April Fools' Day jokes are a tradition played in some countries on April Fools' Day, an annual celebration on April 1. They are practical jokes and hoaxes that people play on each other before eventually exposing them. Like many companies, McLeodGaming often plays elaborate jokes each April Fools' Day, which are usually orchestrated on their official websites, their YouTube channels, social media, and formerly the McLeodGaming Forums and the Smash Flash DOJO!!!.
Below is a list of all April Fools' Day jokes made by McLeodGaming, SSF2 Team, or Team Fray for each year since 2008.
2008[]
On April Fools' Day in 2008, Gregory McLeod replaced the McLeodGaming Forums with "Forums baleeted" as a parody of the mass account hacking and porn spamming that took place weeks before. The word "Baleeted" comes from the web series Homestar Runner, particularly the cartoon "50 Emails".
2009[]
On April Fools' Day in 2009, Gregory McLeod announced in a news post that Nintendo had discovered Super Smash Flash 2 and had sent him a cease and desist order to shut down McLeodGaming and cancel the project.[1] McLeod then posted a link to what seemed to go to Nintendo's official forums to protest Nintendo's decision, but it actually went to the music video for "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley on YouTube. McLeod later announced that it was an April Fools' Day joke and that SSF2 was still in development.
2010[]
On April Fools' Day in 2010, the Smash Flash DOJO!!! was redirected to a page with an "OBJECTION!" shout-out from Ace Attorney, along with text that read, "You must be an April Fool if you didn't see this coming".
2011[]
On April Fools' Day in 2011, a Smash Flash DOJO!!! update titled "Dojo Ending" was posted, which claimed that no more updates would be posted to the website.[2] However, scrolling down the page would reveal a real update showcasing Trigger Items. These items appear to be normal items, but they turn into shout-outs from Ace Attorney when used, such as "Objection!" and "Hold it!", causing a variety of effects on the player. The update was initially posted as a notice but later renamed and changed to only be an items page for Trigger Items, with all text related to the April Fools' Day joke being removed.[3]
Although the item was initially planned to be included in the game, it would ultimately remain unused.
2012[]
On April Fools' Day in 2012, Gregory McLeod redesigned the forums after allegedly demoting himself from the rank of site administrator. He even claimed that the red color that highlights the name of an administrator did not match his style. In turn, by "demoting" himself he also promoted all global moderators to site administrators and all regular users to global moderators, leaving only SSF2 developers unchanged. During this day, a forum dedicated to spam was also opened. In reality, McLeod never demoted nor promoted anyone, instead simply changing the colors of the usergroups. The changes were reverted and the spam forum was erased afterwards.
2013[]
On April Fools' Day in 2013, Gregory McLeod turned the main McLeodGaming website upside-down. For the forums, he replaced every profile picture with an image depicting Link's "Elegy of Emptiness" replica statue from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, referencing the infamous "Haunted Majora's Mask Cartridge" creepypasta, also known as "Ben Drowned". The site would also play the Lavender Town theme from Pokémon Red and Blue on an endless loop, referencing the "Lavender Town Syndrome" creepypasta.
2014[]
An Incredible Newcomer!
The fake trailer revealing Mr. Incredible as a playable character in SSF2.
On April Fools' Day in 2014, McLeodGaming released a video to their YouTube channel which supposedly confirmed Mr. Incredible's inclusion as a playable character in SSF2. To make the joke look more authentic, Mr. Incredible was actually coded into the game, with only one known visible attack, which was used as his down attack in the original Super Smash Flash. His sprites also hailed from the Game Boy Advance version of The Incredibles game but this time using Mr. Incredible's red attire. Gregory McLeod also created a news post announcing that Mr. Incredible would be included in demo v0.9b and that the demo would release on August 21, 2014.[4] This was corrected in a news post made the following day, which clarified that Mr. Incredible would not be included and that v0.9b would release earlier than August.[5] The fake release date given was actually the eighth anniversary of the release of Super Smash Flash.
