Pints & Parties

For this weeks review, we returned to the Heady Hollow Brewing Company in Fishers for another wonderful experience!  Once again, great service, respectful employees and great food and beverages.  Today we look at the newly released Sushi GO Party!  The deluxe version of Sushi GO!  Near the beginning of this blog we reviewed Sushi GO!, and the party version does add a significant amount of new cards to the game.  It’s like we said in our first review of Sushi GO, it’s like a bunch of friends having a party.  Who knew we would see that a year and a half later in the next title of their game?  Read on to see this new version.

Just like the previous version of Sushi GO! all of the same rules apply to each player.  However, now there are a number of newly added features and cards that really separates the party version from the original.  This time we have a board, with player pieces and a large array of tiles.  The instructions provide a series of game types that you can play, each version requires a different set of tiles to mark which cards you will draw.  In today’s review, we played the ‘Dinner for Two’ variant which is recommended for two players.  You simply draw the tiles that are listed with the game you choose, place the tiles in the required slots in the board, and shuffle the specified cards together.  Some of the new cards include a Tofu card, which is worth up two 6 points for two cards, but zero if you allocate 3 or more into your hand.  This is because too much Tofu is not good for you.  The Miso soup is another new card and players cannot draw and play it at the same time, otherwise it cancels out for both players.  The Menu card allows you to draw four cards from the main deck, choose 1 and discard the rest.  There are now Dessert cards which vary from game to game, but if you collect enough of one set per card type, you can gain a lot more points per set at the end of your three rounds.  They’re similar to the pudding card, except much more diverse and effective.  There are a lot more cards than that, but there are too many new ones to cover in one review.

This version has a lot more opportunity for players to bounce back, and also score a lot higher than before.  The fact that a board is now included is really a great addition to the game!  The layout and placement of the tiles in the board is another really nice touch as well.  The adorable artwork is back and better than ever as you’ve already noticed.  There’s no way to play this game and not swoon over the happy little playing cards.  The mechanics are definitely an improvement over the original.  It’s just too bad it comes in a tin.  If the Sushi GO! games came in a box, it would be nearly flawless.  While the original Sushi GO! is a 2 - 5 player game, the party version is 2 - 8 players which is an excellent addition!  The original is still a very good game, but the party (deluxe) version of Sushi GO! really enhances the game.  The party version is the standalone version (all original cards included) of Sushi GO! but with an added expansion with new components and cards, so if you don’t own it, we would highly recommend this one to you.

Sushi GO Party!
Overall Meeple Rating: 7.5/10


Game Mechanics:
1) Card Drafting
2) Hand Management
3) Set Collection

Have any thoughts or questions?  Leave a comment below.