Nintendo to publish the hugely popular Yo-Kai Watch game for 3DS in the west

Level-5 has announced today that Nintendo will be publishing its 3DS RPG Yo-Kai Watch in the west.

Yo-Kai Watch is a popular franchise in Japan, with games, an anime series, and toys selling by the bulk. It's in huge demand.

It follows Keita Amano (or his girl counterpart Fumika Kodama in the games) as he uses his Yo-Kai Watch to identify and befriend Yo-Kai.

Yo-Kai are creatures that cannot normally be seen by humans. They come in many different forms (eight different classes) and haunt towns and generally cause mischief.

In the game, your task is to battle them so they submit to Amano with their Yo-Kai Medal. They can then be summoned into other battles against more troublesome Yo-Kai.

It's also possible for Yo-Kai to evolve and merge with others. The game also has "Oni Time" in which you must sneak past Yo-Kai inside a nightmare in order to avoid conflict with a powerful Oni Yo-Kai.

On top of that, there are fishing and bug-catching mini-games to play.

Some have called Yo-Kai Watch the next Pokémon based on both its similarities to the series and its enormous success. Level-5 is hoping that Yo-Kai Watch will see similar popularity in the west.

It was also announced that Hasbro will be making the toys outside of Japan. These should arrive alongside the first Yo-Kai Watch game (there are currently three games) being published over here.

Yo-Kai Watch will come to North America in 2016 first. It will then arrive in Europe, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand in the following months before the end of that year.