Although very few animations for Mr. Incredible were shown in the trailer, former developer Jacob Tjolsen, who had programmed Mr. Incredible into the game, later revealed on January 2, 2022 that he "nearly fully designed" the character but held back on showing more of him as to not make the development team "look distracted".[6]
2015[]
On April Fools' Day in 2015, Gregory McLeod announced in a news post that he made some updates to the forums, claiming that "the tone [of the forums] has always been a bit too casual, so these upgrades should make it much easier to converse in a more polite and respectable fashion".[7] In reality, McLeod added a tag under every profile picture calling every user a "loyal subject to his royalty cleod9 [sic]" and added the text "ALL HAIL CLEOD9!" under every signature. Also, typing "Cleod9" or "SSF2" on posts would automatically result in replacing them with "royal ruler of the forums" or "greatest creation of his royalty cleod9 [sic]", respectively. The smiley emoticon was also replaced with a mugshot of McLeod himself.
2016[]
SSF2 BETA A Newcomer Smashes In!
The trailer revealing Sandbag as a playable character in SSF2.
On April Fools' Day in 2016, the fifth SSF2 Dev Blog for Beta was posted by FriendAlias, supposedly to be focused on upcoming costumes for the game. However, it was allegedly interrupted by a bot in the likeness of Gregory McLeod named ＣＬＥＯＤＢＯＴ, who had grown tired of working for the developers and rebelled against them. As punishment for trying and failing to seize him, he executed his revenge by uploading his consciousness into the Sandbag, which was shown in a trailer at the end of the blog revealing Sandbag as a playable character and showcasing gameplay.[8]
Although this blog served as a confirmation for Sandbag's playable inclusion as the game's joke character, it still seemed that it could be a joke not to be taken seriously, as fake character inclusions have been done in the past (such as Mr. Incredible's case in 2014). An extra Dev Blog was posted by James Hadden two days later to clarify that Sandbag was, indeed, made a playable character, and that the intended joke of the previous blog was to trick people into thinking that the reveal itself was a joke due to the announcement date.[9] The real Dev Blog for costumes was later posted by FriendAlias on April 8, 2016, which mentioned that the developers had "taken care of the problem" that lead to the previous interruption.[10]
ＣＬＥＯＤＢＯＴ would continue to be used as a gag character in other Dev Blogs and would later appear as a background character on Waiting Room's Halloween theme. However, the character was officially retired with the release of Beta, as the developers felt that the joke had run its course.
2017[]
April Fools! SSF2 Beta Multiple Challengers Approaching!
The video showcasing Smashville and Final Destination as playable characters in SSF2.
On April Fools' Day in 2017, McLeodGaming released a video to their YouTube channel supposedly confirming multiple new playable newcomers for SSF2. The video features literal stages as the actual playable characters fighting each other. It opens with a "Warning! Challengers Approaching!" screen for Smashville and Final Destination before showcasing a match between them, with the Falcon Flyer from Sand Ocean making an appearance at the end as well. This joke was achieved using sprite replacement, with Smashville being a swap of Marth (using its floating platform as substitute for Marth's Falchion), Final Destination being a swap of Fox, and the Falcon Flyer being a swap of Captain Falcon. The original characters' voice lines were also removed, with the Falcon Flyer's Falcon Punch using the "You got boost power!" announcer line from F-Zero GX. The stage they fight on is similar to Battlefield but with sprites of Sandbag replacing the platforms and the background being that of Sandbag's character-specific Break the Targets stage.
2018[]
April Fools! Flash Minus Sonic the Hedgehog Introduction
The video showcasing Sonic in Flash Minus.
On April Fools' Day in 2018, James Hadden announced in a news post that SSF2 would allegedly be completely rebranded as Flash Minus, named after the popular Super Smash Bros. Brawl mod Brawl Minus, due to development of the game having become boring and the amount of ex-developers of Brawl Minus that have joined the development team.[11] This announcement came with a video on McLeodGaming's YouTube channel created by FriendAlias that parodies the style and format of Brawl Minus's character introduction videos to introduce the new moveset of Sonic. The changes spotlighted in the video include the ability to cancel any attack where Sonic spins into a Homing Attack with no startup lag, the ability to hold Light Dash to indefinitely move forward with a guaranteed sweet spot, a forward aerial that could now always meteor smash opponents hit, down aerial and the spring in Spring Jump being able to meteor smash, and an overall reduction of landing lag.
