Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido

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About

Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido is an indie action-puzzle game published by Nintendo and released on the Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS. The game, developed by indieszero and Nintendo EPD, was well received critically and developed a solid online presence after its release.

History

Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido was directed by Hirotaka Watanabe and Kaori Ando.^[1] It was announced at E3 2017 initially as a 3DS exclusive title (trailer shown below). It was revealed to be coming to the Switch in a March 2018 Nintendo Direct presentation.

The game takes place in a world where sushi has been made illegal, and the protagonist attempts to overrule this ban. Gameplay consists of one-on-one battles against a CPU who is making plates of sushi and the player must match the CPU's plates in order to win. The player controls "sushi-sprites," familiars which have drawn comparisons to Pokémon. The game was released on June 8th, 2018.

Reception

The game was critically well received, with a rating of 77 on Metacritic.^[2] Reviewers at Polygon^[3] and Kotaku^[4] gave the game high praise, with the former calling it an "instant cult classic." Polygon's review mentioned that the game had a very large amount of mechanics but satisfyingly rewarded players with "a clear head and steady hands." The review also praised the game's story, which they described as "completely anime" and with high production values. Kotaku was similarly effusive, though noted that the touch screen controls could be frustrating.

Online Presence

The game began generating hype online close to its June 8th release date. A thread about the game's availability on the Switch posted after the March Nintendo Direct announcement in /r/NintendoSwitch gained over 240 points.^[6] A mega thread about the game created the day of release in the /r/NintendoSwitch subreddit gained 177 points.^[5]