Analysis of Sushi Go!

Collect sushi with cute anime faces. Dip them in wasabi and triple their points!

Every round in Sushi Go! you collect sushi of different kinds, then you count points based on what you picked. Often you need a collection of the same dish to get the required points, but some cards combos with another card.

Every round, each player starts out with X cards in their hand. Based on the number of players in the game, this is around 7-10 cards. Then each player picks one card and lays it face down on the table. At the same time all the players reveal their chosen card and then pass their hand to the player on the left. When all cards are gone, you count points based on the types of cards you picked. 3 Rounds and then you count the point total and the player with most points win.

I'm not gonna list all the cards and their effects. The game is really simple and should be picked up if you like cute games with lots of fun.

Analysis

The aesthetics of Sushi Go! are:

• Fellowship: Competition
• Challenge: Planning, Social Understanding

The competition is the wish to win over other players, which is exactly what the game is about. This is also evident since everyone has the same opportunity to pick the cards in the pool, making the choices you face every turn based on when the opponents are picking.

Planning comes in when you open the first hand. You see what your options are and must choose carefully. If someone is taking the same thing as you are, the chances that you are getting those pieces are diminishing. And for every card reveal, the planning must be altered which keeps the game fresh and interesting.

The social understanding comes from what I wrote above. You must not only think about what you want to take, but also what others want to take. You could alter your own strategy to pick the pieces no one's taking. Or you could pick the pieces others want before they get them to disturb their planning.

Core Loop

Pick card -> Get points

This is what you do all game. The theme of the game helps immensely when taking on this mechanic. Picking cards feel good because they are so cute. It's helps the player relax when thinking about what cards to pick. It also helps that many of the cards are flavored in such a way to make the understanding of the game easier. Dipping nigiri in wasabi gives triple points. Dumpling gives more points for each individual you pick. Getting the points is also satisfying since at the end of each round, you really feel content with what you got. Since every player at least finds some pieces which made him/her happy.

Mechanics and Dynamics

Mechanics:

• Hands are passed around
• Players pick cards
• Players reveal their picked cards
• Cards gives points based on other cards (combo based)

Dynamics:

• Players wanting to pick certain cards which they think will works well together in the future (Comptetition, Planning, Social Understanding)
• Players picking cards based on what the other players are building (Competition, Social Understanding)

Takeaway
The best thing Sushi Go! does is how good it's core loop is. Picking cards is easy and feels good to do. The faces add a nice atmosphere to the game which also helps players understand the rules to the game. Since sushi have become widespread in the western world, even kids will have an easy time figuring out how the mechanics are represented through the theme.

tl;dr a good theme makes mechanics easy and the game fun to play.