Game journalists could be forgiven for having a love/hate relationship with April Fools' Day. On the one hand, the day lets them get away from straight, factual reporting and stretch their creative muscles in crafting fictional stories. On the other hand, they have to be extremely careful all day of reporting on stories that could turn out to be elaborate falsehoods created by others.

　　On the whole, the results of all this tomfoolery are decidedly mixed. Some writers grow to the task and create well-crafted, thought-provoking jokes that highlight industry hypocrisy. Others just play to readers' worst demons and wishful thinking by making up obviously fake "news." There are some of each category in this year's Just Foolin' Awards, which highlights the year's most notable game-journalism-related April Fools jokes.

　　Most Elaborate Joke -- The Legend of Zelda movie trailer

　　Although other outlets went for simple written stories or quick photoshop jobs, IGN went the extra mile, recruiting the team at Rainfall Films to produce a nearly three-minute, theater-quality trailer for a fictional Zelda movie. Everything from the music and subtle sound cues to the costumes and CGI simply screams "authentic," and puts every other joke of the day to shame. IGN followed up the joke on April 2 with a write-up of the trailer's three-month production (three months!) and some talk of what would go into a real Zelda movie. It's enough to make this Nintendo fanboy weep that the whole thing is actually just a joke.

　　The Over-Overkill Award -- Caketaku

　　Last year, TeamXbox got the overkill award for posting four separate joke stories on April 1. So when Kotaku busted that record wide open with 22 distinct posts about cake this year, "overkill" seemed a bit inadequate. Hence, the new Over-Overkill Award goes to Kotaku's cake-stravaganza, which I found quickly overstayed its welcome. Although I understand that the repetition and the wholesale conversion of the site was essential to the joke, 22 posts that all boil down to "Ha ha we're talking about cakes instead of games now, get it?" was really a bit too much. I have to say, though, I did like the post on the rumored existence of game pies. Now there's a story with legs.

　　The Subtlety Award -- Joystiq's France Day

　　"SO IMPORTANT: April 1 is France Day on Joystiq" read the directive from Joystiq blogger Justin McElroy, and the site's team of bloggers met the challenge in fine fashion, placing some reference to everyone's favorite European country into every post that day. As with last year's Star Wars reference day, the point here was to let readers slowly cotton on to the subtle linguistic and pictorial call-outs throughout the day. But perhaps it was too subtle for their own good -- solution guide writer Ross Miller complained that even he had trouble finding some of the references himself. Sacre bleu!

　　The Mainstream Media Basher Award -- FoxToid

　　A contender for the overkill award, Destructoid gets an award of its own for sticking it to Fox News--which is, ironically, owned by IGN parent News Corp--and their misinformed attacks on Mass Effect. The purchasing of the foxtoid.com domain and the mimicry of the FoxNews.com layout adds some extra authenticity to the gag, but the writing on stories such as "Man confesses to sexing picnic table, God of War videogame is clearly to blame" was a little too over-the-top for my tastes. There's a fine line between wry satire and ridiculous farce, and FoxToid crossed it when they accused the King of All Cosmos of molesting children.

　　The Fanboy Flame Bait Award -- IGN Retro's Bottom 10 SNES Awards

　　How to Make Fanboys Angry: A Recipe. Step 1: Take a top 10 list of games for a well-loved system. Step 2: Label it as a "Bottom 10 list." Step 3: Bask in the hate. Though most commenters seemed to quickly catch on to this obvious ploy, an April 2 update to the article did thank readers "for all the hate mail." Our favorite comment was from commenter Jadeweapon, who said that the list "meets the standard of most of the other reviews and filler so it's very beleivable. [sic]" I'm gonna have to say "Ouch!" for game journalism on that one.

　　The Social Commentary Award -- Gay Gamer's "Straight Gamer"

　　"We will be dedicated to bringing you all the gaming news that red-blooded heterosexuals want to read," proclaims StraightGamer, the site "for dudes who like chicks who have boobs." I appreciate the digs at Christian "reeducation centers" and frat-boy gamers, but I can't believe the author didn't make explicit mention of sites like IGN and UGO, which actually have entire sections devoted to "babes." Sometimes the truth is more disturbing than the joke.

　　The Fake Interview That Should Be Real Award -- Starmen.net Interviews Reggie

　　Every journalist knows what it's like to sit through an interview where you know exactly what the respondent is going to say to each question. But the folks at Starmen.net might know better than most, because they actually got to choose what NOA President Reggie Fils-Aime would say to their queries about further U.S. releases for the Earthbound series (known as Mother in Japan). The best part is the final question: "I've never understood what's so hard about uploading a file that thousands of people would download instantly." Someone should ask this of the real Reggie some time!

　　The Bad Form Award -- Wii Want More

　　I'm all for tomfoolery, but mimicking the layout and graphics of the Nintendo Press site for a gag is going a little too far in my book. Judging by the tips we got at Joystiq, a lot of people failed to notice the "110mb.com" in the address bar and believed that this announcement of a Wii DLC service was legit. Without any links to an established site or any hint that the site itself is an April Fools joke (the dateline reads March 29), this joke goes beyond clever and inches toward malicious.

　　The Comment Commentary Award -- GameSpot's User Soapbox

　　GameSpot's entire April 1 front page was full of funning (I especially liked the Endless Ocean Endurance Challenge) but they get an award for the send-up of fanboy flame wars on the right sidebar. Erudite, well-written forum topics such as "I hope you don't find this presumptuous, but I find the third PlayStation the finest of consoles" and "I'm sorry old boy, but I must respectfully disagree..." are so ludicrously polite that they really highlight how infantile most discussions can get on gaming forums. If only this one weren't a joke. Sigh.

　　For more about PressSpotting, check out the introductory column.

　　Kyle Orland is a freelance journalist specializing in video games and based out of Laurel, MD. He's written for a variety of outlets, as detailed on his personal site. He writes the songs that make the whole world sing.

　　Questions? Comments? Story ideas? Bitter invective? Send it to Kyle.