It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Some of you may recognize that as a quote from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities (1859), but I could think of nothing more apt to describe 2016. For the Pokémon community it was certainly a standout year and perhaps the best we could have hoped for in honor of the series’ 20th anniversary. The rest of the world fared much worse however, and it is hard to overlook the political changes that have no doubt touched many fans across the world.
Pokémon Go
Many doubted that a mobile Pokémon experience, featuring augmented reality no less, could capture the feel of the series and deliver something worth playing—myself included—but the end result was something that would make 2016 the year Pokémon made its comeback.
While not the most avid player myself, there was something definitely surreal about seeing the creatures pop up around me and also made exercise a little more fun. The same ‘Gotta Catch ’em All’ philosophy from the handheld games carried over to the real world and the game was hard to put down if you saw a rare Pokémon lurking nearby.
Hopefully it will find continued success in the next year and keep Pokémon firmly in the spotlight. Can’t hurt to grow the fandom, right?
Pokémon Sun & Moon
Phew. Now we know what it must feel like for a mother to wait 9 months just to see what her baby is going to look like. We were teased mercilessly by PR with new screenshots and trailers, just to know that there were still months away from having the game in our hands.
And how did it do once it was in our hands? Pretty damn well I’d say. Perhaps the thing I enjoyed the most was that Alola feels like the first region to be alive. The Pokémon introduced weren’t too bad either, with Ultra Beasts providing an interesting new angle.
What wasn’t the best? Z-moves. Not a fan, sorry. Especially painful after Mega Evolutions were shelved after just one generation. If I were to run for president, I’d definitely base my campaign on “A Mega Evolution for All”.
PokéJungle
This year was a good one for the site. Another good year; most new generation years are. We hit 20,000 Twitter followers in February of this year and now we end at 32,000. I thank each and every one of you that puts up with me.
I’ll also take a moment to be perfectly honest: running this website is not always easy. In many ways this year was one of my most stressful. I greatly admire people like Serebii, because they can effortlessly (or at least give the appearance of effortlessness) update their site and continue to document every nook and cranny of each Pokémon game that has been released.
I can’t, it is not my specialty. My talents lie in getting people excited for what’s next; what’s here is already dead and gone. Some of you may have noticed that the site posts decreased dramatically in the next month and I suppose I will be honest about why. For some reason I always have spikes in my depression after new games are released. I think it has to do with the emotional investment I put into news coverage pre-launch and then the emptiness of post launch.
Hope to be running again in full speed for 2017. Love you all. PJ.
This year sucked, really really hard
I didnt like this year
Elections, Not needed Celebrity deaths, and all the sickness
Not good in deed
2016 was very meh imo. It started out with Alan Rickman dying and ended with Carrie Fisher & George Michael dying. There were a couple of positive things though, like Sun & Moon and Uncharted 4 but thats about it.
For me personally it was okay though
Yeah, we all know that this year has been a mixed bag. From the mild sort of seeing the end of a failing console and the growing signs of the death of steam, to the much bigger pains of a very controversial year of politics in the US, and the death of countless people who touched peoples lives, this year could be pretty bitter.
However I Choose to look at the positives. In this year we’ve scene the resurgence of RPG’s and JRPG’s in gaming, leading a genre that many felt was kinda dying to be embraced. Not only Pokemon, but things like Transformers, Star Trek, Digimon and I think even Yugioh all celebrated huge anniversary’s this year. Fire Emblem, a franchise I probably love more then Pokemon even, has finally been embraced by the masses and has easily become the little brother to pokemon, as it should be. Technology to allow the color-blind see color has become much more readily available. Major medical breakthroughs have been made into dealing with ALS, made better given it came off of the wake of the Ice Bucket challenge that dominated the internet last year. Among countless deaths, we saw the end of Fidel Castro, which was something celebrated by many people. In comics we’ve seen a huge resurgence from DC with its newest reboot, bring back Wally West(Which is one of the main reasons I’ll probably always hate young Justice, but that’s aside the point), as well as re-sparking a love for a lot of these characters that people aren’t that familiar with, namely the blue beetle. And that’s only scratching the surface of a lot of the great things that did happen this year.
So remember, while this year has been bitter and cold, good did come from it. Its up to us to choose how we remember this year, and how we move forward. Don’t let yourself sink into anger and hate, as that does nothing but spread more misery. Go out and embrace the new year for all the good and bad it might give us.
