You got to love April Fools’ Day tricksters. The more elaborate the April Fools joke (or trick), the better.
One games publisher that loved staging elaborate April Fools’ Day jokes on unsuspecting fans was Irem. While in business, Irem always had a joke or two up their sleeve come April 1.
They would create websites that were usually dedicated to promoting something that tended to poke fun at themselves and their own games, like the three “real life” models of the R-Type R-9 unit you could choose to purchase, or their new Irem Zoo, and our absolute favourite, their EXIDNA XAVY console, which was touted as the ultimate games machine that housed a self-propelled folding controller!
Irem had a lot of us gamers going with their elaborate jokes till we realised it was a ruse and in good fun. Here are a few listings of Irem’s sites that had us fooled over the years:
- April Fools 2000: R-Type Force Sweets
- April Fools 2001: Dokidoki Suikoden Dating Sim
- April Fools 2002: Zettai Zetsumei Toshi Crowbars (with additional colors)
- April Fools 2004: Irem Burger
- April Fools 2006: Investigations into the UMA of Hakusan Lake
- April Fools 2007: Opening of IREM Gakuen
image source: Irem – via wayback machine
