The best gaming jokes of April Fools 2009

The game industry, being full of fun-loving folks and plenty of joke-loving nerds, has always been big on “celebrating” April Fools Day with a few excellent pranks. Fake game announcements, wacky DLC, totally off-the-wall features – you name it, it’s been done on April 1st. This year, we had a few good ones, especially from the good folks at GameStop and GameSpot (which are hilariously easy to mistake for one another in print, no doubt).

I’m awarding the crown to Gamestop’s insanely creepy/hilarious bogus game announcement for “My Wii Buddy”, a ventriloquist-training game that screams The Twilight Zone and comes with a lovely dummy/human T-shirt combo for those who order online. Lovely!

From the site:

“Simply place your Wii Remote in the specially designed dummy’s back and let the fun begin. Contains 14 unique training lessons and 7 different mini-games, including:

Who’s the Dummy: Play with up to four friends, and try to figure out who’s really doing the talking.
Your Hands are Cold: This mini-game features warm-up exercises to get your hands ready for some intense ventriloquist action.
Lip Locked: Test your skill by trying to speak some of the world’s most difficult words without moving your lips.
Comes complete with fully functional ventriloquist dummy, with features so life-like, your friends will wonder who your new little friend is.”

The pictures really bring this one over the top.

Also, props go to Gamespot‘s very funny “Umbrella Corporation requests bailout” story, which satirizes the current economic climate and all the government-bailout headlines with everyone’s favorite evil, zombie-creating corporation.

So what do you think readers? Did you fall for any pranks this year? Nothing has thus far topped the old EGM pranks (remember Sheng Long? And the “classic Bonds in GoldenEye?), but it’s getting there.

Read [GameStop] Read [Gamespot] Read [1Up]