Unlisted
The now unlisted video released for April Fools' Day in 2018.
A second video was released to the YouTube channel the following hour, simply titled ".", which features a giant Sandbag in the background of Final Destination with a Master Hand on either side of the stage, acting as the hands of Sandbag. Sandbag's eyes and the crystals of Final Destination have an orange glow, and a slowed-down version of the song vs. Master Hand is played. The video is now unlisted.
2019[]
The McLoudGaming logo.
The McLoudGaming Forums logo.
Several jokes were made on April Fools' Day in 2019, with the most major one being revealed in a news post by Gregory McLeod. It was announced here that McLeodGaming would be officially renamed to "McLoudGaming" due to how common it was for people to mispronounce the name.[12] With the renaming, a new logo for McLoudGaming was created, which temporarily replaced the main logo on the website. The name of the website changed accordingly, along with the names of the forums, Twitter account, and Discord server. The McLeodGaming Forums logo was changed to reflect this, and any mentions of "McLeodGaming" on the forums were automatically replaced with "McLoudGaming". Also, Cleod9's username on the main website was changed to Cloud9.
In addition to the renaming, McLeodGaming posted several tweets throughout the day that teased a secret hidden by the company.[13] This secret was a website named after the rebranded company, www.mcloudgaming.com, which hid ten free Steam Keys for Yeah Jam Fury: U, Me, Everybody!. By the end of the day, all ten keys had been used. The website was not officially revealed until the following day, when it was redirected to the main McLeodGaming website.
The image shown of Super Smash Flash 1 HD.
In the same news post that revealed the renaming to McLoudGaming, it was also announced that the original Super Smash Flash would receive a remake titled Super Smash Flash 1 HD (abbreviated SSF1 HD). This remake would feature much of the same content with higher-quality sprites resembling those of SSF2, though all of the original game's physics would remain unchanged. More updates were said to come in the future, and a channel for the game was created in the official Discord server for the duration of the day. This announcement came with a screenshot of the starting character selection screen for SSF in which the character portraits are changed. Characters who also appear in SSF2 simply used their sprites from that game, while Knuckles, Mega Man X, and Blade received new custom sprites of a similar style. Updated sprites of Mr. Incredible and Blue were also shared over Discord by former developer FriendAlias, who later revealed himself to be the sprite artist on his Twitter account.[14]
April Fools! SSF2 Trophy War Teaser Trailer
The fake trailer revealing Super Smash Flash 2: Trophy War.
Additionally, a teaser trailer created by FriendAlias was uploaded to McLeodGaming's YouTube channel announcing that a role-playing game based on SSF2 called Super Smash Flash 2: Trophy War was in development for mobile devices. The trailer, shown in a portrait orientation, shows colorless trophies of Mario, Ichigo, and Sandbag falling to the ground before the characters on them quickly jump off of the bases, now colorful. The logo for the game then appears with text saying that more information would be coming soon, and logos appear in the lower-right corner showing the fake mobile distribution platforms the game would release on, which parody the iOS App Store and Google Play. Like with SSF1 HD, a channel for the game was created in the official Discord server for the duration of the day. Although the game itself is fake, this trailer served as a teaser for the Trophy Stand item, as the trophies shown are the same trophies that Mario, Ichigo, and Sandbag can be turned into using the item.
Another joke was played on the official Discord server. Similarly to the company's April Fools' Day joke in 2012, developer Jamal Zero Insanity Ransaw recolored almost all the roles below Administrators to blue, the color of the SSF2 developers role, which gave the appearance of all users being developers. This ended the next day when Zero Insanity made the announcement that "you're all fired".
2020[]
April Fools 2020 SSF2 Flash of Shadows
The fake trailer revealing Flash of Shadows as a game mode in SSF2.
