Did you enjoy our French Reference Day? We thought it'd be a fun way to celebrate the first of April. For those that missed it, in every post yesterday we included some reference to France, French language or French culture*. Feel free to take a look for yourself and try to catch 'em all. For all the answers, peep below the break. Be sure to check out our gallery of April Fools' shenanigans, as well.

* Note: Just to be extra clear (because we sometimes need to be), Joystiq is not based in France.

As we bid adieu to this All Fools' Day, it's time to take a broom to the leftover balderdash and sweep it out of the house so we can start fresh and clean tomorrow.

• Straightgamer.net -- OH NO! The boys over at GayGamer.net went to "therapy" and are now devout heterosexuals. Now all they can talk about is boobs, beer and babes. That's so not fierce!
• Lego Halo -- 1Up reposted EGM's April issue gag for the internets.
• Wii Want More -- A Wii downloadable content service?! ROFLCOPTERBBQ
• Brain Age Mobile for iPhone -- The Wiicast does a very subtle trick that any other day of the year might be believable.
• Reggie talks Earthbound -- Starmen.net spliced together some clips and gets Monsieur Fils-Aime talking frankly about Nintendo's thoughts on Earthbound in America.
• N64 games ported to DS -- Vooks.net got the scoop on some N64 titles being "retooled & refreshed" for the handheld.
• Final Fantasy XIII demo and Final Fantasy VII remake -- PSXExtreme didn't even try to be witty, they just went for some painful lies.

With only so much time left in the day, we thought we'd fit in a handful of the gros amount of April Fools' pranks found in the various MMOs today.

• Age of Conan announces the Elf class (If you think this is real, check out the creation video)
• Guild War turns everyone into stick figures, making us pine for a Xiao Xiao MMO
• Dungeons & Dragons Online introduces Pimp My Warforged
• The Battle for Middle Earth gets their chicken on
• World of Warcraft developer Blizzard does their usual thing

Speaking of WoW, our Azeroth-obsessed sister site converted to Hello Kitty Insider for a day of mass coverage (30+ posts!). Here's what their front page looked like today.

The problem with all of these April Fools' shenanigans is that some of the fake games, peripherals and features people dream up are actually quite awesome. Case in point is this first-of-April report on the WiiWare version of Tetris which, according to a conveniently broken-linked Famitsu source, will feature 3D manipulation of the pieces in what looks to be a mélange of Jenga and EA's Steven Spielberg's Boom Blox.

We get the joke ("what a hilariously awkward take on such a hard-to-mess-up gameplay formula!"), but we have to admit we're intrigued by the potential of taking Tetris in a new direction. Nintendo had previous success with its alternate Tetris modes in the Nintendo DS version of the game. Maybe a physics-based iteration of the tetromino-tilting title isn't such a crazy idea after all.

Hey, did you hear the one about Nintendo "seeing the light" and nixing Friend Codes? Or how about all the Nintendo 64 games being ported to DS? Final Fantasy VII DS? All these jokes and wishful thoughts are enough to make a Nintendo fan cry.

Our amies at the Mario-centric Fanboy blogs compile the most heartbreaking April Fools' jokes. The gang at DS Fanboy also did a roundup of Nintendo April Fools' pranks for you to peruse.

• Heartbreaking Wii pranks (Nintendo Wii Fanboy)
  
• Heartbreaking DS pranks (DS Fanboy)
  
• 2008 April Fools' DS pranks (DS Fanboy)

Harmonix released its own in-game gag today, announcing "Rock Band Kart 2008." The Fools' revelation was posted in Rock Band's 'Community' section, accessible from the game's main menu. We can't help but read the "road" reference as a jab at recently unveiled Guitar Hero: On Tour, which severs the Harmonix-created series from its raison d'être, replica instruments, and conveniently shoves the remaining experience into your (really big) pocket. Kart takes the cash-in spinoff concept one giant leap of faith further. So will the Wii version be compatible with the Wheel?

[Thanks, Lewis]

Bungie's resident mascot Mister Chief (no, not that one) has popped up on Bungie's radar as a group effort from every single Europe, African and Asian Halo 3 player that banded together in Halo 3 multiplayer.

... Well, it was either that or some quick image manipulation job by the Bungie staffers themselves, putting a "constellation" of Mister Chief on the map. We opt to believe the first story because it's infinitely more epic. Note that one tiny blip in South Africa, which was Joystiq's own Ludwig Kietzmann's contribution.

