The Nardio Review

Is It Worth Your Time?

Yes! Plus Sushi Mushi is free to play!

 

What Should I Play it On?

You can play Sushi Mushi on the iPhone 3GS and above, iPad and iPod touch 3rd generation and above. You must, however, have iOS 5.0 or above to play this game. I prefer playing on the iPad.

 

What Did You Think Without Spoiling it?

Sushi Mushi is a fun and addictive game that allows you to play with your friends or random opponents. It’s a pretty simple game to understand – just match up 3 of the same color or shape and earn points and beat your opponent. Throughout the game you can complete achievements that will bump you up a belt color. Each round goes pretty quickly and it’s a perfect time waster.

 

How Does it Play?

For the most part, the touch controls for Sushi Mushi are pretty good, but there are occasions where it doesn’t register my swipes. This is pretty frustrating when I have traced over a long line of matches and for some reason it only registers my first three. This doesn’t happen that often so it isn’t gamebreaking.

 

Why it Works

Sushi Mushi is a classic matching game that’s made a lot more fun thanks to the fun character design, interesting game mechanics and online play. The gameplay is basic but the designers added some fun mechanics to spice up a traditional matching game. If you match up 4 shapes of the same color (square, diamond, star and circle) you create an eat roll. If you match up the same shape of all the colors (red, green, blue, orange) you create a rob roll. An eat roll allows you to consume the sushis you have made, increasing your score. A rob roll will steal any remaining rolls from your opponent and add that to your score. If you don’t want to miss these rolls, you can purchase two boost items that will highlight specific rolls, but they cost coins.

Coins are the in-game currency and they’re not too hard to come by. You can earn coins by going up a belt level, winning a match and matching items when you receive a fortune cookie. Aside from purchasing boost items you can also use coins to practice in snack mode and purchase new characters. Currently there are 10 characters to choose from. I’m the sumo wrestler.

One of my favorite things about this game is that you can have as many games going on as you want. There doesn’t currently seem to be a limit. You’ll never have to wait too long for your next turn.

No Like

Aside from the occasional swipe issue, my only other issue is that practice mode (AKA snack mode) costs coins. I get that the developer is hoping people will make in-app purchases, but it’s kind of a shame that I can’t just practice for free.

I do like the fact that you increase your belt color, but it doesn’t really do anything as far as I can see. I’ve been battling yellow belts, brown belts and even black belts as an orange belt.

Since this is a free game, there are ads. Pretty much anytime you start a new round or match there will be an ad that you will have to exit out of. It can be a little annoying, but there is the option to pay $0.99 to remove all ads.

 

In Closing

While there are some issues with the gameplay, it happens infrequently enough that it’s not game breaking. Sushi Mushi is a super fun game for anyone who enjoys pitting themselves against others. It seems like there’s going to be a new patch soon that will add new characters.

Agree? Disagree? Write your comments below!

 

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