2016, maybe not the best year in Gaming history, but a great one nonetheless. This year gave us our long..LONG awaited game titles, brilliant innovations in gaming technology, and some of the most delightful surprises we gamers have received in a long while. So here’s a list of this year’s biggest news items that possibly drove the most hits this year:

Nintendo Switch

The amount of excitement that Nintendo managed to stir up with the first look at their super secretive Project NX, was an experience to behold. Nintendo touched new heights of gaming innovation with their console/mobile hybrid. This is a company that has been known to take risks with innovative ideas and now it’s just a matter of waiting to find out if they’ve truly hit it out of the park with the Switch.

Pokemon GO

If a video game has ever managed to force your lazy ass out of the comfort of home to the daunting “outside” along with legions of others like you, you just know it’s made history! So was the story of the mega block buster hit mobile game, Pokemon GO. Niantic in collaboration with Nintendo shoved nostalgia right down our throats in the form of an augmented reality-based mobile game and good God did they pull the right strings. Strings that’ll vibrate in our memories for a long time to come.

Super Mario Run

If you ever thought that the mobile game craze couldn’t go much further than it did for Pokemon GO, Nintendo yet again proved you wrong by shoving some more nostalgia down your throat in the form of our most beloved Italian plumber, Mario. Super Mario Run, which is only available for iOS users at the moment, broke all first-day download records and immediately took the world by storm. The mobile game is expected to debut on Google Play Store in the coming weeks, as the pre-registration process has already begun.

The Last Guardian

Coming from the developers of “Shadow of the Colossus”, The Last Guardian already had a decent amount of hype surrounding it. This was further amplified and piled on due to consistent delays and mishaps during productions. Finally, after a decade of being under development, The Last Guardian (at this point, majorly over-hyped) was released and rolled out to the patient fans — for whom the release seemed like the second coming of Jesus Christ. And long story short, they were not disappointed.

Overwatch

Blizzard made its return to the field with a brand new IP (intellectual property or game franchise) after a good long wait. And just like all of its previous IP’s, Overwatch came in like a wrecking ball. Blizzard’s latest hero-based first person shooter multiplayer title completely swept away any form of competition — like literally. The game has accumulated a player base of over 20 million in just 5 months of its launch. This just goes on to show, Overwatch is here to stay!