About

Yo-Kai Watch is a series of role-playing video games developed and published by Level-5. The original game was released for the Nintendo 3DS in Japan on July 11, 2013 and was released in North America by Nintendo on November 6, 2015. The series revolves around the concept of befriending magical demons known as Yo-Kai, so that they can be used in battle. This mechanic along with the game's cute character design and expansion into other mediums has led to many comparisons between Yo-Kai Watch and Pokémon.

History

Yo-Kai watch was first revealed during the Level-5 Press Conference at Tokyo Gameshow in 2011. The series was always planned to spin-off into other media as evidenced by the Yo-Kai Watch manga which appeared in CoroCoro Comics nearly seven months before the game's release.

Since then, Yo-Kai Watch has gone on to produce a sequel game, a toy line, an anime, and even a Ghostbusters-themed spin-off game in Japan but it was not until April 2015 that Yo-Kai Watch was announced for an American release. Yo-Kai Watch's first English trailer premiered at E3 2015 during a Nintendo Direct.

The English dub of the Yo-Kai Watch anime began airing on Disney XD in October of 2015 with the first game in the series getting an English release one month later. Yo-Kai Watch 3 is set to release in Japan in 2016 but it is currently unknown whether it or any of the other Yo-Kai Watch sequels will be released in North America.

Reception

Upon its initial Japanese release, Yo-Kai Watch received a near-perfect score of 36/40 from Japanese magazine, Famitsu and sold over 53,000 units in it's first week of availability. Since then, it has gone on to become one of the top-selling games in the 3DS library, selling over 1.29 million units in Japan alone.

Online Relevance

Yo-Kai Watch Commercials

The English commercials for Yo-Kai watch have been met with mixed reception by American audiences. They have been widely criticized and lauded for their over the top nature and for the tagline "Yo-kai is why".

Yo-Kai Exercise Number One

“Yo-Kai Exercise Number One” is the ending theme song for the TV anime adaptation of the Yo-Kai Watch Since the premiere of the TV series in January 2014, the song has been a popular subject for singing and dancing covers, as well as MAD videos on Nico Nico Douga (NND).