AWWWWWWWWWWW WHY DID JIBJAB STOP DOING END OF THE YEAR REVIEWS
This ‘JibJab’ is foreign to me. But if you mean stop being optimistic and trying to encourage people to do the same rather then sulking in their own misery and anger like you often do, then Never. Life is far to short to wallow in the muk of despair.
Watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykqaq3KNPsc
this was the last one they did before they retired
oh that was pretty fun. A shame they don’t make them anymore, but its understandable. People grow older and use things like this as a launch-point for their careers into other things. but thank you for sharing earthen. I’ve been having a rough morning, but you just made it better.
Rough funny,
Woke up with a neck cramp (Again)
Crappy early morning losing streak to things i naturally should be better at (IE Electric, Steel, Ground and Ice)
Stubbed my toe on the counter
wanged my funny bone in the pantry
knocked over my favorite bowl (its broken beyond repair)
and spilled half my breakfast on the stairs
all before 9AM
Ehh rough. My mornings been a bit rough simply due to my Niece waking me up way too early, then going back to sleep and finding out that my brother ate all of the morning bacon, and then getting sick from some scrambled eggs. Not a big deal though.
As to the mono team issues though, while that sucks, I suppose its just a sign of the changing metas really. Maybe its time to start thinking about ways to counter the new strategy’s that are becoming common place in monos, like running a Stunfisk(I think that’s how its spelled) for countering Skarmory and Celesteela since both of them go down pretty easily to a good thunderbolt no matter how you build them. Maybe running it with a trickroom Claydoll?
Stunfisk….i should smack you with one
Stunfisk has base 81 SP Atk that is SHIT (and if you say Camerupt i will also hit you with an Oar)
Nidoking is the only option because with his amazing speed and the triage of Flamethrower. ice Beam Thunderbolt amplified with Sheer Force make them extremely powerful, like base 117 per shot with Tbolt
Trick Room is too much trouble since half of my pokemon are speed sweepers and to set it up safely and still have turns to use it is a nightmare,
And yet your losing given the current meta with your speed sweepers, so maybe, just maybe, it means you have to change how you approach a fight in order to win. 81 sp isn’t great, but decent if your planning to use it to counter what I mentioned. As well don’t knock Trickroom. Trick room’s kinda huge right now in the meta since a lot of new pokemon are slow as hell.
Also feel free to correct me, but isn’t Stunfisk still stronger with those t-bolts with stab over Nidoking with sheerforce. Not trying to start a fight here, but actually asking. Its clearly a good mixed attacker, but really it might be time to rethink how you play Monos. Just the other day you were saying how you constantly lose in this new gen given a lot of your ways of playing from gen 6 don’t really work well against new pokemon. Really it might be time to try something new that doesn’t rely on raw power with some good speed/punk to win, given its rather easy to stall out those kinds of thems.
Also don’t knock Camerupt. If you were running a trickroom team M-camerupt’s pretty godly with that 20 base speed and being very viable as a physical or special attacker.
you just don’t understand the meta is nothing but stalling and bulk
and No Stunfisk even with STAB isn’t strong enough because Sheer Force ups the damage
And you constantly overlook the sheer amount of legends everyone overuses, now everyone has access to the Tapus and UBs which are a total bitch to deal with unless you have their exact counters
Ground Types have been suffering so much lately, we have no good special sweepers like 3 at best, we have tons of weaknesses that are everyone’s favorites and just nothing gets better
Specs magnezones says hi
please it has fair speed and HP Ice it gets away with lots of things because of sturdy
It literally slaughters both UB-04 variants with HP fire and Thunderbolt
Reallly don’t see the problem
Google is paying 97$ per hour! Work for few hours and have longer with friends & family! !mj185d:
On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $8752 this last four weeks.. Its the most-financialy rewarding I’ve had.. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it
!mj185d:
➽➽
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Google is paying 97$ per hour! Work for few hours and have longer with friends & family! !mj247d:
On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $8752 this last four weeks.. Its the most-financialy rewarding I’ve had.. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it
!mj247d:
➽➽
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Even with Pokemon Sun and Moon, Just Dance 2017 and other stuff 2016 still is terrible.
