Cognition Dissemination: A Not-So-Somber April Fools’ Day

For the strangest reason, I had the feeling this year would be a somber April Fools’ occasion for the video game world. Every year, gaming companies worldwide tend to prepare special jokes (or, sometimes, “jokes”) to have fun with their fans. Some are lighthearted fun, like the small PC games Capcom’s Street Fighter team have prepared each year. Others couldn’t be crueler, like all the companies that create elaborate teases for projects their fans would actually want — Japan is good for these. Select ones even turn out to be real games, like Arika’s Fighting EX Layer a few years back.

But this has not been a fun year, to put it extremely lightly. Tensions worldwide have been running at a fever pitch for what feels like decades, though it’s only been, uh, three months? For Christ’s sake. We were on the brink of war with Iran at 2020’s start, and if you thought for a millisecond that things couldn’t unravel further from there, reality didn’t take long to show you your naivete. We’re living within a goddamned pandemic now. This isn’t the best time for jokes, especially cruel ones. My conclusion was further solidified by how Capcom Dev 1 agreed, and mentioned this reason for why they didn’t want to do one this year.

Early yesterday, already April 1st Japan time, I noticed there weren’t quite as many jokes from Japan this year. Some were exactly the kind of cruel ones I described above, like Tales of VS 2, a fake Tales of fighting game featuring characters from several installments over nearly 25 years of the franchise existing. Plenty of fans would love to see that, which makes this feel like the developers thumbing their nose at them for having lofty and unrealistic expectations. It’s probably not actually that, but damn. Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV team also tended to be good for these, though didn’t provide one this year.

After sleeping on it and starting this post in the morning (one intended to be short, oh ho ho), I realized my expectation was unrealistic. Some of these April Fools’ jokes are elaborate as all hell, especially those from Japan. They’ve undoubtedly been planning them for weeks on end, and there was no chance they wouldn’t use them.

The most egregious jokes — more than the Tales one mentioned above — came while I was sleeping. PlatinumGames teased the final announcement for their “Platinum 4” self-publishing plans today, which turned out to be for Sol Cresta, a fake successor to shoot ‘em up Terra Cresta made in collaboration with Hamster Corporation. It’s due for a Neo-Classic Arcade release for the low, low price of $17,000 for the cabinet. For anyone who was hoping the company had a legitimate announcement for their final surprise, this came as a bitter let down. I’m not just talking about me there; check out the number of downvotes on that video. There’s a chance they could turn this into a real game, but for now, it just feels like a middle finger.

If you’ve ventured down this far and think I’m just a hopeless cynic… well, yeah. I’m having a hard time not being cynical considering the state of the world. Whoever said “ignorance is bliss” probably didn’t know just how right they’d be. But there are some April Fools’ jokes I’m impressed with, though a couple will depend on whether they’re real games.

Like I said above: The Street Fighter team has provided good efforts in the past, and this year was no exception. This year’s game is Neco Cat: Cat Friends Nation, a puzzle game where players can recruit cats if they fulfill the conditions that will allow them to join. The cats all resemble Street Fighter characters, which their descriptions further hammer home. The soundtrack consists of some good Street Fighter V music selections. It’s a lot of fun, and I’ve spent entirely too much time playing it, so give it a shot.

Arika teased Prayer to Death, a versus game with a bunch of playable characters, and showed part of a screenshot at the end. After what happened with Fighting EX Layer, this could be a real game too. Though the lack of gameplay footage suggests it’s early in development if it is.

Surprise! We're happy to announce our new game project #DuckTales QuackShots together with our #MonsterBoyGame development partner Game Atelier! pic.twitter.com/iQfmnwLcPH

— FDG Entertainment (@FDG_Games) April 1, 2020

Lastly, I love the look of DuckTales Quackshots from Monster Boy developers FDG Entertainment and Game Atelier — if it’s a real game. It’s a 2D title made with the art style of the new DuckTales cartoon, and a spiritual successor to the nearly-30-year-old Quackshot game developed by Sega for Genesis/Mega Drive. Those could be actual screenshots, too, given how good it looks; they’re reminiscent of the Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom title from this same team. It could be real because it’s tough to imagine a company as stringent as Disney letting a developer use their property for publicity’s sake, but that’s assuming they informed them. If this isn’t real, then it’s the cruelest joke of all, even if their risky intention is to get Disney’s attention and let them develop it.

Update: Oh for Christ’s sake.

Thank you for the overwhelming feedback on our #DuckTales Quackshot screens. We worked hard on a legit pitch to Disney but unfortunately never got the license. It would've been a shame to bury the material so it became this years #AprilFools. Maybe someday Disney will reconsider? pic.twitter.com/oLzikKds4u

— FDG Entertainment (@FDG_Games) April 1, 2020

I won’t say “here’s hoping things get better,” because I’m not sure they will. I’ll just end this by saying good luck, be safe, and stay alive. At least not all the April Fools’ jokes were bad, which counts for something.