Yo-kai are hiding all around us: Review of Yo-kai Watch for Nintendo 3DS

Yo-kai Watch is the fantastic new game for the Nintendo 3DS, fresh from Japan where it is already a huge hit and is set to do the same here. Yo-kai are mysterious and full of special powers. Invisible to the naked eye, they hide all around us. But if something goes wrong in our everyday life, it is probably a Yo-kai behind it! 

Getting hungry? That would be Hungramps. Forgetful? That's down to Wazzat. But their powers are also useful - Blazion is a Yo-kai that gives people competitive bursts of energy.

Your Yo-kai Watch is what enables you to see the many Yo-kai around you, befriend them and harness their powers.

Here's our resident gamer, 11-year old J, with his thoughts on this exciting new game:

On Yo-kai Watch, you have to collect Yo-kai and defeat all the bad Yo-kai.

Whisper helps you, and as you advance through the game you befriend more Yo-kai to help out. There are also strong boss Yo-kai that you have to defeat. The first Yo-kai that you befriend are a Cadin and a Buhu. Shortly afterwards you meet Jibanyan, a cat who wants to be reunited with a picture of her previous owner.

My yo-kai that I use to battle are nicknamed : Jeff, Catupine, Dave, Machoman, Skippy, and Meemaw. Catupine and Machoman were created by fusion. To use fusion you go to the temple and talk to Mr Zen. I combined Jibanyan and Coughkoff to make Catupine and I combined Dulluma and Mochismo to make Machoman. Catupine and Machoman aren't their real names; I just called them that.

The bosses are really cool and scary. The first boss is a three-headed Yo-kai. The second boss is a giant pig with two old men in towels doing a weird dance in the background. The third boss is a pirate Yo-kai with a ship. The fourth boss is a giant Yo-kai that looks like a clown. Your Yo-kai level up a lot when you defeat a boss Yo-kai.

Yo-kai Watch is a really fun game and I give it twelve out of ten!

With over 200 Yo-kai and hundreds of quests, there are hours of fun with this game. The battles are in real-time so you need to pay attention, choose your team well, think on your feet and support your Yo-kai to defeat your opponents.

Through the game you can explore the huge town of Springdale, with its shops, parks, bustling city streets and serene forests. Choose to either help out the local community with their problems in order to solve mysteries in the main story, or take on one of hundreds of side quests that are available in the game.

Yo-kai Watch, rated PEGI 7, is available now. Find out more, and get a free demo, from the Nintendo website.

As Nintendo Family Bloggers we were provided with a download code for this game. All opinions are our own. Non-watermarked images are courtesy of Nintendo.