Despite facing stiff competition from Blizzard, Google, and (ironically) Bungie, I have to give the nod for Best April Fools’ 2010 to IGN, for its movie trailer showing Master Chief – as you’ve never seen him before.
Last year, I called April Fools in favor of Blizzard, and with good reason – the Irvine-based PC developer almost always goes all-out on its April Fools’ jokes, frequently throwing multiple pranks into the mix. This year was no exception, with its Battle.net Matchmaking service, Diablo III Snuggie and body pillow, and the Deckard Cain GPS (among others) but… sorry, Blizzard. I can’t go with you this year.
The reason I can’t go with Big Blizz this year is because of the video you see here above. This was IGN’s entry into the mix, and while the media giant is no stranger to doing fake videogame movie trailers (see also: Zelda from a few years back) the fact that they opted to go for a completely different take on Halo here is enough to push it over the top.
It’s not enough that it’s just “Bollywood Halo,” it’s that they nailed the stereotypical feel of a Bollywood movie so perfectly that really sells it. Maybe it’s just the moment where the Master Chief just looks at the camera and flashes a grin while the screen shows his designation “John-117,” because that made me crack up.
Is it just me? Am I the only one who finds the idea of Halo-as-Bollywood-action-romance as hilarious as I do?
This may be my April Fools’ joke of the year, but that’s just me, and there were plenty others – Bungie’s new plans for Halo: Reach multiplayer and Google Japan’s awesome new keyboard, to name a few – that caught my eye. What were your favorite jokes today? We’ve got a collection over in our Roundup post, if you missed any of those!
