This Year’s April Fools’ Day Pranks Include 8-Bit Google Maps and Hungry Hungry Hippos for iPad – Make It Happen!

Today is April Fools’ Day, one of the best days of the year. I awoke to a dead hooker in my bed, but I figured that she was only playing dead. Some pranks have been making the rounds today, and most of them are pretty original, and not the boring “Hey, The Beatles are back together” or “Radiohead broke up” or “Nickelback released a good song” styled pranks. A summary of 4 of the good ones are below.

Google Maps Goes 8-Bit!

Google Maps has turned back the clock, and now resembles a Nintendo version of the RPG games Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy, or even the Nintendo’s Zelda sequel, with 8-bit graphics and retro maps. Click on Google Maps, and then hit Quest and let the fun begin! You can even do Streetview, although it doesn’t quite look as cool. Check out a spoof video below. Can this stay forever??

Google Maps 8-Bit Version

Journey to the Centre of the Earth with Virgin

Virgin is planning to send regular paying customers into space (for the tune of $200,000) over the next few years. This is actually true. What is not true is their next announcement, which is Virgin Volcanic, a corkscrew-like machine that will trips into the centre of the Earth through volcanoes (via SlashGear).

Virgin was doing a good job perpetuating the hoax, claiming they had Arnold Schwarzenegger, Stephen Hawking (what does he know about science?!), Tom Cruise (Scientologist – knows a lot about science), Seth Green, and will.i.am all signed on for the $1 million adventure. Virgin was spreading the word on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ (whatever that is). Richard Branson, we salute you. Now please make it real.

Google Chrome’s AdBlock – Cat Edition

As I logged onto Google Chrome this morning, I noticed that Ad Block on Google Chrome had a picture of an animal’s paw instead of the usual hand inside the stop sign. Also, instead of ads, I had pictures of cute, cuddly cats! I clicked on the ad, and it asked if I wanted to keep seeing cats instead of ads (yes I do!!), and then it let me know that it was indeed an (awesome!) April Fools Day prank.

Hungry Hungry Hippos for iPad

Those of you fortunate enough to live in the late 1970s or 1980s as a kid would remember the amazingness that is Hungry Hungry Hippos, a board game in which you smash a level and move the mouth of the hippo you control to eat little marbles. It was a highly skilled game. This year, the pranksters at ThinkGeek have come up with Hungry Hungry Hippos iPad game.

From the “product” site:

Electronic Hungry Hungry Hippos iPad Game is everything you remember about HHH. All four hippos are present and hungry, except this time, the hippos fit over your iPad and the game board is an app! This adds oh-so-many gameplay features, such as:

– 10 different game boards, each with its own marble style.
– 14 power-ups to make the game play even crazier.
– Three scoring modes: standard, Vegas, and Regulation Tournament.
– And hippo-loads more!

Electronic Hungry Hungry Hippos iPad Game is for up to four players and will help you train up so that one day you might be the one to represent your town, county, or even country at IHHHP trials all over the world. Do you have what it takes to be a Hippo Champion?

Check out the awesome original commercial and song, mixed with an iPad for the newly made up product. Brilliant!

Hungry Hungry Hippos for iPad