Sushi Go! is a Eurogame about eating conveyor belt sushi at a restaurant. This is represented by its central Drafting Mechanic — you take one card from your hand, then pass them to your neighbour, and repeat this process until all the cards have been taken. The game is played over three rounds.
Most cards have some sort of gimmick, like a Set Bonus or a bonus for having the most cards of one type. This means you have to choose carefully which cards you'll take and which ones you'll pass on. You should also be paying attention to your opponents' choices, as your picks can block them.
The game later received an Updated Re Release with Sushi Go Party!, which features many new card types that can be combined into various "menus" tailored for specific settings, such as 2-player games, 6-8 player games, high-scoring games or combo-reliant games.
Compare 7 Wonders, a more complicated drafting game.
Sushi Go! and Sushi Go Party! provide examples of:
- Drafting Mechanic: You obtain sushi cards by taking one from your hand and passing to your neighbour.
- Intoxication Mechanic: The Sake card is valuable (3 points), but when you take it, you have to pick your next card randomly.
- Power Copying: The special order card copies any of the cards you've played in the current round. Nice if you need one more card for a Set Bonus.
- Set Bonus:
- If you take a wasabi card, the value of your next nigiri will be tripled.
- Tempura cards are scored in pairs, sashimi cards are scored in trios, and the green tea ice cream dessert is scored in groups of four. It's all or nothing — leftover cards have no value. Denying someone their third sashimi can be devastating.
- A set of 1/2/3/4 different onigiri shapes is worth 1/4/9/16 points. The more onigiri shapes you have, the more valuable each card is on average.
- A set of 1/2/3/4/5 dumplings is worth 1/3/6/10/15 points, so the value of each dumpling increases the more of them you take.
- Exaggerated with the eel. One card is worth -3 points, but a set of 2 or more gives you 7 points.
- Zig-zagged with the tofu. One tofu card is worth 2 points and a pair of them is worth 6, but if you gather 3 or more, they all become worth 0.
- Invoked with the tea card, which is worth 1 point for each card in your largest set of cards with the same background colour.
- Symmetric Effect: Each edamame card is worth 1 point per opponent with any edamame, though it's capped at 4 points.
- Updated Re Release: Sushi Go Party! is an expanded re-release of the original.
- Vanilla Unit:
- Most cards are scored based on some kind of condition, with the exception of the Nigiri cards, which are worth a flat sum. While they can be boosted by a Wasabi card, which specifically synergizes with them, some Sushi Go! Party menus include Nigiri and exclude Wasabi.
- The takeout box lets you flip any number of previously played cards and makes them worth a flat 2 points.
