Sushi Shuffle

If you enjoy your food and you enjoy playing games, then you’re probably going to love the puzzle slider Sushi Shuffle.

In this fast paced, Japanese fast-food restaurant, you are challenged by connecting sushi (the raw fish and rice) dishes to make a row of three or more in a row. To do this you must slide the rows from side to side or up and down. To flip between the two movements you use the select button.

There are two options of game to play, ‘happy guests’ and ‘hungry guests’. In happy guests mode, you will have an unlimited time to play – the emphasis is to pull off the biggest combos and use the introduction of Wasabi sauce and other ‘power ups’ for boosting your combo and getting a decent tip from your customers.

Hungry guests however is a much tougher game to play for one simple reason, if you’re not fast enough to spot the combos, your clients will leave – meaning that if you have no customers, your game will end there! On the plus side though, on top of your score, you are rewarded for your perseverance in this mode by unlocking the etiquette tips. For example, for something as simple as sitting down and the use of your chopsticks there are some polite things to do and some faux pas to try and avoid, additionally you may even pick up some Japanese.

The power-ups all have different effects on your customers. The Wasabi will cause your customers to give you bigger tips, Gari will keep your customers happy for longer and Fugu will generate extra tips – but you must be careful because if it goes bad, then you’ll kill the customer (which isn’t such a good thing).

The game is a very addictive and enjoyable puzzle-slider and definitely will keep you entertained for several hours or just for a few minutes (if that’s all you can spare). The game’s colourful and quick to get familiar with. This is certainly helped by the quick and simple controls (when selecting the column up or down slides the dishes that way and left and right select the column, and when selecting the row these moves are switched round).

You’re scored in three ways, biggest match (of three or more dishes in a row), longest chain and biggest combo. For doing all these, you’ll maximise the money gained by tips. To see how well you’ve done, you can view your achievements in the awards selection screen. In this you can see your record for ‘mega combo’s, ‘5 chain’, ‘biggest check’ and ‘total money’.

If I was going to pick any fault, I’d say that the sliding motion is a little pedantic at moments and could well cost you time, money or indeed the game if you fail to slide things around correctly. However, this is all part of the game and the challenge.

Overall then this game is superb for anyone who enjoys the connect 3 of a kind and pop style games. For anyone who’s used to Bejewelled or other such games, this will be a nice twist to the theme and you’ll be hooked.

Rating 87%

Positives

Good graphics

Addictive and highly entertaining

Challenging but not impossibly so

Negatives

The controls are a little fiddly at times as the plates will slide back if you fail to press quickly enough

You’ll be doing exceptionally well for completing all the levels in ‘hungry guests’ mode