The Sushi Spinnery: Design new sushi and serve interesting flavours to the gourmet judges in the International competitions!
Time to ‘fess up again… Our team has been hooked on Kairosoft’s new title: The Sushi Spinnery. This is why we’ve been a bit slow on the game reviews lately. (That’s right we’re blaming Kairosoft for making us play their games so much!)
Gameplay: The Sushi Spinnery is a management game (like all of the Pocket Games series) and this time the theming is around a Sushi Restaurant. This means that you own a food establishment and you need to make the strategic decisions to turn it into the best in the world. We’ve seen the Kairosoft games change slowly since their Game Dev Story days and now the game has morphed into this staff management game which also has a sim style layout element to it. On the HR front you need to hire staff in; train them; direct the creation of new dishes and send them off to competitions. Then on the 3D perspective view you need to carefully layout your restaurant to please customers as much as possible. Around all this there are the important Marketing tasks which are imperative for making your shop known to the masses. So in short, a full restaurant simulation game!
As usual, the developers have made this game with their ditzy pixel people – it always surprises me how cute they can make the characters with so few pixels!
Confession: I’m gonna be honest here… I’m a real food maniac. Whenever a game has food in it I’m generally pretty nuts about it. So when there’s top Japanese cuisine involved, I’m just uber turned on. As such, I’m actually finding it very hard to be objective about this review… but luckily my team are here to slap some hard sense into me! Anyway, please keep reading to hear about some of the good and bad points about the game…
Strong points: The core of this game is very intricate. In Kairosoft’s previous titles, I’d say that eventhough the games may have been complicated, the method to win would become obvious in the first round of playing. However, this time the key to success is quite hidden. In fact, I only really understood the key to winning in my second restaurant in the game. So for the other hardcore Pocket game fans out there, then you’ll be glad to know that this game has some serious replay value to it. If it weren’t for the fact that it’s easier to review a game when everything is unlocked then I’d be on my third restaurant by now! (By the way, my caveat here is that I’ve never played World Cruise Story… so perhaps those players would have more experience in playing this layout sim style game.)
Weak Points: Although complexity can be a strength in puzzle games, it’s also quite a big problem for newcomers to this game genre. (In fact, it’s so complicated that I’m not even going to try and explain the various actions and options within the game!) The Sushi Spinnery is perhaps too involved and the world of a Kairosoft game may be too much for the average player. In addition to this, there’s a layer of abstract gameplay which can be hard for new players to imagine. This abstractness compounded with the slightly odd menu interface makes for a game style which is quite an acquired taste.
Back to the good points: The graphics are fab, and I never tire of the music soundtracks. Each and every new amenity in the game surprises me and tickles my brain cells. In particular, the new sushi dishes that you can create are all quite fascinating… have you ever seen a double cheese salmon nigiri? No?… yeah actually I think that would taste horrid too… but you can actually see weird creations in this game… excellent.
How does this game compare to Game Dev Story, Grand Prix Story, Dungeon Village and Pocket Academy?
If you’ve never played any of the Kairosoft games, then you should start off with Game Dev Story because it’s easier, and displays all the core mechanics of the Kairosoft titles. (It’s also cheaper to buy… we suggest purchasing the game because the demos don’t really do any of these puzzle games justice.) Style-wise it’s similar to Dungeon Village and World Cruise Story, but it feels like the difficulty is set just right. So that means it’s not as difficult as Pocket Academy and nor is it as easy as Dungeon Village to figure out.
Personally I found Game Dev Story and Dungeon Village to be pretty funny, but I guess on the scale of things this has the least jokes in it. However, this is balanced our by the fun food on the conveyor belt.
Should you buy it? If you like puzzle and strategy games then consider Sushi Spinnery. If you’re new to Kairosoft games then definitely try out Game Dev Story first (even if it is a lite game). After you’re accustomed with this style, I would seriously recommend this game because the replay value is so high! Check out our game tips at the bottom to beat your friends at getting a high score.
