2017 in silly back page jokes

Christmas 2017: Destiny 2 

Samuel: This is a really good one. No big belly laughs, but it looks decent, and taps into the gunwank that drives interest in Destiny. 

Phil: The best thing about this one is I made the pitch, starred in horror at the magazine's flatplan for about 30 minutes, and, when I came back, the team had already written it and mocked up the photoshops. Sometimes being editor is good.

Andy: Between Ambassador Gruughthaax Morgblorb from the Elite Dangerous gag and Lord Zorgog in this one, there was definitely a running theme of daft sci-fi alien names in my All Over contributions this year. I don’t know why.

Pip: Our art editor’s face when I shared him my Photoshop mock-ups for this was Quite The Thing.

January 2018: Sonic Forces

Andy: I made these gross characters in Sonic Forces’ character creator. God, this is like the most boring director’s commentary ever.

Samuel: I admittedly don't get this one and I apologise. Sonic already became a joke at its own expense years ago.

Phil: Says the man who led us marching into a 2,000 word web post ranking all of the Sonic games.

Samuel: Hey, that was worthwhile, and only a bit shit. What an exhausting year of jokes, though, Phil—definitely a step down from last year, where we had good gags about The Division, Stardew Valley and a few others. But nothing as bad as the Mirror's Edge one. Or the XCOM 2 lightbulb one. Maybe Pip joining the magazine will give it a kick up the arse next year?

Pip: Pip’s idea for this one was to write a mediocre alternate universe fan fiction about a character attending Sonic’s academy once he retired from rolling around to take up teaching other people to roll around. I wrote a LOT of it in chat before deciding to fire it into the sun. It was somewhere between Sweet Valley High and Indiana Jones. What I’m saying, Sam, is don’t pitch your expectations too high.

Andy: Also, that XCOM 2 lightbulb gag was one of the best. Why can’t anyone else see that.

Phil: Fuck sake, Andy, don't get us started on that again.