Monster Hunter, YO-Kai Watch Take Top Honors in 2014 Japan Game Awards

[Steven Bogos]

Monster Hunter, YO-Kai Watch Take Top Honors in 2014 Japan Game Awards

3DS titles dominated Japan's Game of the Year awards, with Pokemon X and Y also winning three awards.

At Tokyo Game Show today, Japan's Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association announced the winners of its annual Game of the Year award. In a surprising turn of events, the first place honor was a tie, going to both Capcom's Monster Hunter 4 and Level-5's YO-Kai Watch. If you're sitting there wondering what the heck a "YO-Kai" is, it's a new children's anime in Japan that is taking the country by storm [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yo-Kai_Watch], and even threatening to topple Pokemon from its cute-character-collection throne.

As for the runners up, 3DS games absolutely dominated the rankings, taking four of the 11 top spots, as well as three of the four additional awards. Here's the full list of winners and their accolades:

Award for Excellence:
DARK SOULS II - FromSoftware, Inc. - PS3 / XB360 / PC
FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn - SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. - PC / PS3 / PS4
Grand Theft Auto V - Rockstar Games - PS3 / XB360
Kan Colle - DMM.com Co,. Ltd. Ltd. - PC
METAL GEAR SOLID V: GROUND ZEROES - Konami Digital Entertainment Co., Ltd. - PS4 / PS3 / XB360 / Xbox One
MONSTER HUNTER 4 - CAPCOM CO., LTD. - 3DS
Pokémon X and Pokémon Y - The Pokémon Company - 3DS
PUZZLE & DRAGONS Z - GungHo Online Entertainment, Inc. - 3DS
Super Mario 3D World - Nintendo Co., Ltd. - Wii U
The Last of Us - Sony Computer Entertainment - PS3
YO-kai Watch - LEVEL-5 Inc. - 3DS

Special Award:
Solitiba - GAME FREAK inc. - 3DS

Best Sales Award:
Pokémon X and Pokémon Y - The Pokémon Company - 3DS

Global Award Japanese Product:
Pokémon X and Pokémon Y - The Pokémon Company - 3DS

Global Award Foreign Product:
Grand Theft Auto V - Rockstar Games - PS3 / XB360

Additionally, Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons was chosen by head judge Masahiro Sakurai (Game director of Super Smash Bros.) to receive the very special "Game Designers Award" for a game that features excellence in design.

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[gigastar]

If you're sitting there wondering what the heck a "YO-Kai" is, it's a new children's anime in Japan that is taking the country by storm [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolve_(video_game)], and even threatening to topple Pokemon from its cute-character-collection throne.

Im not sure if im missing a joke here, but that wiki article certainly does not look like anime to me.

 

[Penguinplayer]

[smugness]ACTUALLY, Yo-kai/Youkai/Insert-your-preferred-spelling-here is kind of the japanese word for demon/supernatural being.[/smugness] Yo-kai Watch is pretty much Pokemon: Japanese Folklore Edition. And Level 5 needs to localize it already, goddamnit Level 5, you guys made an international office and then only localized the Guild games and then sat on your butts all day long waiting for Nintendo and people that actually care to do the rest of the work.