IN the past couple of decades, mobile games have grown extremely popular, far outpacing even console games. For instance, companies like Konami, who previously made games for consoles and PC, transitioned towards mobile gaming in the mid-2010s due to its profitability.
Arguably the biggest, most popular format when it comes to developing mobile games is the gacha mechanic, which is part of the word gashapon that originates from Japan.
Remember those vending machines that were extremely popular from the 70s to late 90s, where after you put a certain amount of coins into the machine’s slot, and turned a knob, it would pop out a capsule with a toy inside?
Essentially gambling due to the random nature of what would be inside the capsule, the gacha mechanic of vending machines was adapted heavily into mobile games.
Players would spend their real world money to buy in-game currency. Then, they would use that currency to gacha or “pull from a machine”, and depending on their luck, they would either get something of high value or absolute trash.
Due to the nature of gambling and the dopamine hit in a gambler’s brain when they get lucky, mobile games structured around the gacha mechanic are huge moneymakers, particularly in countries like China and Japan, where players are known to splurge hefty amounts of real hard cash for advantages in these particular games.
As the popularity of these games boomed, game publishers pushed out mobile games that heavily leaned into getting players to gamble. Not long after, other publishers moved away from centralising gacha in their game design, so that players could play for free and spend money if they wanted to.
Here is theSun’s top five picks of the best gacha-light games.
Dragon Ball Legends
In Dragon Ball Legends, players can put together their dream team to fight other Dragon Ball characters, as the story is from the point of view of Shallot, a brand new character first introduced in this game. The gameplay is a mixture of real time fighting and card deck gameplay, where character actions in battle are dictated by the types of cards that are drawn from the deck.
