General Pokemon 2016: A Year to look back

[Mr. Rhyperior]

Hello, guys. 2016 is just passes by and 2017 is coming. This year is a great year for the Pokemon Community. There are some highlights of Pokemon events for 2016.

• Pokemon:

1. Pokemon is celebrating its 20th anniversary
2. Pokemon launches their Super Bowl Ad last February.... Just before Feb. 8.
3. Volcanion introduced as the last Pokemon in Gen 6.
4. Magearna also introduced in the same year and become the 801st Pokemon in the National Dex

• TCG:

1. 4 new TCG sets introduced this year: BREAKPoint, Fates Collide, Steam Siege, and Evolutions, in continuation of the Pokemon BREAKs for this year.
2. Some cards in the Pokemon TCG made a huge impact for 2016, like Greninja BREAK, Puzzle of Time, the reprint of N, Volcanion, and Dragonite-EX.
3. XY-on standard format has come to an end, and PCL-on replaces.
4. XY Promos added to the huge number of Promos, making it possibly the huge number of English TCG Promos in the history of Pokemon. There are 210 as of now.
5. Mythical Promos from the Mythical Collection and FA EXs from Red & Blue Collection added to the huge cluster of XY Promos that are distributed every month from Feb to Dec
6. Pokemon Worlds becomes a success, especially in the field of TCG. Mega Audino rules the Worlds.
7. Pokemon introduced a new card mechanic called Pokemon GX, wherein the Pokemon can use GX attack once per game.
8. And they introduce Hyper Rares, too. But were not sure we'll get this in English in February.
9. Generations, a bonus set feature some cards reprinted from XY Base to BREAKThrough and the Radiant Collection was introduced last February. And can be found in the 20th anniversary Products.

• Anime, Movies, etc.

1. The Eng Dub of Pokemon XYZ debuts on Feb 20, while the Jap Dub of it ended last October?
2. After the end of XY&Z in Japan, Pokemon Sun and Moon series was aired a day before the game release, and the first 2 Eng Dub episodes aired on the 20th.
3. Volcaion and the Mechanical Marvel, which features Magearna and Volcanion was aired in July (Japan) and November-December (International).
4. Pokemon Generations, not the TCG set by the way was aired from Sept. 16 to Dec. 23. It is a series of short scenes that occurs in the Pokemon Games that you'be never seen it before, except that you're familiar with from Kanto to Kalos. To be honest, I love the series, even though there are some episode are inappropriate to young viewers.

• Games

1. Pokemon GO was launched last July and become a worldwide trend in a single blow. I don't know why less people now playing this game. Those Genwunners.
2. Pokemon Sun & Moon was launched a month ago: Featuring the newest generation, Gen 7, the newest region, Alola Region, over 80+ new Pokemon, including UBs, Alola Forms, and Pokemon in general.
3. Solgaleo and Lunala were the first Legendary Pokemon that having pre-evolutions, and which are Nebby the Cosmog and Cosmoem.

So what do you think you favorite events in the Pokemon Community this year?
Me, is Gen 7.

 

[Lorde]

Pokemon Sun and Moon are mine of course. Best Pokemon games of all time, and I knew they would be just from the later reveals.

2016 was perhaps the first year in over a decade and a half that Pokemon has become so widespread and more famous than ever. This is the Pokemon Renaissance in my opinion, and Pokemon needs to capitalize on that. I'm glad my favorite game since 2010 is now back to being so famous for the first time since times I wasn't even alive.

 

[Pizzadone]

The most important pokemon event of 2016 was the release of Pokemon Go. It was a fantastic game that injected life into the community by introducing younger players, refamiliarizing some older players who stopped playing and by developing a huge market, which Niantic subsequently squandered. Every piece of the puzzle was there except for gameplay necessities.

• The server issues were the first problem, which were thankfully fixed.
• Once players could play, whoops, they couldn't: Tracking broke.
• Once players could track, it was too late. Nobody could trade and nobody could battle with friends, two of the most important features of a good Pokemon game.
• The gameplay prevents players from having a good experience wherever they are. Rural players were extremely disadvantaged compared to urban players, alienating 50% of the population give or take, and especially boxing out the target market of children of averagely wealthy homes. If you have to ask your mom to drive you 10 minutes to the park every day to play Pokemon, great, but compare this requisite to a game like Flappy Bird, which could be played over and over wherever you were.

Go is just a glorified safari zone where all you need is luck, and no amount of skill will make a difference. You might find a Charizard in the wild, use a Razz Berry and throw an ultra ball at the perfect time: it will still be able to escape the ball and flee. This kind of luck based gameplay was not as addictive as it could have been, so it didn't maintain a high playerbase.

 

[Nyora]

My favorite Pokémon thingy that happened this year has got to be the Reprinting of Mega Venusaur EX. I was so happy when I learned it was gonna be reprinted! I built the deck, playtested it, and ended up placing 175th at Regionals, which isn't bad considering it's my first Regionals and it was what some might consider a "Rogue deck".

 

[Mr. Rhyperior]

My favorite Pokémon thingy that happened this year has got to be the Reprinting of Mega Venusaur EX. I was so happy when I learned it was gonna be reprinted! I built the deck, playtested it, and ended up placing 175th at Regionals, which isn't bad considering it's my first Regionals and it was what some might consider a "Rogue deck".

Not bad for a beginner.