Is Yo-Kai Watch 2: Wibble Wobble worth playing on the go?

Yo-Kai Watch 2 finally comes to European stores this week after a three year wait from its Eastern release; the game is a monster-collecting RPG in a similar vein to Pokémon, but with a more structured storyline. Not content with only competing with the Pokémon company in terms of  a JRPG designed to teach you the importance of friendship, Level-5 has decided to ape them in the mobile gaming space too, with their Pokémon Shuffle competitor Yo-Kai Watch: Wibble Wobble.

Out on both iOS and Android, Wibble Wobble follows a cut down version of the events from the original Yo-Kai Watch, with you obtaining the titular time-piece, meeting whisper and going off defeating and befriending Yo-Kai. Structurally the game follows Pokémon Shuffle quite diligently, with Yo-Kai appearing on a small map linked by lines and you taking them on one-by-one looking to add them to your collection. It’s in play where it gets a bit different though.

Throwing Yo-Kai icons into a grid isn’t the style here, instead you have a circular play board within which you will find a mixture of Yo-Kai heads known as Wib Wobs and your goal is to connect them. This isn’t a match-three puzzler though, the goal here is to connect as many Wib Wobs as possible, and then pop them. The more Wib Wobs you manage to connect, the bigger they get and the more damage they do when you pop them. The jelly-like nature of the Wib Wobs makes them bounce and move about a lot, and when they connect there’s a little shockwave that makes everything around the area scatter, so you’ll need to plan your moves accordingly to try and ensure that you can connect other Wobs to your current giant head to maximize your damage output. You don’t get time to do this leisurely either, as enemy Yo-Kai will attack as you try to figure out your move, giving the battles a panic-stricken edge.

There’s still the grind that’s associated with this type of game that’ll see you having to go back and take part in fights you won long before and easily, but the way the game board works means that there’s none of those bollocks special powers of ‘Shuffle’ that would see segments of the board shut off from your ability to match, so the difficulty curve is marshalled by hit points and damage meted out rather than luck of the draw on where things fall, which makes this a far better proposition in my opinion.

It’s not as in your face with the in-app purchases either; money is plentiful due to regular missions to complete and when there is an optional power-up to use it’s located out of the way at the bottom of the screen rather than front and centre demanding your attention like a needy child. Lives are given back to you in fifteen minute cycles and can also be bought using the in-game currency, and they’re not cheap, but with money being relatively plentiful you should be good to keep playing for a considerable period of time.

Those silly big bouncy heads make Wibble Wobble a much more charming game to play, couple them with the celebratory animations lifted direct from its handheld big brother and you’ve got a silly little game that’ll do you right for those times when you need something to play when you’re on the loo, it’s my current go-to at least. It’s well worth it, and for free you haven’t really got much to lose.