On April Fools' Day in 2020, McLeodGaming's Twitter account was deactivated during the morning with no official comment. It remained deactivated until being reactivated at 4:30 P.M. EST, which McLeodGaming acknowledged by tweeting, "alright who deactivated our account that was rude".[15]
Although McLeodGaming did not play a traditional April Fools' Day joke, it was initially planned that a fake trailer would be released to their YouTube channel for a recreation of the scrapped game mode in SSF2, Adventure Mode: The Flash Of Shadows (simply named Flash of Shadows). The trailer, created by FriendAlias, shows conceptual cutscenes and gameplay for the game mode, with many scenes based on the original mode's story. Scrapped or unconfirmed characters including Knuckles, Blue, and Azrael, as well as Mega Man X and Mr. Incredible, are shown as trophies with original sprites created by FriendAlias, most of which are reused from the SSF1 HD joke of 2019. Additionally, the original main antagonist Umbra and her enemy team of CuBots are depicted with new designs based on their conceptual designs. Gameplay is shown depicting story-based fights and interactions between characters, with some featuring dialogue, as well as the unlocking of stages and side quests.
According to FriendAlias, this trailer is meant to serve as a tribute to the McLeodGaming Forums where the original story, concepts, and characters had been conceived, as it would be closing later that month. The reason given for the trailer not being released to McLeodGaming's YouTube channel is that the trailer itself is so high-quality that it may trick fans into believing that the game mode is real.[16] The trailer was instead released to FriendAlias's own YouTube channel, and a channel for the game mode was created in the official Discord server for the duration of the day. The following day, FriendAlias showcased the character artwork he created for the trailer.[17]
Although the Flash of Shadows game mode itself is fake, the trailer indirectly served as a teaser for two upcoming Final Smashes for SSF2, namely Simon's Grand Cross and Goku's updated Meteor Combination, which were both briefly portrayed as cutscenes.
2021[]
-SSF2 BETA v1.3- Update Teaser + April Fools-2
The video teasing the upcoming Beta 1.3 update for SSF2.
On April Fools' Day in 2021, SSF2 Team released a video to their YouTube channel teasing an upcoming SSF2 Beta 1.3 update. The video opened with a trailer showcasing a resprited Sandbag and Waiting Room, which referenced Sandbag's original April Fools' Day reveal trailer from 2016. Following the end of the trailer, three clips were shown of characters who appeared in the original Super Smash Bros. fighting on three unannounced stages with layouts consisting of the character renders for Mario, Peach, and Black Mage, respectively. The Sandbag and Waiting Room resprites would later be implemented, and the stages of character renders were not.
2022[]
New Rivals of Aether Assist in Fraymakers!
The Fraymakers trailer released during Rivals Direct 4.
On April Fools' Day in 2022, Team Fray worked with Aether Studios to release a trailer for Fraymakers during Rivals Direct 4, Dan Fornace's fourth April Fools' Day presentation for the Rivals of Aether franchise. On March 26, 2022, it was announced that the winner of the Fraymakers poll for an Assist hailing from Rivals of Aether would be revealed in a trailer during the presentation.[18] Said trailer revealed Orcane as the fourth and final character to release with the game's initial Early Access launch. The results of the poll were also shown, with Kragg winning with 1,612 votes and being featured in gameplay. Other results shown include Clairen with 1,126 votes, Ranno with 947 votes, and Zetterburn with 818 votes.
Notably, Rivals Direct 5, which aired the following year, focused heavily on revealing Rivals of Aether crossover content in other indie games. In the Q&A stream that followed, Dan Fornace noted that featuring Fraymakers in Rivals Direct 4 served as a direct inspiration for this event.
-April Fools- SSF2 BETA - Endpoint
The trailer supposedly revealing Master Hand as a playable character in SSF2.
Later that day, SSF2 Team released a video to YouTube supposedly revealing Master Hand as a playable character in SSF2 in the upcoming Beta 1.3.2. The trailer showcased Master Hand being played in various game modes, in which he was able to move and jump like a normal playable character. His attacks primarily consisted of attacks he uses in his boss battle, alongside several new ones such as an uppercut and a taunt, and various costumes were shown. The trailer ended with the sounds of both Master Hand and Crazy Hand laughing. A channel for the character was created in the official Discord server for the duration of the day.
SSF2 Team did not directly comment on the legitimacy of the Master Hand trailer, even posting a video to Twitter the following day of two Master Hands taunting with no caption.[19] However, they later added "[April Fools]" to the title of the video, indicating that it was merely a joke.
