Sushi Go Round Review
Running a sushi restaurant has to be a difficult job. With all those different kinds of delicious rolls flying off the sushi bar while making sure you have enough fresh ingredients on hand to keep those customers hopping, it’s enough to make your head spin! Sushi Go Round lets you enjoy all of the action, with none of the clean-up afterwards.
Beginning life as a free Flash game (you can still play it on Miniclip’s website), Sushi Go Round finally arrives on the iPhone after stints on the Nintendo DS and Wii. Essentially a cross between a time management game and resource management game, Sushi Go Round is a fun, fast-paced game that has you whipping up a variety of Japanese delights for the various customers that come in.
Sushi Go Round has all the trappings of a traditional Dash game, with customers needing to be satisfied within a certain time limit, having something on-hand to soothe them if need be (in this case, it’s sake, a traditional Japanese rice wine) and a monetary goal to hit each day.
However Sushi Go Round varies in its execution. For starters, you’ll have to look up each recipe in your recipe book in order to know what to make. Once you see the icon above your customer’s head, you’ll have to match it with the item in the recipe book, then tap on your ingredients to make the roll they want. Once all the ingredients are on the bamboo roller, tap it and the food will automatically go out on the conveyer belt in front of the customers. But it may not reach the customer you want.
Like a traditional fast food bar in Japan, the food is served on a conveyer belt, but it scrolls left-to-right. So if you have two people come in and both order the same dish, even if the customer on the right side came first, the customer on the left will get his food sooner. This means you’ll have to keep that food flying fast and furious!
But, at the same time you’ll have to watch how much of each ingredient you have left in your kitchen. If you run out, you’ll have to order more by tapping on the phone and buying it. No matter what, you’ll have to purchase more ingredients during each level. In addition to the cost of the ingredient, you’ll need to bear delivery time in mind. If you manage things well you can just use standard free delivery. If you’re in a jam, though, you’ll need to use express delivery which will cost you 50 yen (the game’s currency) on top of the ingredient cost. Considering you have a daily profit to maintain, it’s very important to keep an eye on your resources.
The presentation in Sushi Go Round is mixed. The graphics are very cute, colorful and detailed. You shouldn’t have any trouble discerning different kinds of sushi or the ingredients. All the icons are large and easy to spot and you’ll never accidentally tap the wrong ingredient. The voices, too, are very cute and fun, adding to the games anime-style production.
Unfortunately, the music is terrible. It’s the shortest loop you’ve ever heard, and it stutters before it starts up again, never stopping. Mercifully you can disable it in the options screen, but it will grate on you quickly if you don’t mute it. Sushi Go Round doesn’t really rely on sound cues, so it won’t affect you.
If there is any real flaw in Sushi Go Round, it’s that the gameplay is pretty two-dimensional. While it is a very fun Dash-style game, there isn’t much of a mounting challenge outside of the number of customers increasing and the variety of dishes they ask for. The story mode offers a decent 20 levels, but the only extra the game has is a Dash mode, which is essentially an endless endurance mode.
Considering that Sushi Go Round is a budget title in the App store, it’s worth taking a look at. As long as you mute the music you’ll be charmed by the cute presentation, and your fingers will be dancing on your touchscreen to fill those orders. Definitely order Sushi Go Round to go.
The good
The bad
70 out of 100