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2016: A Review Best of 2016

Is it just me, or were there comparatively few games released this year?

And what was there wasn't particularly awesome either. Out of the mighty 39 votes in our poll—note to self: stop requiring a Mojo account for voting—the top two received 33 of them. In other words, the five remaining games shared four votes between them. Yikes… As for the list…

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The winner! Again!

1. Day of the Tentacle Remastered: 17 votes
2. Firewatch: 16 votes
3. Duke Grabowski: 3 votes
4. Batman: 1 vote
4. Headlander: 1 vote
4. Minecraft: Story Mode: 1 vote
7. The Walking Dead: Michonne: 0 votes

So few votes, so much to say!

God bless DotT, the fantastic game it is, and also the fantastic remaster it is, but come on… It was originally released in 1993! Are we living in a world where we have popped enough memberberries to prioritize nostalgia over current, quality games?

The reason might be simpler… The rest of the games, with one exception, really weren't that good. I might have been a bit rough on Firewatch in my review, but consider that tough love. It was an excellent game, and it's probably not a good thing that it was the only good new game of 2016.

The rest were non-contenders. Two votes for three Telltale games sum up the company's year. And Duke was cute, but at this point merely the introduction to a larger experience.

Headlander? I didn't love it, but I suspect it would have seen more votes had you been able to cast multiples.

Next year should be better. With Thimbleweed Park playing on both nostalgia and newness, I expect to see another winner from Ron Gilbert.

Full Throttle Remastered will of course be another memberberry trip, but it is what it is, and it'll be a fun one. Who knows what else Double Fine will come up with, too?

Telltale will puke out some more recycled gameplay which will be wrapped in oh-such-thought-provoking stories.

Wait, did I say things would look up? I'm clearly in denial.

In other words: Look forward to yet another cynical Mojo year in 2017!

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