We talked to Hungrybox’s team to find out how they pulled off the best Super Smash Bros. prank to date.
You may have seen some surprise "final" patch notes on Twitter on April 1 and wondered if developers actually decided to make some changes to a variety of characters. If so, you are one of the suckers who fell for a massive April Fools prank put together by Juan "Hungrybox" DeBiedma and his YouTube manager Christina Korsak.
On April 1, a Twitter account called Super Smash Bros. US shared that Version 14.0.0 of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was "coming soon." The tweet included a link to what appeared to be Nintendo's official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate website.
Clicking the link brought fans to a very convincing website with balance updates to many of the most popular Smash characters down to the "weird language" that Nintendo has used in past updates. According to Korsak, she tried to make the patch realistic by making some of the balance changes "normal stuff that might be a thing" while others would have Smash players going "huh."
"I used to have a background in web admin so I thought, 'I wonder if this would work.' I stopped at a Starbucks on the way to the Ft. Wayne Pokémon Regional to download, fake, and edit the webpage. I actually bought the domain name while driving on the highway," she admitted to me.
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The fact that this shockingly convincing prank was pulled together in a few hours is quite incredible. This includes writing up well-thought-out changes to many characters.
Some of Korsak's favorite changes included nerfing the knockback of Steve's Minecart but giving it a huge buff by trapping opponents inside even longer (an infuriating change), making Piranha Plant's weight even higher, and making Peach and Daisy have a higher chance of pulling a Bomb-omb or Mr. Saturn respectively.
I told Korsak she should have buffed Kirby and made him S-tier but knew it would make the patch notes less convincing. She replied: "Yeah there were multiple comments like, 'You know this is real because they still didn't change Kirby or Ganon!'"
One of the best changes, however, was to Jigglypuff's weight. Korsak had Hungrybox read the patch notes blind, meaning he didn't get to read them before creating a video of his real reactions to the fake changes. When he saw that Jigglypuff's weight was decreased, he couldn't hide his pain and confusion.
Hungrybox's reaction video has over 100,000 views. This helped the fake website "go viral" as Korsak had predicted and hoped.
Many of the reactions to Hungrybox's videos were fans that commended him for such a realistic prank. The website was especially convincing, leaving many in awe. Some even wondered if it was authentic after all due to how convincing the changes and website were.
But Korsak came clean on Twitter soon after, noting that the tweet had received over 1 million views.
"It was a fun April Fools day," she laughed.
