A surprise awaits any player who logs into World of Warships this weekend: space.
The multiplayer online naval battle game (it’s in closed beta now) has slapped space themes on a few ships — including plastering the Yamato battleship class in a Space Battleship Yamato skin.
I thought it was a bug at first when I logged in, but it turns out this is a play on publisher Wargaming’s April Fools’ Day joke about “changing course” with World of Warships. It incorporates names and looks from Space Battleship Yamato, a groundbreaking Japanese sci-fi anime, Star Trek, and Firefly.
Here’s a look at a few of the ship skins and one round of combat in which my Yamato fought against a bunch of space cruisers and battleships — and had a weird encounter.