Sushi Striker is one of those odd gaming ideas you would only expect from a company as wacky as good ol’ Nintendo. Can you imagine someone delivering an elevator pitch about a touchscreen-based puzzle game with heavy RPG elements influenced by Pokémon and Japanese cuisine, set during a period when people were waging wars against each other because of sushi? Someone had probably put something in that person’s drink that day and for that I’m grateful. The world needs more crazy ideas like this one, even though Sushi Striker isn’t exactly as amazing as people were telling me it was.

This game surely knows how to captivate you from the moment you boot it up for the first time. You’re instantly presented with an over-the-top, fully animated j-pop music video; something you’d expect from the wackiest of animes. As an anime, Sushi Striker nails it. The best moments in the game are whenever there’s an animated cutscene because it’s like you’re watching a high-quality anime, even though the voice acting is mediocre at best. The story is so downright stupid it’s endearing. Being a Sushi War orphan who has the power to command Pokémon-esque “Sushi Sprites” and make them create as many sushi dishes as possible in order to throw their plates onto your enemy: that’s pretty much the summary of the game and it’s so ridiculous it’s awesome.

The game itself, however, isn’t exactly as exciting as its elevator pitch. Sushi Striker may have its fair share of RPG elements, but at the end of the day, it’s a matching puzzle game. Granted, you can use your not-pocket-monsters’ special abilities in order to give you battle advantages and level them up in order to give yourself more health and a bigger damage output, but there’s no sugarcoating: the core concept of the game is to line up plates with the same colors, stack a huge amount on your table, then throw your plates at your enemy. It’s casual fun that’s simple to learn and battles are quick, but it does get repetitive after a while.

Playing the game on the Switch’s touchscreen feels pretty good. Lining up plates with your fingers and unleashing special attacks are simple commands to master. The game originated on the 3DS and it shows. Not only are the visuals far from what the Switch can offer, but the entire gameplay is best enjoyed as a portable. Playing the game on a TV with a controller is nowhere near as intuitive or enjoyable, as I’m sure you can already imagine.

Sushi Striker has some interesting ideas and it is a bit deeper than its mobile-esque aesthetics may make you believe, but it’s far from the amazing exclusive title I was told this game was. Its usage of RPG mechanics is interesting, but the core (and repetitive) gameplay is basically what you would expect from a mobile puzzle.

It’s a good mobile puzzle at the very least…

 

Graphics: 6.5 Sushi Striker is colorful, but its in-game visuals aren’t far from your average mobile puzzler. The anime cutscenes are fantastic, however.	Gameplay: 8.0 Playing the game on a touch screen is simple, fun and responsive. Playing it on a controller isn’t anywhere near as good.
Sound: 6.5 The anime theme song in the beginning is pretty decent, but the rest of the game’s soundtrack isn’t anything special. The voice acting is just alright.	Fun Factor: 6.5 There’s more to it than meets the eye, but Sushi Striker‘s relatively simplistic gameplay gets repetitive pretty quickly.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Reviewed on Switch
Also available on: 3DS