Around 15 years ago, I remember playing this proto-AR game in a Tokyo mall. It really stood out to me because of how innovative it felt at the time and looking back at it, it was obviously setting the foundation for future AR games like Pokemon GO.
Unfortunately, since I was pretty young when I played it, I don’t remember the name of the game or the mall it was played in, but I do remember the basics of how it worked:
You’d start out by getting a little device with a screen, camera, and hand crank. Then, you’d walk around the themed shopping center and scan certain hidden symbols with the camera. This would cause yokai based on an object the symbol was near to pop-up on the device’s screen (I vividly remember ones themed on a smoke detector and a loaf of bread). Once they appear, you’d have to quickly spin the hand crank to “capture” them. Once you were done collecting yokai (I forget if there was a time limit or not), you’d go back to where you got your device from and plug your device into a larger arcade machine where you could fight a big boss yokai and try to capture it as well. Once you were done, you’d get a receipt listing all of the different yokai you caught.
I tried searching for this on Google, but I just keep getting results for a Yokai Watch AR app lol.
Does anyone else remember playing this? If so, do you remember what it was called? Did it also leave a strong impression on you? Does it still exist all these years later? Thanks!
by Jeshikun