Review: Aquatic Store Simulator will test your patience and your stomach in the name of capitalism

Aquatic Store Simulator is kind of like two games blended into one. You run your shop, but there’s very little in the way of idle income. In this game, you can build aquariums to breed fish to then sell to customers and you can stock shelves for the customers to buy from.

In my experience, this is the most active simulator game I’ve played in a long time. A lot of these games are busy upfront in setting up the store and then just twiddling your thumbs waiting for customers to make purchases. Aquatic Store Simulator has an absolute deluge of customers at all times.

In it, you’re stocking shelves, picking prices, checking out customers, retrieving requested fish from tanks, and so on. It’s a lot of fun if you’re looking for something high-intensity, but there are some issues as well.

Aquatic Store Simulator: Here fishy, fishy, fishy…

It’s no secret that I love a good simulator game. So, when the game first started, I was underwhelmed. Thankfully, it did get better, but it took getting through the tedious tutorial mode to do it. When you first open your store, you’ll see that there is graffiti on the walls, displays overturned, dirty floors, and trash on the ground.

Your first bit of tedious work is grabbing things one at a time to throw away. Everything else is either clicking it to sit it upright or holding down a mouse button until the area is deemed clean. This reminded me of My Museum: Treasure Hunter and that one didn’t fair very well. Admittedly, now that I know how to play the game, you might be able to pick up several boxes at once, but I did it one at a time. Don’t be like me if you can help it.

The next bit of monotony comes from the tutorial. This is a notoriously hard needle to thread. Too little information and you fail your player, too much and you risk boring them. Unfortunately, this erred on the side of too much only because the game insisted on showing you one item at a time.

There was a stint where I was going into the shop, finding one thing, putting it down, and then going into the shop again. Add in the fact that I found a game-breaking bug during this time and I was just about ready to call it quits.

Luckily, I doubt many players will accidentally recreate the issue I found. My form of taking notes is to take screenshots of tutorial information to refer back to later. Unfortunately, if you take a screenshot while a tutorial box is open, it will force close the box and lock you out of functions. You will be stuck. 

Go directly to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200

I was forced to close the game without saving progress. Fortunately, I did eventually come back and get through the tutorial level. Once you’re given free rein, you can expect to stay busy constantly. 

While you can build aquariums and make some passive money there, you have to do a lot of the upfront work first. It can seem a little intimidating when the tutorial first explains it to you, but it’s as simple as picking a fish and then making sure the levels of different things are within that range.

You’ll be able to tap “Q” on the aquarium to see the preferred temperature, number of decorations or other fish, and so on. They’re represented by a sliding bar, so it’s really simple. You just have to make sure that if you have a freshwater fish, you only use items that work in freshwater tanks, and the same for saltwater. Some items work for both, so you just need to make sure it’s compatible.

I found that once the tank is set up, you can just check it at the start of the day and you’re pretty much set. Generally, you only need to adjust PH levels or feed your fish. The PH is adjusted with an item that will boost it or lower it.

Once the conditions are good, your fish will breed and create passive income for you. Sometimes, a customer will request a fish and you’ll have to scoop it out and pop it in a bag for them. But, most of your time is going to be spent manning the cash register.

While it may be possible to order things in and get them on the shelves when you have customers, I wouldn’t advise it simply because you’re guaranteed to lose out on a bit of profit. 

I’ll take one of everything

You have a wide range of objects that you can sell in your store. Basically, if you can use it in your aquariums, you can sell it. You can sell shells, decorations, PH boosters, nets, heaters, soil, salt, and so on. If you have had the item on your shelves before, then you’re fine to stock whenever because your adjusted price will stick. 

However, if it’s the first time stocking, they are automatically priced at wholesale which is the price you bought it for. So, you won’t technically lose anything for selling it, but you will sacrifice the markup. 

I found that keeping the shelves stocked was a bit of a challenge because there is such a wide array of items to carry in the store that it was hard to remember what was sold. Upon checking the Steam page, it seems there are over 500 items.

Usually, in these types of games, you stock for the day and then you wait for sales. I’d say it’s probably fair to say you usually average a sale a minute in other simulator games. In Aquatic Store Simulator, you are constantly selling to customers. I’ve had five to six customers backed up consistently.

This is great if you’re looking for a game that will keep you moving. However, it doesn’t leave you room to restock. Thankfully, your customers don’t get impatient, so if you need to step away, you can, but that line will just keep getting longer.

The checkout for your customer is a little odd and a lot disorienting. Your setup technically has two cash registers, one for card payment and one for cash payment. You ring out your customer by grabbing one of the items they sat down and dragging it over the basket to where you scan and then back to leave it in the basket. You do this for each item which means your camera view is sweeping left and right repeatedly. 

Please keep all hands, feet, and vomit inside the vehicle at all times

If the customer pays by card, then you’re already facing that register and can put in the amount it shows on the screen. However, if they pay cash, you’re whipping off to the side to get them change. This creates a very slow progress toward getting motion sick. Of course, not everyone will experience that, but I had to take a break after just a few in-game days because of how often my camera view was just whipping one way and then the other.

I think that if you want a simulator that requires you to be moving constantly, then you may find something to like in Aquatic Store Simulator. But, if you want something a bit more chill, this won’t be the one for you.

As you play, you’ll level up your rank and in turn open up more aquariums or more displays. You’re alone in this endeavor, so it’s all managed by you. Personally, I wish there had been more passive options or at least a shop assistant that could help, but maybe they’ll add more of those options in the future.

If you want to give Aquatic Store Simulator a try, you can get it on Steam for $8.99. Or, if you want more simulators, we highly recommend Laundry Store Simulator. Otherwise, you may be interested in the last game we reviewed. PRIM is a point-and-click adventure about navigating life in the Underworld after learning your dad is the Grim Reaper.