing as one the game's creepy mascots, Kenny Crow.

Blizzcon Textual Attendance
Blizzard's text version of their annual Blizzcon event is pretty good, mostly because you can actually partake in the adventure for a bit. It's not a high point in the Blizzard April Fools' canon, but it's not bad!

MaChamps, By Pokémon
This is notable almost entirely because it's incredibly weird to realize that Machamp might be one of the few Pokémon with a) junk and b) the self-consciousness to hide it.

PSNProfiles' New Leaderboard
PSNProfiles usually tells its users where they sit relative to each other in terms of trophies, making it an enabler for the kind of competitive stat-tracking that makes achievements fun. Poking fun at this concept, the site has adopted a system that simply tells everyone they're doing a great job, regardless of how many trophies they're racked up.

The Nintendo Switch Wii U Series
BarcadeVG did a great job of fooling everyone with something most people expect out of Nintendo: A collection of titles brought over from the Wii U to the Switch. They even went as far as cooking up some videos mixing real Nintendo reps with their fake images and telling everyone the news was announced via a Nintendo Direct. Not bad! Cruel in a sense, but not bad. 

Hijacking A Guardian In Breath Of The Wild
GameSpot's fake guide to entering a Guardian does have light spoilers, but it's good for a couple of reasons. It's well-made, and it actually tells you some useful information.

Helmut Kruger's Fashion Show Funtime
Whether or not the mode exists is irrelevant: This video is all you need to enjoy this one. 

Bound DLC Kratos' Reminiscence
Bound was an interesting, if not great, game. But hopefully, the upcoming DLC will it make much better. And even if you're not interesting, watching Kratos dance is good on its own.

Tekken 7's Mash-Friendly Controller
Poking fun at the tendency for many an Eddy Gordo player to mash their way to victory, Bandai Namco created a fake controller that would let those players excel at the highest level.

The Humble Wikipedia Bundle
Humble's Wikipedia Bundle is actually really cool for at least one reason: It'd doing it all for charity. All of the actual proceeds made from the bundle (which offers downloading text files of every article currently on Wikipedia) go to the Wikimedia foundation. Which is nice, as is the current top donation from Noah Betzen.