Rating: 4/5 Sushi Spinnery is a top trump game with superb replay value. If food and strategy games are your kind of thing then you must get this game!
Sushi Spinnery Tips from Android Games Review:
After 16 years, your game score will stop accumulating and it’ll be recorded. Then the fast mode will be available for you to toggle. More importantly, a percentage of your unlocked content will be accessible immediately in your next new game. When I saw this “prize” I was actually quite disappointed… however herein lies the clue to how to do well in Sushi Spinnery…
Obviously there’s no set strategy to complete the game. However, we do suggest you aim to keep playing cycles of 16 years. It’s definitely more challenging, and adds much more purpose to the game. Anyway… below are some of the big questions which players may have:
What’s more important – upgrading amenities, unlocking new ingredients, upgrading dishes or training staff?
- Well you have to do all of these things, but the most important thing is to form your strategy or aim. Averagely I believe every time you form a strategy you probably need to stick with it for 2 to 4 game years.
- A little overview: Ultimately you want to have a superb 5 star restaurant but to do this you need two core things: 1) money for marketing, and 2) you need to increase comfort levels. In order to increase the appeal of amenities you can upgrade them, however its actually better to use the top tier amenities which need to be unlocked. The amenities are generally gifted to you when you win competitions… so this is the primary reason why you train staff and upgrade dishes. In short, win competitions for the purpose of getting the best amenities. (They actually also contribute to your restaurant star rating.) See below about how to win competitions.
What should I spend my gold sushi coins on first?
- If you’re playing the game for the first time, then I would suggest funnelling all your gold coins into one chef who can achieve a high Discernment level. This should save you wasting coins on ingredients and dish creation in the long run. Then you should invest your gold coins into a chef who can get a high Prep level. Ideally one chef who can do both would be excellent, but this is rare and difficult for a new player to spot. (Note: You can get train a chef up to 9 levels.)
How do you get more gold sushi coins?
- This seem like a bit of a myth to gather at first… but there is a way to increase the collection rate. The gold coins appear when the customers are happy and satisfied. To achieve this you need to boost the appeal of the seats. This is done by putting decoration around the seats. When a seat has high appeal then foodies will sit longer, eat more and be happier. So basically you need to carefully surround the conveyor belt seats with shrubbery, put highly trained chefs nearby (if possible), and also put amenities nearby. Don’t forget that you can put greenery within the conveyor belt loops.
- Amenities can also earn you gold sushi coins if their appeal is high. So if you can sandwich the greenery between the seats and the amenities then you can maximise on the appeal gained by the area effect of the greenery. It’s possible to buy items to boost amenities, but they’re costly and eventually you’ll replace amenities with new ones – so it seems like a waste of money unless you have a very clear and focused strategy. (e.g. a clear strategy would be investing in toy stalls for a few years, and to reap the reward you place a high number of them around the shop.)
How do I win competitions?
- To win competitions you need to have the correct ingredient which is of sufficient quality and its taste profile matches the judges’ age and gender. The key here is to have the correct ingredient first. No boosted ingredient will let you pass the competition unless you it’s quality is high enough. Generally, quality only starts becoming an issue when you get to the two point five star competitions and above.
- If you’re stuck trying to decide which ingredients to unlock, then go for the following in this order: Ika, Ebiten, Hamachi, Maguro, Madai. These are the key ones which can pass the competitions. Madai eventually becomes the best ingredient under the sun!
- If you don’t see new ingredients popping up then it may be because you don’t have a new customer segment asking for it… so make sure you keep up with your PR Marketing. (If you don’t have new customer segments appearing, then unlock the existing ingredients you see available as this may improve the happiness of existing customers, thereby increasing your PR channels.)
Developers: Kairosoft
Sushi Spinnery QR Code
(Click on the image or scan the barcode with your Android phone to goto Google Play)
