Sushi Go Party ! - The Bow Reviews

Hello everyone, welcome to my first ever review and I decided, why not one of my all time favorite openers for a game night, Sushi Go Party!

Designed By: Phil Walker-Harding

Artist: Nan Rangsima

Publisher: Gamewright

Players: 2 - 8

So What's Going On ?

In Sushi Go Party, you are sitting at a "deluxe sushi feast" where you must create your own menu, ultimately, showing off that you have the best taste between all your tasteless friends. The cards you play with depend on the game mode you choose also referred to as "Menu's". The game offers 8 of it's own finest menu's including my groups favorite, Cutthroat Combo because Josh won't let any of us score some Miso Soup, more on that later. The game even teaches you how to create your own customized menus for future plays.

The game is played over 3 rounds and whomever gets the best combination of cards not only wins the game but gets to choose where everyone eats tonight. A possibly house rule.

Sushi Go Party uses a draft mechanic, an example for those unfamiliar. Everyone starts with a hand of 10 cards, everyone picks their favorite card and swaps the rest (9 Cards) to the next person. The game continues in this fashion until there's no more cards to swap around. A very simple but effective mechanic.

This is where the game excels, because once you swap cards, you also reveal the card you chose. Now everyone has knowledge of what type of game you're playing.

The Flex

The component quality of Sushi Go Party is above average, whilst it has basic pawns to move around, the tile cards and board are very durable. It's also very satisfying placing them into their little squares. The artwork is insanely adorable, the type of cuteness that makes you invest into a stress ball to avoid illegal charges. I mean just look at the box. I wanna punch it. I have.

Now this is a personal opinion which I think a majority will agree with. The one thing I don't like about Sushi Go Party! is the dreaded tin can box. Like why? My shelves were so neatly organized and in comes Mr. Sushi No Party. Now I need to find an abstract location just for this game. Honestly, it's not that big of a deal, but if you crave an organized shelf, be wary.

Replayability and Length

The replayability is through the roof with this game. The games are super short averaging normally around 10 - 15 minutes per game. The different types of Menus allow for diverse games each time including the option to create your own menu. It's just fun my dude, I love this game. It's a great starter for a game night as well to get the brain moving.

Weight and Strategy

Once again, for those unfamiliar, the term "weight" in board games, is basically how hard it is to learn and understand the game. The higher the weight, the more complicated the game is. I will be using BoardGameGeek's weight ranking system which is from 1 - 5.

1 - Light

2 - Medium Light

3 - Medium

4 - Medium Heavy

5 - Heavy

If you're brand new to board gaming, I would avoid all 3+ and above games, because you'll be thrown into the deepest of waters, legs tied and quite possibly a few sharks chasing.

Sushi Go Party to me is about 1.5. It's a very simple game to learn, the rulebook is easy to read and you will most likely understand the game a few turns in. The reason I decided to give it the extra .5 is because there is indeed some strategy to the game. Since everyone can see each others cards. They know what their going for, which means during the drafting stage, you might purposely take a card you don't need, just to make sure the others don't, as you should. Some cards like Miso Soup are only allowed to be played, if you're the only one who put it down this turn. If someone else puts a Miso Soup down in the same turn, both are discarded. Damn you Josh. He literally denied 3 different people of Miso Soup, 3 Turns in a row.

Also a quick rant, I do not like the "fruit" card for dessert. But my lovely (Evil) lady Shelly, enjoys that card the most. It just stresses me out. Just put the Pudding cards for the love of God and let everyone sleep in peace tonight.

Final Thoughts

Superb game, it's light, it's cute, it's basically a puppy. Who doesn't love a puppy. Sushi Go Party I think is a great gate-way game for non-board gamers. It's an easy game to teach and learn. The components are satisfying, packing the game up is very quick as well. It's replayability I would say is on par with "Coup", a future review. Everyone normally has a great time, until the final 3rd round. Where people are looking at each other like you've insulted their family name. Overall, if you're looking for a family fun game, or good opener to a long game night. Sushi Go Party must definitely enter your menu.