Run your very own sushi bar in Sushi-Go-Round for DS and Wii (DS version reviewed here). It’s based on the popular casual online PC game from Miniclip. Similar to other restaurant themed games like Diner Dash and Fast Food Panic, follow sushi recipes and roll up the right ingredients to keep your fish-craving customers happy.

You can see your customers and their orders on the top screen, and all the tools to make sushi are at your disposal at the bottom screen. When a customer first comes in, tap on the menu to give them one so they can order. A picture of the kind of sushi they want floats in a balloon over their head, and you must drag the correct ingredients from the bottom into the middle sushi roller sheet. On the right side is a recipe book in case you forget what’s in which sushi dish. But keep in mind that your customers are still waiting while you sift through the recipe book! Keep a watch on their patience meters, if it empties, they’ll walk out!

Once you have all the correct ingredients in the roller, tap near the top of it to roll the sushi and send it on the conveyor belt out to the customer. While making your clients happy, you must also keep an eye out on your ingredients and replenish them when necessary. On the right side is a phone where you can order more ingredients when you tap it. If you need ingredients really fast, it’ll cost you more money than with regular delivery, though. Once your customers are finished with their meal, don’t forget to tap on their empty plate and collect your tip.

There are many gameplay modes in Sushi-Go-Round. Story Mode is the main meat of the game, where you travel to different sushi bars and must earn a set amount of money each day. Every four days, a ‘boss’ customer shows up, like a food critic with a big appetite. Appease these picky, finicky, and impatient eaters to move on. Other game modes include Endless Day, Time Attack, Endurance, and Puzzle Mode.

While you can play Sushi-Go-Round online via the PC, the DS version has a few added features not found in the computer title. The DS version features a larger number of sushi recipes, different restaurants, and more levels, bosses, and gameplay modes. Plus you can save your game on the DS and select from three difficulty levels. Also, if you have a DSi, you can use the camera to take pictures of your friends and family and turn their faces into the customers in the game!

Sushi-Go-Round is a pretty good casual game, but it does have some fishy problems here and there. The music and sound is a bit annoying, but it’s nothing a flip of the volume switch won’t fix. Play control is mostly easy, but at first it wasn’t clear if I had to rub the sushi to roll it or just tap somewhere. Also, sometimes it’s easy to drag the wrong ingredients. And for such a simple, short, and slightly repetitive game, I would’ve liked to have seen this title at a lower price point. Fans of fast-paced restaurant themed games should still enjoy Sushi-Go-Round, although I felt that SouthPeak’s DS Fast Food Panic title was a little bit better.

Kid Factor:

Sushi-Go-Round is rated E for Everyone with an ESRB descriptor of Alcohol Reference. If your customers are getting impatient, you can calm them down and temporarily raise their happiness meters by passing them a bottle of sake (two for use per level). Sake is a Japanese alcoholic beverage, so that’s where that descriptor comes from. Reading skill is helpful for the text instructions, but there are picture cues for all aspects of gameplay as well. There are three difficulty selections to challenge all skill levels of gamers. But very young sushi-makers might need help on the later levels, though. Sushi-Go-Round might even be considered educational, as it teaches counting, memory, and direction following skills, as well as introduces them to new foods and different cultures.

Tags: Game Reviews