A Year in the Jungle: 2016 Revisited

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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.

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

  1. Dunno why…..I just tried to shiny hunt a Bruxish. I already had a shiny Bruxish, I didn’t need another one, SOS hunting suck, why did i do it!?

    Reply

  2. I found a shint rockruff a week ago. It took me like 850 sos and, despite I had a jolly kadabra, the shiny was timid with just two ivs and the worst abilitie.
    Today I decided to hunt for a better one: I found my second shiny rockruff at 70 sos, jolly, with its hidden ability, with 4 ivs and the non perfect two being sp. att and ps (which are normal). It will be a sweet no guard midnight form shiny Lycanroc!! So happy!!

    Reply

  3. I really hope that Shiny Lunala (and Solgaleo but I’m not a big fan of it) gets sent out like Xerneas and Yvetal. I really want the shiny!

    Reply

  5. Ugh. Today and tomorrow suck so much. No matter what, the last few days of a break are always filled with me worrying about school again. Also I’m super bored, so there’s nothing to distract me easily.

    Reply

    • I still gotta move furniture tomorrow and that involves lifting couches and setting carpet
      I swear my mother never thinks these things through, we get a u haul full of furniture fo free but we didn’t clear the living room first……..
      There’s like 3 couches in there….

      But tomorrow is my last day off until work calls me in…..

      Reply

    • It’s always very depressing when a break comes to a close. I tend to look back and think about what I would have done if I could reset the break. Unfortunately I never do what I say I will do.

      Reply

  6. So I just spent the last two hours staring at a proverb that was posted by a dev, hinting at a future update in a game I like, and I kinda had to face palm when I realized how obvious the message of it was, and that its a bit depressing. Simply being that a fan favorite character in the game is likely going to die in its next update.

    Reply

      • Short version, Final Fantasy 14 is having its final big patch before its next expansion in two weeks, so the director pretty much wen to twitter/facebook, gave some warm wishes, and then posted this cryptic poem hinting at the next patch.

        ‘Look ye where the sun Doth rise,
        See crimson embers, dark’ning skies,
        Look ye where the sun doth fall,
        See azure lost amidst the squall.’

        More or less its meant to hint at what is to come, being that things are heating up in the east and leading to conflict and war, which is the main focus of the next expansion, and something being lost, likely dying, in the west, where the game currently takes place. Given theirs no real conflict there anymore, azure can be narrowed down to someone bearing the title of Azure, which three characters do, one being the player character, a character that has more lives then John Snow, and a character who’s too old to deal with this crap anymore and just wants to live a quiet life, meaning he’s the one most likely to die.

        Reply

  15. So after having Quick Attack on my Smeargle for a little while now I want to get something a little bit more powerful on him. Are there any regular double battles I can do now? I don’t know whether the Battle Tree even allows for Sketch to work, but even if it did I don’t really want to risk Smeargle learning something I don’t want it to.

    Reply

  16. Y’know how I can tell I’m hated by the world?
    My 3dsgot banned the MOMENT BEFORE I TRADED THE SYNCRHO ABRA I NEEDED FOR MY SOLGALEO OVER

    Reply

  19. OMG!!! I just noticed something amazing!!! So when you trainer is idol they do a little motion right? When you’re on Lanakila they do a motion that shows that they’re cold!! lol

    Reply

  21. Goodnight y’all but some food for thought

    -Earthen just leave Shiinotic alone please for me
    -GF make wildfire a move
    -please if you have school like me tomorrow don’t die because of it
    -Xmas monster Goodluck with Smeargel
    -Ithsme protect us with your all bird Ness
    -Star stay beautiful and good luck with the Hilda animation!

    Reply

  23. An amigo of mine told me to use Incineroar in a playthrough and tell me how I felt toward it afterward… thinking my opinion would change
    I didn’t think I could hate it more….
    I was so wrong…

    Reply

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