KYM Review: Video Game Memes of 2016

Editor’s Note: This article is part of Know Your Meme’s annual review series looking back at some of the most memorable and popular memes, events and people that defined the Internet culture in 2016 as we know it.

ideo games can always be counted on to provide a steady flow of spicy memes for the internet's insatiable appetite, and this year was no exception.

In the console world, Nintendo dominated the meme game in 2016 with the release of two new titles in the Pokemon franchise, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in February, Pokemon GO and Pokemon Sun and Moon, while SEGA continued to ride out the Internet's meme obsession with Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, which also celebrated its 25th anniversary in June, through the announcement of Sonic Mania and Project Sonic 2017 and witty commentaries from @Sonic_Hedgehog on Twitter.

There were no shortage of video game controversies this year either, from the utterly disappointing reception of the Kickstarter-funded open-world survival game No Man's Sky to a major gambling scandal that exposed a massive speculative market for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skins among YouTube gaming vloggers in June. Meanwhile, Zoe Quinn of GamerGate fame popped back on the radar after she accused Nintendo of ridiculing her in its then newly-released title Paper Mario: Color Splash in what became known as the #Shufflegate.

In the PC gaming world, the year's biggest winner was clearly Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment's new team-based multiplayer first-person shooter that instantly became a worldwide hit upon its release among the gaming and meme communities alike, with many of the playable characters (known as Heroes) spawning fan memes of their own. Reflecting its universally positive reception, Overwatch earned the honor of the Game of the Year at The Game Awards held in LA earlier this month, beating out other heavyweight titles like Doom, Uncharted 4 and Titanfall 2.

Now, without further ado, here are some of the biggest internet memes to go out of the video game world this year.

Overwatch Play of the Game Parodies

Title: Overwatch

One of the most unique features in Blizzard's enormously successful multiplayer shooter Overwatch are the "Play of the Game" clips, which showcase impressive feats performed by a player during the match. The highlights were ripe for parody, leading YouTubers to splice in scenes from television and film, or even FAIL videos.

Yungoos Trump

Title: Pokémon Sun and Moon

The mongoose-like Pokémon Yungoos became a viral hit after being revealed during Nintendo's Treehouse livestream at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, where many fans noticed a resemblance between the creature's tuft of yellow fur and Donald Trump's signature hairstyle. The comparison took off once again after Yungoos evolved form Gumshoos was revealed in a Sun and Moon trailer that August, revealing an even more Trump-like variation of the grumpy-looking Pokémon.

Choose Your Class

Title: Various Role-Playing Games

The character selection screen commonly found in role-playing video games inspired one of the year's more hilarious exploitables, featuring a template for absurd representations of the archetypal RPG classes. Keeping with the internet zeitgeist, it didn't take long till meta and ironic variations were made, referencing the some of the year's more absurd memes like Rick Harrison, Spongegar and Dat Boi.

Norman Reedus Holding Things

Title: Death Stranding

Hideo Kojima's upcoming open world action video game Death Stranding has been widely hyped since it was announced at E3 in June. In a computer animated teaser for the game, the protagonist (played by Norman Reedus) is shown cradling an infant in his arms while crying on a desolate beach, which subsequently inspired a slew of photoshops featuring Reedus holding video game characters, internet memes and even Kojima himself.

Doom 2016 Cover Art Parodies

Title: Doom

After Conan O'Brien posted a first look at the box art for Bethesda's reboot of the the Doom franchise, a thread on the NeoGAF forums kicked off an explosion of hilarious photoshops. While initial edits featured characters from other games like Metroid's Samus, meme-themed variations including Paul Blart and Expand Dong inevitably followed.

Pokemon GO In-Game Screenshots

Title: Pokémon GO

Immediately after the Pokémon GO mobile game was released this summer, people around the world were glued to their phone screens chasing down virtual creatures out in the wild. It didn't take long for enthusiasts to begin sharing screenshots of Pokémon overlaid in the real world using the game's augmented reality viewfinder. The jokes started out tame enough but quickly devolved into shots of Diglett and Caterpie erupting out of crotches.

Super Mario 64 Glitch Exploits

Title: Super Mario 64

YouTuber pannenkoek2012 gained much notoriety on 4chan's /v/ (video games) this year after releasing instructional videos to exploit glitches found in the 1996 platformer game Super Mario 64. Many chan users found his bizarre vocabulary endearing, referring to game states as "parallel universes" and telling viewers to use "half" button presses to perform certain exploits. Other elements of pannenkoek2012's video were subsequently memed as well, including the Super Mario 64 Scuttlebug monster and 12 hour speed build-up used to execute some of the game's more bizarre glitches.

Lord Tachanka

Title: Rainbow Six Siege

The Defending Operator character Tachanka from Rainbow Six Siege became an internet legend this year, earning the title "Lord Tachanka" for his poorly designed and under-powered abilities. While he has received several buffs in subsequent patches and updates, making him slightly less useless than before, the character continues to live on in Rainbow Six shitposts and circlejerks.

Watch Those Wrist Rockets

Title: Star Wars: Battlefront 2

Over the summer, the Star Wars Battlefront II-core ironic Facebook page brought back a blast from the past by posting images referencing the "Watch for those wrist rockets" line uttered by clone troopers in the 2005 video game Star Wars: Battlefront 2. It didn't take long for it to be embraced by Reddit's meme-loving me_irl community, who quickly drove it into the ground. More recently, me_irl briefly resurrected memes about LEGO Star Wars video games as part of their ongoing "Meme Renaissance", which shows no signs of abatement.

Big Smoke's Order

Title: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

In the 2004 game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, one cut scene featuring an extremely large fast food order for the gang member character Big Smoke has been mocked online for many years. It recently saw an enormous resurgence in popularity after YouTuber ComradeWarbear published an impressive, in-depth analysis, in which he tries to figure out the items purchased in the scene.