The Joke Feature That Pokemon Go Fans Want For Real

Every year on April Fools' day, many developers will add a little joke or tweak a feature in-game to celebrate the holiday, all in the spirit of having a good laugh under the guise of a trick or fib. Sometimes, in rare cases, the April Fools' joke can lead to something more permanent after the day has passed. With April 1 coming up in just a few weeks, it appears "Pokémon Go" players are hoping to see a previous April Fools day prank return to the game as a full-fledged feature. 

Back in 2018, "Pokémon Go" updated the title with a surprise for players logging on during April Fools' Day. Users would come to find that all of the Pokémon throughout the day had forgone their newer 3D models and reverted to their 2D sprite appearances from the classic Game Boy titles. 

While Niantic never intended for the alternate appearances to be anything more than a jest, many players actually want the developer to install the feature as a mainstay option. Here's why players are asking Niantic to make a joke feature in "Pokémon Go" a permanent fixture.

Niantic likely never expected its players would clamor for a joke feature, but for some fans, the aesthetics of the innocent prank made all the difference. On a Reddit post lamenting the removal of the feature, one commenter said, "it was really cool [and] I think it made my game load my Pokemon list faster. I bet people with slower phones could benefit from having this back, but also for the nostalgia reasons." Other users echoed similar sentiments, saying, "Few friends of mine got back into ['Pokémon Go'] with this update just because of the nostalgia factor. Sadly they slowly weened away when it was removed."

Whether for the nostalgic designs or for the functional performance improvements some players experienced from the graphical downscaling, many are currently calling for Niantic to add the joke feature back into the game. While there certainly are some "Pokémon Go" players that didn't care for the feature, it doesn't seem like much harm could be done if the retro Pokémon aesthetic was added as an option that could be toggled on or off. As to whether Niantic will act on fans' call for the feature, that remains to be seen. If nothing else, maybe it'll at least make a brief return for the pranksters' holiday in a few weeks.