Google is paying 97$ per hour! Work for few hours and have longer with friends & family! !mj291d:
On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $8752 this last four weeks.. Its the most-financialy rewarding I’ve had.. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check it
!mj291d:
➽➽
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Highlights of this year (not in any order):
-Yo-kai watch 2 Bony Spirits
-Pokémon Sun and Moon
-Mario Party Star Rush
-Kirby Planet Robobot
-I joined the Jungle (so did many others)
-Christmas (This is always good)
-Others I may have forgotten
After somebody’s been here a week or two, I forget they just joined, so the usual posters have been here for years in my eyes, I forgot you just joined this year 🙂 glad you did!
Kirby is so underrated
This was by far the worst year in my life so far and not just because of the celebrity deaths and political fiascos. Just alot of financial and working issues in general but I’m certainly looking forward to a bright and lucrative New Year in general. So fingers crossed for a good New Year!? (why is there no crossed fingers emoji?)
This year was mostly good in my opinion, I mean sure there have been a lot of celebrity deaths and about US politics, but to be quite honest a lot of good has happened this year for me.For starters, Pokemon GO became a global phenomenon and restored Pokemon back to popularity and Pokemon Sun and Moon were the best games to come out of the franchise. As for me personally, I have found myself to becoming more confident about decisions and what I should do about the future.
Can’t wait for 2017!
As far as Pokemon goes this year was a real banger. Despite it’s faults GO was and at times is still really enjoyable to play around with. Also thanks to the rise in 20th anniversary merch I finally decided to start my own YouTube channel where I open Pokemon card packs. It’s still a slow go, but I hope in 2017 it will continue to grow and I can be more on top of it lol Of course then there’s Pokemon Sun and Moon! Probably the highlight of the year as far as Pokemon stuff goes. Such a great freaking game!!! I can’t wait for next year with the rumors of Stars!! Hopefully we’ll about that officially sooner rather than later lol Finally to end the year FINALLY found my first shiny for the new generation. I missed not having my shiny charm from XY/ORAS, but even without it I was lucky enough to find a shiny Cubone!! Now it’s a Marowak and I love it!! hahaha
Totally agree on this. Both GO and SM were fantastic additions to the Pokemon Franchise.
Also nice job on finding a shiny Cubone!
Thanks! It was pretty surprising. I was starting to give up hope that I’d find a shiny before getting my shiny charm, but there it is lol https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1d38a36f6d6e26a385e7fbded8c83375f4bf6cfc82ed85bcdc09670a9f8b6f21.jpg
The Alolan Marowak shiny is definitely one of my favorites
It’s SO much better than regular shiny Marowak lol
True, the green isn’t a good coloration for it at all XD
I find most Pokemon with green shiny colors look pretty awful. There are a few exceptions, but a lot of them look gross….lol
Why is 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 8 9.
*Gunfire*
Hey, it’s a prediction for next year. Lol
>Pokemon Go
> Good part of 2016
Uh no
Pokemon go got a lot of people thinking about pokemon who haven’t in years, led to a lot of people going out side, making conversation with others in their communities, led to a huge sales increase in pokemon games across the board and did lead to a lot of people wanting to at least try pokemon sun and moon.
While it by no means is the game perfect, it did do some good.
Except the fact Niantic has been involved in a lot of controversy/scandals lately, as recent as the Gen 2 clickbait. Sure there’s a few new GEN 2, but they’re all babies.
its not clickbait at all lol
Well it was it said “Gen 2 released” at least they could’ve said “Certain Gen 2 Pokemon released for now”
all their announcement said “more pokemon coming” not “Gen 2 Released”
And that’s not really here, nor there. I’m taking about the fact that the product they released did do some good. Is the company great? No, not at all, but they did lead to a pretty big movement for a short period of time and have made something that a lot of people like.
It was a ton of fun for a few weeks.
And then….it went boring.
I get rid of the black plague known as 2016 infested by the Russians, Americans, Niantics, racists, terrorist attacks, celebrity deaths, global warming, Hurricane Matthew, coup d’etat attack in Turkey and the purge, and many MANY other disastrous things with a simple dance in Just Dance 2017 <3 Who know dancing was good for relaxing
The site gets better and better every year 🙂 community gets bigger, stronger, and better each year 🙂 can’t wait to see how the site grows next year!
Pokémon itself got amazing this year!