2023[]
Sandbag Hangs in There
The video teasing Sandbag's ability to grab ledges in SSF2.
On April Fools' Day in 2023, SSF2 Team released a "Screenshot Saturday" update to Twitter supposedly revealing that Sandbag would be able to grab ledges in the upcoming Beta 1.3.2, which was said to be the "single most requested feature" for the game.[20] The accompanying video showed Sandbag grabbing a ledge and using a ledge attack in which it flipped itself forward onto the stage. A video was also uploaded to YouTube showcasing a full match in which Sandbag grabs ledges several times. The following day, they released a follow-up tweet saying that Sandbag "forgot how the [sic] grab the ledge again", indicating that it was merely a joke.[21]
Although this addition was fake, the two videos also revealed several other upcoming additions to the game, such as new animations for Zelda and Meta Knight, updated costumes for Zelda, and a resprite for Yoshi's Story.
2024[]
Here You Go
The video released for April Fools' Day in 2024.
On April Fools' Day in 2024, SSF2 Team released a video to YouTube titled "Here You Go", which opens with a "Warning! Challenger Approaching!" screen. The character silhouette displayed on the screen quickly flashes between the artworks for every character released up to that point, as well as Wario-Man. It also includes silhouettes of the Blade, Blue, and Mr. Incredible renders from the SSF1 HD joke of 2019; Final Destination, Smashville, and the Falcon Flyer, referencing the "Multiple Challengers Approaching!" joke of 2017; the avatars of developers Zero Insanity, Chris ElvisDitto Hubac, and Steven; and developer Kevin Turbo Snider's swivel chair, as featured in artwork of his room. When the alarm sound ends, the song Final Destination suddenly plays as Master Hand punches the text away and slaps the character banner away, causing KO effects to occur as they go offscreen, with the words "Warning" and "Challenger" being star KO'd and screen KO'd, respectively. Master Hand then closes his fist and shakes it before showing the placeholder trophy from the Trophy Stand, which zooms in to reveal the words "April Fools". He then drops the trophy and laughs before exploding as if KO'd with Stamina, ending the video.
Notably, several of the silhouettes were of updated character artworks not yet revealed, including those for Sheik, Sonic, and Goku.
References[]
- ↑ McLeodGaming - View topic - April 1st, 2009 News (SSF2 Cancelled April Fools!) Accessed on June 2, 2020.
- ↑ Dojo Ending | SSF2 Dojo Accessed on June 15, 2019.
- ↑ Trigger Items | SSF2 Dojo Accessed on March 29, 2024.
- ↑ McLeodGaming - View topic - April 1st, 2014 News (A Newcomer Approaches!) Accessed on March 26, 2022.
- ↑ McLeodGaming - View topic - April 2nd, 2014 News (April Fools!) Accessed on March 26, 2022.
- ↑ Twitter Accessed on March 26, 2022.
- ↑ McLeodGaming - View topic - April 1st, 2015 News (Updates to the Forums!) Accessed on June 2, 2020.
- ↑ SSF2 Dev Blog #5 – Costumes - McLeodGaming Accessed on March 26, 2022.
- ↑ SSF2 Dev Blog #5.1 – Sandbag Bonus Blog! - McLeodGaming Accessed on March 26, 2022.
- ↑ SSF2 Dev Blog #6 – Costumes Accessed on April 1, 2023.
- ↑ [April Fools!] We’re rebranding Super Smash Flash 2. - McLeodGaming Accessed on March 26, 2022.
- ↑ McLeodGaming - View topic - April 1st, 2019 News (We Are Now McLoudGaming + SSF1 HD) Accessed on June 2, 2020.
- ↑ Twitter Accessed on March 27, 2022.
- ↑ Twitter Accessed on August 7, 2019.
- ↑ Twitter Accessed on April 1, 2020.
- ↑ Twitter Accessed on April 1, 2020.
- ↑ Twitter Accessed on March 26, 2022.
- ↑ Twitter Accessed on March 26, 2022.
- ↑ Twitter Accessed on April 9, 2022.
- ↑ Twitter Accessed on April 1, 2023.
- ↑ Twitter Accessed on April 2, 2023.