Game developers asked to select their top five games of 2016, Pokemon GO chosen by many

Game Informer caught up with developers from all around the world to find out which five titles were the best in 2016. Pokemon GO was a popular choice, as it was included in lists by creators such as Kazuyuki Hoshino from SEGA and Hajime Tabata from Square Enix. There were other Nintendo picks as well including Super Mario Run by Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann and Pokemon Sun/Moon by Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono.

The Nintendo-related choices and comments are posted below. The rest are located on Game Informer here.

Mathijs de Jonge (Guerrilla Games / Horizon Zero Dawn)

Monster Hunter Generations – This is a game I come back to regularly. It feels very complete in terms of options and content, and it’s good to see that the series was made more accessible without affecting the core Monster Hunter gameplay.

Neil Druckmann (Naughty Dog / The Last of Us)

Super Mario Run – Nintendo simplified Mario down to one mechanic, jump, while still retaining much of the depth of its 2D predecessors. Once I started I couldn’t stop playing until I had all the secret coins on each level.

Kazuyuki Hoshino (Sega / Sonic the Hedgehog)

Pokémon Go – I played this SO much in the summer.
Lego Dimensions – My sons are big fans of building Legos and I love the character design.

Kazutoki Kono (Project Aces / Ace Combat)

Pokémon Go – People are searching for Pokemon at all times in all places. This game changed the world.

Drew McCoy (Respawn Entertainment / Titanfall)

Pokémon Go – Not much “game” to play here, per se, but there’s tons to love about my time playing it as I look back on the summer and fall walking around with my wife and kids catching Pokémon in as many new and interesting places as possible. I’m still upset they all happily caught Mr. Mime in Switzerland while my phone was dead and could only stand by to watch!

Yoshinori Ono (Capcom / Street Fighter)

Pokémon Sun & Moon – This title is almost mandatory to play. I’m currently playing both Pokemon Go and Sun/Moon in parallel.

Arthur Parsons (TT Games / Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens)

Pokémon Go – Many people may scoff when I write Pokémon Go, however it was a special game in 2016 for me for different reasons to those that people may think. It is a game that came out and managed to bring my entire family together. All of a sudden the kids were asking if they could take the dogs on a walk, asking if we could all go for a walk out in the forest, asking if we could spend time together, in the outside!!! Unbelievable! So yes bizarrely we spent many an hour trekking around the countryside catching Pokémon, laughing and joking, and having fun. So Pokémon Go has to come on my list purely on the basis that intentionally or not it made us all venture outside together in a shared interest, and even made us take the odd midnight Poke-walk in the forest! Kudos!

Tommy Refenes (Team Meat / Super Meat Boy)

Pokémon Go (before they ruined it) – When Pokemon Go first came out my wife and I would walk around and catch Pokemon and it was awesome. Then they changed a bunch of stuff and now it sorta blows because I can’t get PokeStops anymore while riding in the car so I can’t catch Pokemon. I swear they just need to lawyer up and stop trying to make the game “safe” for everyone in every circumstance. I can snapchat while I drive, why can’t I get PokeStops while I’m riding in a car?

Harvey Smith (Arkane Studios / Dishonored)

Pokémon Go – Despite the problems, both technical and conceptual, I love this little game for its global nature. I’ve caught Pokemon in L.A. and London, but also in Zatec, Czech Republic. And it really provided us with one of the few non-horrifying cultural moments of 2016.

Hajime Tabata (Square Enix / Final Fantasy XV)

Pokémon Go

Tim Willits (id Software / Doom)

Pokémon Go – I admit I don’t have this game on my iPhone, but all three of my kids do. Spending time with my kids driving around looking for Pokemon has been a lot of fun for me and a great father / kid experience. One day we drove around the Texas State Fair grounds with the top down on the car trying to hatch eggs and hunt for Pokemon –great memories. Games that can deliver experiences like that deserve to be on any top 5.