My life plummeted down the tubes.. and I didn’t think it got worse than last year
I can completely relate to the post-release depression feeling you have, but on a lesser-scale. After I beat every major release game, I feel sorta lost as to what I’m supposed to look forward to next in life, games are what motivates me. I hope this feeling doesn’t persist for you, PJ.
Next in life is the switch for me
Right now I’m just looking forward to switchmas, I’ll make the switch release my next milestone after that.
switchmas is only 13 days!
:O
ITS GONNA BE HYPE.
HHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYPPPPPPEEEEEEEEE
I’m just worried about pre-orders selling out too fast.
if u see it up on the first day dont hesitate
I have school the day after switchmas, so I wouldn’t be able to pre-order anything until around 7:30 PM. 🙁
What if you get back home at 7:31 PM? Will you go bonkers?
I guess so. 😛
the wii u had enough pre orders for a day
That’s good to hear, I guess, but I don’t think it had as much hype as the switch does.
Question for you guys… What are your predictions about the next reveal in the Pokemon franchise (main series or spin-off) and what would you like to see? Personally I’d like to see the seventh generation version of the mystery dungeon series and hope it changes up the formula from PSMD
Detective Pikachu 2
Pokemon colosseum 2
Poke park 3
Stars gonna be revealed for the switch coming in summer (closes leak rumor tab) Totally made that up in my mind
Wait was there a new leak?
no im saying about the pokemon summer release leak for the switch
Oh, that. Do you think it’ll be announced at switchmas? I really doubt it TBH.
no it wont, i say it will have its own thing
But if they’re expecting a summer release then it can’t be much later.
who knows if its really a summer release lol
I hope it is, but from a sales perspective it probably won’t be.
hoildays is always the best time imo
Sadly.
Yeah I think stars is a safe bet considering the walking and running animations
I honestly hope they do something out of the blue and do a prequel Pokemon game for Sun and Moon that stars Necrozma in its true form. Kinda like what they did for Battlefield 1
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9ba7337ead389ba28236e296af8ed59b0bc97a05a9ca15fc73711ab60b51bbd8.jpg
*Cue Jurassic Park Theme*
Actually a Jurassic Pokemon park would be a cool addition mow that I think about it… lol
It would, I mean Snap was similar but an actual game just like Jurassic Park would be the stuff
Well, I meant like in Star that that guy opens the park and you just see the fossil pokemon walking/swimming/flying around in a closed area. Nothing too crazy. Lol
Yeah lol. You know, like a Tyrantrum is something not out of the ordinary (sarcastic laugh).
Actually, I just thought of something great about this idea. What if in Stars, this park with Fossil Pokemon is a new trial that’s for Rock types? And the Totem Pokemon is the new Alola Fossils they discovered?
Well, actually they are supposed to be, due to not everyone having access to fossils or the device capable to re-fleshify them lol
OMG HOW DID i NOT SEE THIS?!?!?! Hahaha
What to look forward to in 2017:
-New Kelly album
-New Avril album
-Pokemon Stars, if real
-Guardians vol. 2
-Switch/its lineup (ZELDA!)
-Spider-man
-Thor 3
-Beauty and the Beast
-Game of Thrones season 7 (Winds of Winter too please??? ;-;)
-Star Wars ep 8
Probably about it for me. What’s everyone else looking forward to?
– Pokemon Stars announced to also be on 3DS/2DS
– French elections don’t end horribly
– Scotland and Northern Ireland leave the UK
– The world ends
Cant wait for armaggedon
Stars on the 3DS would be cool, but idk if it’ll happen. Hopefully the elections go well, can’t say I have an opinion on that last one
I’m not British but I do know that Scottish rights were abused in the infamous Brexit event.
nah switch for stars
Yeah good luck with that.It’d be a waste of effort for them to develop a game for both an HD system AND an underachieving system lol
They would have to develop the two separately I think. S/M was already pushing 3DS’ limits. I wonder if S/M are the last games on the DS. The Switch IS portable..
Switch main gimmick is that it can be portable, the only downside is the games loses double screen action
Well apparently most of the Nintendo higher ups hated the dual screen idea when they were making the DS. Even Iwata apparently wasn’t sold on the idea lol
Exactly. Either that or they’d have to downscale the Switch version and it’d look really crappy. The reason games can go cross platform most of the time is due to current system having similar specs. It’s way harder for developers to make a game if they constantly have to think about the secondary system while they’re making the “real” one. One of the many reasons the WII and Wii U barely got any third party games
-Pokemon stars
-Nintendo NX
-New kirby title
-Final Fantasy 30th anniversary
Is there gonna be another kirby in 2017??
