Yo-Kai Watch Land is Good Fun for Young Yo-Kai Hunters

Level-5’s monster-capturing RPG series Yo-Kai Watch is huge in Japan, and is now enjoying a measure of success in the West thanks to the recent localization of the first Nintendo 3DS game and an anime series. Despite its resemblance to …

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Level-5’s monster-capturing RPG series Yo-Kai Watch is huge in Japan, and is now enjoying a measure of success in the West thanks to the recent localization of the first Nintendo 3DS game and an anime series.

Despite its resemblance to Pokémon, however, Yo-Kai Watch’s audience tends to skew towards the younger side because of the series’ silly monster designs (and fart jokes). It’s therefore unsurprising that Level-5’s Yo-Kai Watch Land app is seemingly geared towards grade-schoolers. It’s simple to start up, simple to interact with, and offers games and activities that don’t adhere to a complicated ruleset.

All that is fine, of course. Youngsters who are big fans of Yo-Kai Watch will love the app. Its main appeal is its ability to scan Yo-Kai toy medals (sold separately!), which lets you reveal a Yo-Kai in glorious augmented reality (AR). Once summoned, you can observe the formerly invisible Yo-Kai in their “natural habitat.” Just don’t let them upset your stomach, give you a bad hair day, or flush your keys down the toilet.

Other activities within the Yo-Kai Watch Land app include a Wiki that lets you download and study information about different Yo-Kai, and a photo booth that supplies you with stickers to decorate your photos with. There’s also a collection of unlockable mini-games, most of which are of the tilt-and-avoid variety. Easy stuff, but fun distractions nevertheless.

Even if older Yo-Kai Watch fans may find Yo-Kai Watch Land a bit too childish for their tastes, smaller fans should adore it. Yo-Kai Watch Land is available as a free download on the App Store and Google Play.

In the early aughts, Nadia fell into writing with the grace of a brain-dead bison stumbling into a chasm. Over the years, she's written for Nerve, GamePro, 1UP.com, USGamer, Pocket Gamer, Just Labs Magazine, and many other sites and magazines of fine repute. She's currently About.com's Guide to the Nintendo 3DS at ds.about.com.