[Via X3F]

ThinkGeek is certainly on a roll today with the April Fools hijinks. Not only do we have Super Pii Pii Brothers (and its bizarre peripheral), but now we have Wii Sports on the iPhone, as well as a conduit for shuffling between dead video formats.

The Wii Sports on iPhone gag is nothing more than an unclickable banner ad, making us wish the joke was taken a bit further. The Betamax to HD-DVD converter, on the other hand, is quite the stroke of genius. The idea alone is brilliant, made even more so by the "promotional" video, viewable after the break.

[Via Massively]

If the truly, unforgivably old are given a driver's license despite their age, why is the same right not extended to children? That's the question automobile maker Kia dares to ask with their new KEE_wii, which forgoes the steering wheel in favor of a Wiimote.

According to the release, the car also features Dynamic On-Road Kinetics, Full Orthopaedic Operating Logic and Independent Driver Input Operating Technique, which we're told by people who are more skilled in acronym identification is hilarious. We'll take them at their word.

Oh ... dear. This is exactly the sort of video the internet shouldn't be showing us. Does it not realize the colossal, sensory danger posed by a combination of two of our favorite franchises? Seeing the Assassin's Creed garb running around a modern environment is one thing, but when the mise en scène happens to feature Metal Gear Solid 4 gameplay, we stop asking questions ("Where did this come from? Why is it so unrelenting in its awesomeness?") and start experiencing debilitating gleezures. That's glee + seizure, FYI.

[Thanks, Emphar]

In the rush to trick people on April 1, too many outlets forget the value of actually being funny. Thankfully, Planet Grand Theft Auto is there with our current (genuinely funny) favorite: Chris Tucker (perhaps best remembered from the Rush Hour series) starring as the voice of Niko Bellic in Grand Theft Auto IV.

It's a gag, but it's also kind of a shame this isn't real. It surely would have been Tucker's finest video game performance since the PlayStation's The Fifth Element, which, come to think of it, we're not even sure he was in. Poor guy.

[Thanks Joe]

If you're trying to visit some of your favorite (and occasionally game-related) webcomics today, you might be a bit confused by the URL redirection. Here's a handy guide:

• XKCD's site now directs you to Questionable Content
• Questionable Content's site now directs you to Dinosaur Comics
• Dinosaur Comic's site now directs you to XKCD

Also, you might notice something is fishy about VG Cats. Make sure you check out the "stretch myself artistically" link. Weekly Webcomic Wrapup will return this Saturday.

ThinkGeek has a proud history with April Fools' Day gags, even going so far as to make one of its jokes into reality after it snowballed in popularity. This year, the gang is pretty much guaranteeing that won't be the case with its super-exclusive Wii title ... Super Pii Pii Brothers. And yes, as you've probably already guessed, it's a game about peeing on cats. They have a ton of other great gags you can check out here.

We've put the video for it after the break. We're not sure if it's NSFW, but we hope you work in a place where this sort of thing isn't acceptable. Unless you're that "Two Girls One Cup" guy, then this is the height of érotique.

Want an Xbox 360 Wireless Helmet ala Nintendo ON (but totally radder)? Perhaps a Vintage Edition Xbox 360 console, shaped like the original Xbox but with wood-trim, just like Grandpa's Xbox used to have? Or perhaps the battery-powered Recon Edition is more to your liking? Maybe, just maybe, the whole problem with these video game systems is the "video" part and, if so, try out Xbox Live The Board Game. All the fun of Xbox Live, only this time the 12-year-old homophobic racists are right in the same room as you are!

Of course these are all hoaxes. We imagine Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer staying up late last night, putting the finishing touches on the Photoshops while debating on whether or not to let in on the joke. Alas, they didn't quite have what it takes to follow the hoaxes to their logical conclusion: that being, of course, millions of fanboys hurriedly scribbling "Major Nelson plushie" off their holiday wishlists and writing in, in ALL CAPS mind you, WIRELESS XBOX HELMET. Nope, if you try to "Learn more" they blow the whole thing, revealing the helmet and everything else to be a farce (an April Fools' faux pas to be sure) and offering a conciliatory olive branch to spurned (and gullible) nerds everywhere in the form of some free gamerpics. We'll just write-in the plushie again, thanks.

[Thanks, riggs]

[Update: Our secret santas at X3F just captured the above video off Xbox Live and shared it with us. Thanks, guys!]