Gatcha — Attraction in New York

FULL DISCLAIMER: I’m writing this b/c I want my free credits. Please enjoy reading my “essay.”

TL;DR jump to “CUSTOMER recommendation”

I’m pretty sure that I lost more than I earned, but I played the games at Gatcha that COST LESS in credits, which was their currency. I tried the ones that has the lowest credits first to get the hang of things. Most of the prizes that I’ve won were Gatcha branded.

In general, I did research on how claw machines work. This might explain why I could get toys at Gatcha compared to other claw machine places.

Gatcha was ALWAYS packed enough with people. For example: if the game was played 10x before my turn, the claw was probably gaining strength over time. Other places look “empty” compared to Gatcha. So many of those claws were not played enough. As a result, when it was my turn to play, most likely I ended up with weak grab strength.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this is always going to be the reason. Some people don’t aim the claw right over the prize. Even I failed to do that. For example: I avoid the Kuji prize claw machine with gashapon balls/capsule toys w/the lottery ticket inside, b/c I rather go pay for the Kuji lottery ticket as I’m guaranteed something versus my poor aiming skills on such a small object & lose lots credits.

Then if the prize isn’t in the best position for the claw to wrap around, then that makes grabbing difficult too. I’ve had that issue with a few plushies, especially ones with ears or arms. If you notice this, ask for a “reset” or help from an employee so that they can rearrange the prizes in the machine for you.

I RARELY touch the ones with double digits credits, b/c I feel like some of the game are chance based (if that makes any sense). For example, there was one where you have to drop the ball in a marked spot in a basket. Yeah, ok. I ain’t doing that. I rather use the double credits to play a plush claw machine twice & have a higher chance of getting a prize.

GATCHA recommendation I know it’s a business & you have to make a profit, however PLEASE BRING BACK 5 credits games. This is better for beginner claw gamers. Recently, I believe the lowest one that I have seen is 7 credits for claw. I couldn’t find anything lower, not even 6.5 credits. Unless you guys bought it back by the time I write this…

The cents difference between $1 something to $2 something can be a big deal as it can add up for a consumer. Maybe you can have game play credit discount as part of a holiday or seasonal sale/event? Someone in marketing would have to do some analysis to see how much money & foot traffic you would get during a discounted event in comparison to current pricing BAU.

CUSTOMER recommendation Based on my experience, if you want to BROWSE I suggest you go before 1:00pm EST. Unless you don’t mind waiting on a LONG line at the entrance.

If you’ve never been there, find an employee during down time. You can tell them that you are new and would like to learn about the place. I approached one employee in such a manner. He was kind enough to show me around the store (claw machine/prize machine side, retail shop and gaming machine side), explain how things work (arcade, point system, trade, etc) & answered all my questions.

Check out their social media profile to see what offers or promotions they have. You might be able to save money on their credits that way.

Please do the math for the USD to credits “conversion” to figure out how much each credit will cost based on how many credits you are buying. For example, if $11 = 28 credits, 11/28 = $0.392 per credit vs $55 = 192 credits, 55/192 = $0.286. This will help you figure out how much you are spending for each game that’s within your budget. The claw machine is borderline gambling, while the game machine side is for fun and probably the bragging rights for the leader scoreboard.

UPDATE 9/2/2024 = images

UPDATE 2/28/2025 = LABUBU toys images. Latest craze...

Edit: Because of my poor experience Gatcha reached out to me and gave me two Smiski’s in return! I’m grateful they wanted to make things up for me.

Previous review: I have enjoyed playing at Gatcha since their machines are pretty fair and fun compared to my experiences at arcades like Round1.

However, their Smiski and Sonny Angel machines seem to be extremely rigged for boxes that retail at $18. I used $100 worth of credits on my card and the smiski claw machine strength did not get any stronger despite nearly 20+ plays, and the positioning of the boxes seem to be intentionally made extremely difficult to catch. Even if the claw was correctly aligned, it would move back or forth slightly and miss, and even when the claws did close around the box, it did not even lift the box at all. I would suggest ignoring these and paying retail at the front if you want them.

At the time that I went on Monday evening there weren’t many staff or people around, but I think the preset win value of the small blind box machines are set to work extremely against you.

Other than this unfortunately negative experience I think their other machines are quite fair, and have a diverse and cute selection of prizes, and the staff are willing to help when they’re around. I hope those machines can be heavily improved upon considering the money and time i spent to play it, as I feel pretty bummed out for the first time from...

Been there twice had not so great experiences, the games aren’t the most fair but the prizes are authentic (Labubu,Sonny,Pokemon)and pretty pricey but in doing so all the games are set to win at set pay out. I’ve only won 2 plushies in total which you can trade for points but each plush gives you like 2,4,6 points and the prizes are for example 1 Pokémon pack for 8 tickets. The prices for the games are a bit high, also the games with the really good prizes are about 38-40 credits and the other games are from 10-30 credits.So both times I’ve completely wasted $55 worth of credits on like 4-6 games in like 20 mins that’s 155 in credits. The games do have double tap feature but it doesn’t always help you too, sometimes the claw would just go back straight up. I’d say it’s either hit or miss you can come and get lucky and find a game someone has primed or you can be the poor soul who primed that game.

On the upside it’s good you can purchase prizes and the prize area has a nice selection, but beware a couple of their many many employees will follow you around and give you weird looks as if you will commit a malicious act and that’s been both visits.

Anyways if you’re willing to make the drive and want to spend a lot a lot more time playing and winning plushies and prizes your money is way better off being spent at ClawCADE at Roosevelt...