April Fools just doesn’t hit as hard as it used to. Maybe I am just a miserable person now, but I don’t think I have seen a joke in a while and been like “that is actually genius”. This year wasn’t any different. Various game studios and companies around the world cooked up the usual “obviously fake” announcements to try and cause some sort of stir online. Here are some of the okay ones and the cringy, “ try a little harder next year” ones.
The Okay Ones
Overwatch 2 Gets Goofy
Usually the “better” April Fools’ jokes in gaming are the ones that are actually real to some degree, and Overwatch 2 did the work. The shooter has added a limited-timed event called Totally Normalwatch to the game until 14 April. You can find it in the Arcade.
The mode is pretty over the top and has some crazy changes and visual tweaks to the usual game. For starters, Hanzo can ride Orisa into battle, Moira now deals damage with her healing abilities, D.Va’s mech is now 50% smaller and has 25 health instead of 375 and more.
Honestly, the Totally Normalwatch mode is an absolute circus of a time and is likely the best way to celebrate April Fools’ if you’re a gamer. Here’s a video of the changes (turn the volume down).
DBrand’s Touch Grass Covers
DBrand falls into the “okay” here only because these products are real – although very limited. The company doesn’t want these touch-grass skins to be classified as April Fools’ jokes, but if you announce something dumb on 1 April, sadly, that comes with the territory.
Anyway, the DBrand Touch Grass Collection is a range of skins from the company that spans over 100 products. So instead of purchasing the usual skin, you can choose a limited-edition version that includes a super thin layer of astroturf on it.
The idea is that these skins are meant to be like “touching grass”. DBrand says these are made from tiny polyethylene strands using an electrostatic flocking method. This method causes each individual strand to stand upright when shocked, resulting in what looks like fake grass.
The range looks cool. DBrand also marketed the product using some stylish outdoor grass activities. Robots are playing soccer on the Xbox Series X, and another one is digging a hole on the Apple logo on the iPhone range. The whole “touch grass” joke is kind of 2023 and exhausting now, but hey, at least these products are real. Check them out here.
Helldivers 2 Gets Big Guns
For a limited time, you might load into Helldivers 2 and see massive weapons by your side instead of the usual guns. The game’s April Fools’ joke this year has tweaked the size of the guns in the game, but it seems not everyone is experiencing the fun. Some players claim their weapons are just small and normal-sized, while guys are walking around with these massive guns and shoving them in each other’s faces. I guess not everyone was born blessed.
Level5 Announces Life Crossing Fantasy Horizons
Level5, the guys behind the Fantasy Life series, released a cool game trailer for April Fools’ announcing a game of our dreams – Life Crossing Fantasy Horizons. It doesn’t take a lot of brain power to put two and two together here.
This game is a mash-up of Fantasy Life and Animal Crossing (it actually looks pretty cool). It follows Tim Crook as he takes place through the daily life of being an islander. It is even accompanied by a very familiar soundtrack. The trailer is essentially great marketing for the upcoming Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time.
Konami’s Silent Hill 2 Pillow
Konami has a Silent Hill 2 pillow for sale that will cost you $50. It is a real thing and you can pre-order it on the website. The pillow features a glow-in-the-dark message that pays tribute to the video game. The product is limited edition and only available to purchase for a week. It includes “ultra-soft baby velvet on the outside” and is even official branded Silent Hill 2 merch. Check it out here.
Aardman’s Wallace and Gromlette Kit
Likely the best joke here is the Wallace and Gromit Kit from Aardman. The kit comes with everything you need to make Wallace and Gromit omelettes. It includes the eggs for the head, the bacon for Gromit’s ears, cheese for Wallace’s teeth, and mushrooms for the noses. I don’t think they get cooked, which is a bit concerning.
Introducing the Wallace & Gromlette Kit!
This kit has everything you need to make this perfect dish at home – great for date nights or family meals. Plus, it’s letterbox friendly, so no need to be home for delivery! 🥳
RRP £19.89 – pre-order link dropping soon…… pic.twitter.com/Vcns3klS3c
— Aardman (@aardman) April 1, 2025
The Cringe
Razer Skibidi Headset Roasts its Customers
For some reason, Razer decided to roast the only people who purchase its products— teenagers. The Razer Skibidi is marketed as a headset that translates the garbage you hear online from teammates while playing competitive games into something you’ll understand.
The video shows an older-looking male trying to play competitive games and having no clue what his teammates are saying. He puts on this hideous-looking headset, and AI automatically translates the voice chat for him. The screen then automatically translates any on-screen text too. He can also text and talk to the headset, which then translates it back to the garbage language the players understand.
Razer calls this language “brain rot” which is actually quite fitting.
“For two decades, we’ve been elevating your in-game voice chats with the best gaming headsets on the planet. But when it comes to communication, mic clarity is only one part of the equation. Introducing the Razer Skibidi—the world’s first intelligent brainrot translator headset, optimized for the de-evolution of speech. Finally, you can understand the cancer your Gen Z teammates are spewing.”
Pocketpair’s Thirsty Dating Palworld Sim
Likely the cringiest joke this year is from Pocketpair. You know all those horrible IG reels where teenagers overact and pretend they are anime characters? This basically adds fuel to that fire. The game was fake-announced as a dating simulator where players would be able to chat up and flirt with Pals. You can stroke them and comfort them.
Some of the text on the Steam page is suspect. Like Lovander telling the player to meet her after school behind the gym. The game isn’t real but I suspect if it was, people would likely throw money at it.
Dave The Diver Remastered
There’s nothing worse than a cheap video game trailer that ticks all the boxes of “clichéd fake game announcements”. Dave the Diver Remastered did just that. The whole thing seems like an afterthought joke that was cooked up an hour before the clock struck midnight. It announces the Dave the Diver Remastered game. Dave swims around, there’s a horrible-looking shark, and some sushi making.
The trailer ends with the same clichéd “releasing in a ridiculous future year date” of 2049 on “consoles that are also really cool and future-like”, the Switch, LS7, and YBox Series X|L. Yeah.
Elgato Stream Deck Desk
In another “so ridiculous we’re not even trying” joke, Elgato fake-announced the Stream Deck Desk. The desk is a Stream Deck on its own with 1,262 keys. The trailer is just as cringe as the product and shows streamers and what looks like the most cookie-cutter nerd developer using the fake desk, which has a bunch of Elgato buttons with stickers on them, to code something. It is all super-low production cost. There’s the same website listing with the same amount of energy here.
