Do you love sushi, match-three puzzles, and some good old-fashioned one-on-one battles of skill? Then Sushi Striker: The Way of the Sushido is quite the interesting mashup that's perfectly built for those who said "yes" to all of the above.
On the surface, Sushi Striker looks a bit simple: match up at least two like-colored plates of sushi to eat them, stack up the plates, and then fling those plates at the enemy to knock their health down to zero.
But honestly, there's a lot of depth to this game, and we've got some great tips and tricks to help you get the most out of your playthrough!
- The basics
- Know plate colors
- When to fling those stacks of plates
- Aim for 7 plates in a match
- Grab capsules before your opponent
- Understand your Sushi Sprites
- Make use of lane-drive gears and raw power
The Basics
I described the gist of the game earlier, but it's a bit more involved. For each battle, the screen's split in half, with three lanes of sushi that scroll horizontally on each player's side. A fourth lane in the middle's shared and both players can use it.
To make matches, you need at least two like-colored plates to chain together. The longer the chain, the better. However, you only have seven seconds once starting a match to complete it, and the game provides ample warning of when your time's about to run out. The plates of eaten sushi get stacked up and get flung at the opponent as an attack to deal damage.
The matched-up plates of sushi get eaten by the Sushi Striker, filling up the Jubilee Gauge. Once it's full, you go into Jubilee Mode, which means higher-quality sushi on the conveyor belts and more damage gets dealt for about 12 seconds.
Each Striker carries up to three "Sushi Sprites" as well. These adorable little critters are companions that provide amazing abilities in battle that help you out in various ways. As you eat sushi, you fill up their gauges, and their skills can be activated once they're full.
The first player that knocks the opponent out wins.
Know plate colors
In Sushi Striker, there's a total of nine plate colors. Each color represents a different level of quality for the sushi served on it, and the plates themselves dish out varying amounts of damage.
The nine colors of plates and their damage values are:
- Light Blue = 8
- Yellow = 11
- Pink = 14
- Green = 18
- Blue = 23
- Red = 30
- White = 39
- Black and Gold = 50
- White and Gold = 65
Each plate you collect acts as a multiplier for that stack. So if you have two light blue plates and you fling it at your foe, it will only deal 16 points of damage. However, if you have 20 light blue plates in a tall stack, you'll deal 320 points of damage (bonuses for height).
If you know which plates are worth more, keep your eyes peeled for them and match up as many of the higher value ones as you can to deal the most damage in a short amount of time.
When to fling those stacks of plates
Now that we understand the colors of each plate and how much they're worth in terms of damage, you'll want to know when to throw plates at your foe.
As we just mentioned in the previous tip, the best time to throw your plates is when you have tall stacks, due to the bonus damage. But of course, this depends on you getting a lot of like-colored plates quickly, while surviving hits from the enemy as well.
The other alternative's simply to match as many plates as you can, regardless of color. As you build up stacks, launch them at the enemy for fast attacks. While the damage of a single, shorter stack may not be as large as a taller one, having several of them fired in quick succession adds up.
Aim for 7 plates in a match
As in all matching games, the larger the match you make, the better. The same rule of thumb applies here in Sushi Striker.
If you make a match of at least seven plates, you end up with a glowing plate on the belts. These glowing plates prove quite useful, as they can get linked up with anything. So if you're feeling stuck but have a glowing plate on the belts, it could be just what you need to get out of a sticky situation.
Grab capsules before your opponent
Every now and then a special item appears on the shared lane: a capsule. If you want to have the advantage over your foe, it's important that you try and get to it before they do. Capsules grant unique effects to the player that gets it first, such as boosting damage dealt or freezing the enemy.
To collect a capsule, you simply need to include it in your chain of matching plates. However, the early bird gets the worm! Since the capsules only show up on the shared lane, you need to be incredibly fast to see it and make a link that includes it before your opponent does. And believe me, these are often worth grabbing!
Understand your Sushi Sprites
Every Sushi Striker's able to carry up to three Sushi Sprites into battle. We've covered these briefly earlier on, but there's a bit more depth to them, and they're pretty important.
Each Sprite has a Defense stat. This number's fairly important because it factors in with your character's Stamina to determine the total amount of HP. Sprites level up just like you do, increasing their Defense stat. Some even evolve into new and stronger forms with better numbers.
All Sushi Sprites carry their own unique ability that you're able to use in battle. First, you need to fill up their gauges by eating sushi, as you'd do anyway. Once a Sprite's gauge is full, just press the corresponding button to activate the skill. Then just rinse and repeat.
And while you can carry three Sprites with you into battle, you can have an additional two in the "reserve" slots. These two Sprites gain some experience points after battles, even though you're not actively using them.
Make sure to use Skill Charms as you find them. These items get rewarded to players for completed battles and you use them to give experience to Sprites. They level up as they get enough experience points.
Make use of lane-drive gears and raw power
There are special items in Sushi Striker that affect how slow or fast your lanes move. These are Lane-Drive Gears, and you pick up a few different ones as you progress through the story.
To activate these Gears, just hold your position in a lane. The point of these is to help you link sushi plates faster and more accurately. It may be a little hard to picture how this works in your head, but as you play, it makes much more sense.
There's also "Raw Power" sushi, which you acquire by eating plenty of particular types of sushi on the lanes. These can be assigned as your character's "Favorite Sushi" to gain bonuses when eating that type of sushi. The benefits of Raw Power sushi include more experienced earned, more damage dealt, and other potent buffs.
One tasty and delectable treat of an action puzzler RPG
Sushi Striker's definitely one of the more unique games that you can pick up for your Nintendo Switch these days, and for good reason! The game features some amazing and cute visuals, the gameplay's fresh and distinctive, and it's rather challenging to master each stage with the "S" ranking, which is the highest you can get. There's a lot of replay value here, and we hope that these tips and tricks help you get the most out of the game!
