Gacha Capsules are all the rage in Japan, and I’ve watched as actual shops dedicated to them have gradually popped up in Australia. ‘Gacha Capsule Shop Simulator – Akihabara’ developed by UGC90, brings the Gacha craze as a simulation that will throw you into this addictive collecting scene.

The premise is always simple in a simulator; it’s technically all about the execution. The main objective is to run your own Gacha Capsule store from the ground up with a vast collection of money-turning machines that spit out a ball with a prize inside. Running the front desk, you must take cash from customers to exchange for tokens to use in the machine or check out any of the prize statues you have unboxed yourself.

The fact that you can unpack your own Gachas and resell them is a little bit addictive and does drum up your money pretty fast. Statues come in different variants and different rarities, too, making it even more interesting to pop a capsule.

Due to the now sometimes precious items you have in your store, you will also need to use your handy pink baseball bat to scare away criminals out to shake down your profits or shut down your operation by breaking machines.

Your main tool of the trade will be your mobile phone; all other controls are as simple as movement, such as placing machines or furniture, etc. Your phone is where you will place orders for new stock to put in the token machines, buy machines and display stands of varying prices and even new land to expand your enterprise.

You can even renovate to make the place more appealing or run advertisements of varying styles to drum up business. All this increases your experience levels, unlocking more to use. This demo allows you to play up to level 4, keeping a lot of its content secret for now.

I haven’t particularly played a shop sim for a while, so the visuals surprised me a bit. They were very anime/waifu-like. Not realistic at all.

I wasn’t against it, but everyone was a top-knot hipster, a kid in a Sailor Moon schoolgirl uniform or a brightly coloured hair kawaii queen. It was very bright, bold and cutesy. The upgrades to the visuals of the shop and the general outside of the building are very appealing too, with an authentic Japanese experience of neon skyscrapers and J-truck deliveries.

There isn’t a lot of sound work in Gacha Capsule Shop Simulator – Akihabara, other than the turning of dials, clinking of tokens or the satisfying sound of balls tumbling into machines.

On your phone, however, there is an in-game version of Spotify that lets you set the ambience of your shop, which is a nice touch with some very serene Lo-fi music. Unfortunately, there is no real talking, which is a letdown to the atmosphere. All real feedback to your store is in written form as a rating system on your phone.

This demo lacks a lot, so it can be repetitive quickly, but from the trailer, it looks promising with bright colours and a very J-pop feel. I have had my curiosity piqued enough to want to play some more when the full game releases in March, 2026.

Written by: Stacey