Sushi Go! puts you in a sushi chef’s apron. Can you craft a better combination of rolls than your opponents? You’ll have to think fast with the quick playing Sushi Go!. We’ll get to the game flow and review in a bit, but we have to cover some background info first.

The Fiddly Bits

Designer: Phil Walker-Harding
Publisher: Gamewright
Date Released: 2013
Number of Players: 2-5
Age Range: 8 and up (but 6 year-olds could play)
Setup Time: next to no time
Play Time: 15 minutes or less

Game Mechanics:

Card Drafting
Hand Management
Set Collection
Simultaneous Action Selection

Game Flow:

Sushi Go! is a card drafting game played in three rounds. Each round, players a dealt the same number of cards. Players will choose which cards they want from their current hand, place their chosen card face down in front of them, and then pass their cards to the next player. Once everyone has made their selection, each player reveals the card they choice from the cards in their hands. Play continues in this fashion until all the cards are played for the round.

Each card has its own scoring mechanism. Some (nigiri) give you flat points if you play them.

Three types of nigiri cards

You can play wasabi cards in order to boost these cards point total.

Wasabi card

Others (sashimi and tempura) require you to collect a certain number of them in order to score any points. Sashimi may give you 10 points if you collect three of them, but if you’re short by even one sashimi, you don’t get any points.

 

Tempura and Sashimi cards

Still others (maki) have players tally up how many of that card type they collected at the end of the round and the player with the most cards of that type get 6 points, while second place gets 3.

Three types of maki cards

After everyone records their score, all the cards (except for pudding cards) get shuffled into the deck and players receive another hand of cards. Play for the remaining two rounds works the same way as the first round and the player with the most points at the end of the third round wins.

Game Review:

Sushi Go! is the fastest card drafting game I’ve reviewed so far and its speed means that it hits the table more often than not. The artwork is adorable, players whip through the rounds so quickly, you get the sense that you are a sushi chef, and with a ten dollar price tag, Sushi Go! is one of the most affordable games on the market. Christmas is around the corner, so it’s worth mentioning Sushi Go! is the right size for most stockings.

I enjoy this game. It’s one of the most common games my family and I play. Sure, I like card drafting as a game mechanism anyway—I may not be too objective when it comes to games that use card drafting—but I really like being able to play two or three games of Sushi Go! to one game of Fairy Tale, and six or seven games of Sushi Go! to one game of 7 Wonders.

Sushi Go! is a great filler game, and there usually aren’t any complaints from my family—I have some reluctant gamers at times—whenever I want to break out the box. Actually, Sushi Go! comes in a delightful tin: excellent.