A Year in the Jungle: 2016 Revisited

by

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.

Supporters

Nick F

Smearg

Foil Island

Conglome NERD

alcremie sundae

Radiant Blutle

Zachery

Dragoniteo

Austin John Plays

Help support our work by becoming a Patron on Patreon! Swadloon Platoon members and above will be added to our site supporters list!

1,431 thoughts on “A Year in the Jungle: 2016 Revisited”

  1. Thanks for spending this year with me? What do we think 2017 will be pokemon? Announcements of gen 4 remakes? Gen 4 remakes actually released this year?

    Reply

    • I really hope it’s gen 4 remakes, it’s been so long since Pearl came out, and I’ve been itching for coming back to the region

      Reply

  6. Everyone’s being all optimistic and I’m over here, cynical as usual, thinking there’s no way 2017 will be better than 2016 in any form.

    Reply

  9. I know some people think that its going to get worse politically, which is true, but as for this year I’m not going to really worry about it. Worrying about it won’t get me anywhere, so I guess I’ll just have to move on and see what the future holds.

    Reply

  12. Hey guys, how many of the Island Scan Pokemon did you catch? Here’s my list:
    – Cyndaquil/Quilava/Typhlosion (through WT but still counts)
    – Totodile/???/Feraligatr (same with Lynda but still counts)
    – Chikorita/Bayleef/Meganium
    – Litwick/Lampent/Chandelure
    – Gothita/Gothorita/Gothitelle
    – Spheal
    – Luxio
    – Honedge
    – Venipede (forgot the eve names but I got them)
    – Marill/Azumarill
    – Rhyhorn
    – Swinub/Piloswine/Mamoswine
    – Duosion
    – Staravia/Staraptor
    – Vigoroth
    – All of Poni

    Reply

  13. Holy crap

    So I just used island scan and I had to go find a Samurott in the Poni Wilds, and I found one with Adamant nature. 2017 is starting out pretty great.

    Reply

  15. So for no reason I got DC’d during a local trade and can’t trade the synchro ABRA I needed to synchro solgaleo… fun

    Reply

  17. I’m totally bored and want to be happy so I made up a list of possible evolutions for Pokemon in Gen 8:

    1) Carbink gets an evolution (yeah I know it and Diancie and that theory but there should be a linking Pokemon between ’em, not as evolution but in design-wise) that becomes completely filled with sapphires. It has a beautiful, Lusamine-like crystally hair flowing, with it gaining a dress created by lighter gems, along with a beautiful sapphire growing underneath it. Its name would be Sapphiregal, Sapphire + Regal.

    2) Furfrou gets a female pre-evo, known as Poodarling. It has less fluff, but its fluff is completely pink so it flashes out. Remains Normal.

    3) Hawlucnha gets a large evolution. The face of Hawlucha stretches out and its body is large, while its mask covers up half of it. It gets a menacing look with piercing wings, and becomes Fighting-Poison.

    4)

    Reply

  22. I have a question; is Gen 1 really as good as people seem? As an avid critic and hater of Gen 1, I want to know other than it being the birth of Pokemon, why is it so popular? Why does it get so much attention?

    Reply

    • It get attention because it’s the beginning. No matter how successful you get, you will always be drawn back to where you started. You will always remember what happened right at the beginning. It’s natural.

      Also yeh, I think Gen 1 is pretty good. Some solid Pokemon. Cool region, cool Evil team. Nothing major but a good/solid starting point.

      Reply

    • You’ve got to think of when it was released. It was something that attracted kids instantly as 150 Pokemon to collect and battle and trade, that’s pretty cool, especially with those who had imaginary friends as instead of going on adventures in your head while running around the garden, you could do it in a big game with lots of strange creatures.

      Yeah I mean when you compare it to Sun and Moon standard, gen 1 sucks but what do you expect? I mean its the first title of the series, of course there were gonna be a few bugs and tweaks needed here and there (critical hit works on speed/toxic & Leech Seed/Fire Spin), but when you look at the core element, its a simple but brilliant premise.

      Gen 1 gets so much attention cause its the foundation of what is now Pokemon. It is something very successful that they could’ve never imagined to be as recognises as it is now. Gold and Silver were meant to be the last games but they sold out even faster than Red and Green in America.

      As for those who complain about how only Gen 1 Pokemon got Alolan forms, I would tell them to get over it. We are finally at a time where every generation of main Pokemon games can be played on one system, why not have a bit of throwback to where it all started and celebrate that in a game?

      Reply

Leave a Comment