I think it’s going to be Kirby Cash Bomb
Kirby ultra super mega foxy awesome hot star
And knucles
Hasn’t there been a title every year for a while?
Hm..probably?
If we count the sorta spinoffs and such like epic yarn and rainbow clay
Lol rainbow clay. Still need to play that one…
It wasn’t that bad, but it wasn’t my favorite. I found the gimmick a little hard to catch on to.
IDK but I hope
Switch Switch and Switch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dude…
You forgot switch
Damn i forgot switch and switch aswell
Another thing I do want to add something else about 2016 being a good year, and that is joining Pokejungle back 4-6 months ago. I really enjoy the community here, everyone is very nice and welcoming to any new here. All of you guys are pretty great and fun to talk to, and I really enjoy these conversations we have in the comment sections. Pokejungle itself has been one of my favorite highlights this year.
Aw, thanks. Now get out
(Sigh), Alright…
Atleast we know the next year Will be better
(I hope so)
As for my personal highlights of the year, I think in chronological order:
– Fire Emblem: Fates
– Anouncment and hype leading up to SM (I had a great time here with you all)
– Birth of my cousin’s son
– Going to Florida
–
Overwatch*sigh*– Meeting a friend who like Pokemon!!
– Nintendo Switch reveal
– SUN AND MOOOOOOOOON!!!!!
– Rogue One
– Christmas (but for me that’s kinda a given)
They should’ve made the mascot of Moon a cow.
Miltank and Tauros as box legendaries, neat
Milbank’s sound and Movements are so funny. Don’t get me wrong i mean sure it’s not funny to laugh at fat things, but Milbank is the exception it just moves very wobbly.
Fire emblem fates was awesome
Oh yeah, easily my favorite in the franchise (“true” fire emblem fans don’t hurt me)
Fates is the only game i played from FE 😛
Oh lol.
The people who played the first 1-12 FE games first usually despise the 3DS titles.
Thats your typical fanbase
Haha true. The genwunners of FE.
Top 3 games for me this year
1. Sun and Moon
2. Overwatch
3. Fire emblem fates
1. Sun and Moon
2. Kirby planet robobot
3. Skyrim SE
Wow I did not buy a lot of new games.
Im waiting for the switch version to pick up skyrim
I couldn’t wait. It was like 25 bucks and I have a $30 best buy giftcard so I caved
smart robot, just buy it twice XD
Muahaha >:)
1. Moon
2. X
3. Omega Ruby
1. Pokemon moon
2. (Place were i should put FFXV, but i cant because i still havent played it ;-;)
3. Fire Emblem fates
3. I don’t really know any titles worthy of this spot. 2016 was not a great year in games was it?
2. FE: Fates
1. Sun and moon
2016 had a very small line of up of great games imo
The only other games I played this year were Pokken, Paper Jam, and Overwatch. None of which I liked.
3 should go to Paper Mario Colour Splash
I didn’t play it but I’ve heard good things.
1. Sun and Moon
2. Fire Emblem Fates
3. Overwatch
Personal and political highlights of the year for me:
– Playing Pokemon actually for the first time! (X, then Omega Ruby, now Moon)
– Buying and playing Just Dance 2017
– Halloween
– Austrian Elections ending in a leftist victory
– Pokemon 20th year anniversary free legendaries
– Catching my first shiny!
– Hatching my first shiny!
– Getting my first shiny legendary!
–
Fill in that last spot with whatever happens today!
enough talk about Just Dance, i don’t think ever in my live anyone have positive thoughts on dancing games
Well you must dance or your feet will implode!
I’ll give you some “motivation”
*Pulls out a revolver and aims for your feet*
and for good measures
*Throws some live coal*
It’s good meme material
Can you only dye stuff pastel colors with the dye booths?
@Redrat EastGovnah
I had a scary thought about the switch. What if they market it and treat it as if it was a console with a portable gimmick, not as a hybrid? I mean, what if they come out with a new handheld in a few years, and suddenly we’ve lost the hope of having all games on one system?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a6fbec20b84d1fad15a7fa3535d5b789c1d5741596c038f1fbd2a338dbeb58d.png
When you just don’t want 2016 to repeat you beg for mercy for not to spread anything to 2017