ith Pokémon Go, Niantic has proven that Pokémon has the ability to stand the test of time.
Best Games Played 2016
These games and awards were decided during the Wardcast’s Best Games Played 2016 episode, where we considered any and all games played by the members of the Wardcast in 2016, even if they weren’t released that calendar year.
When the original Pokéfans were children, they’d play pretend Pokémon by going outside, turning their baseball caps backwards, and throwing plastic Pokéballs into tall grass to catch invisible animals. Now, Niantic has created a novel approach that combines location-based presence and alternate reality to rekindle that childhood magic.
The summer of 2016 will be remembered as the summer of Pokémon Go. As the game slowly took over the world, folks started to explore parts of their cities, towns, and neighborhoods that otherwise went overlooked. It became an opportunity to meet people you otherwise wouldn’t talk to, and it encouraged people to be more active as they flocked to parks and piers.
The zeitgeist of everyone on the street trying to be a Pokémon Master may have already passed, but the narrative of Pokémon has always been a much more personal journey. It’s about you, your team, and the bonds you’ve created, and Niantic has captured the physicality of that narrative better than any other Pokémon game that has come before it.
