April Fools 2026 In Fighting Games

April Fools is one again upon us. Sadly, it's not the most anticipated date in the gaming industry. While many companies prepare to offer fun surprises, the fans are usually clutching fists in anticipation of joke game announcements that will never come to fruition.

Fighting games occasionally join in on the fun, but between only having few active titles, and companies representing them usually focusing on other games, we truly don't get too many gags and fake outs as other corners of the medium.

That said, let's look at the few companies that joined in, and if something new pops up, we'll update the post to add it in.

Guilty Gear Strive

Arc System Works kicks off today's tiny trend of familiar names doing familiar things. ASW has previously done an April Fools for Strive where they reimagined the game with a cast of plush bears.

This time it's much the same, promising a new "Guilty Bear" fighting game with 20 adorable characters, cute mechanics, and a pleasant soundtrack.

They even prepared the "Guilty Bear" website, but unfortunately it just redirects to the official Strive website instead of doubling down on the spoof.

And we almost immediately have an update shortly before posting. Seems like ASW wasn't done, so they went with a second fake game (with gameplay video, how rare is that!). Guilty Gear Festival!! a little auto-runner game featuring May as the protagonist.

Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising

Cygames definitely seems like one of the more enthusiastic companies when it comes to April Fools jokes. Last year they had the hilarious roster illustrations from AC-bu (you might know them from Bob Epic Team), including a full new theme song.

This time around things are pretty mild, however. As part of April Fools you can grab this silly little profile card of Katalina slapping Vyrn.

Aaand, that's all for this year it seems. Capcom's April Fools joke was focused on Pragmata, and it doesn't seem like there's anything coming from French Bread, Bandai Namco, SNK, or anyone else.