Overview
Sushi Go is a card game designed for families with kids. The concept of the game is that players try to grab the most valuable food by combining cards. The game is played in 3 rounds. In each round, players pick a card from their hand and place it face-down in front of them before passing the rest of their hand to the player to their left. After swapping hands, the players reveal the cards in front of them. This continues until each player has 10 cards in front of them. The round ends and the cards are scored. More details on how to play Sushi Go is provided below.
Objective
Be player with the most points after 3 rounds to win the game. If there is a tie, the player with the most Pudding cards among the players that tied will be the winner.
Sushi Go Game Rules
The following are some Sushi Go rules to help you gain a better understanding of how to play Sushi Go.
.Pick a card from the cards in your hand and place face-down in front of you. Pass the rest of the cards to the player to your left. After receiving a new set of cards, flip the face-down card in front of you and face it up.
.Keeping picking cards and swapping hands, one card per turn.
.The cards in front of each player remain there until the round ends.
.Wasabi cards are worth 0 points unless combined with a Nigiri card. In this case, the Nigiri card triples in value.
.Chopsticks are worth 0 points but a player that has chopsticks card in front of them is allowed to pick two cards from their hand on a future turn. The player will replace the second card they picked with the chopsticks card. To use a chopsticks card, a player must call out “Sushi Go” to notify the other players and this must be before everyone flips their selected card,
.Note that a player can have multiple chopsticks card in front of them but only one can be used per turn.
.Keep picking and passing cards until the players are out of cards and each player has 10 cards face-up in front of them. That concludes a round of the game.
Number of Players Needed
2 to 5 player.
Equipment
The game is played with 108 cards;
14x Tempura cards
14x Sashimi cards
14x Dumpling cards
12x 2 Maki roll cards
8x 3 Maki roll cards
6x 1 Maki roll cards
10x Salmon Nigiri cards
5x Squid Nigiri cards
5x Egg Nigiri cards
10x Pudding cards
6x Wasabi cards
4x Chopsticks cards
Paper & Pencil for keeping scores.
Setting Up
Shuffle the cards and deal up to 10 cards per player depending on the number of players involved in the game. For a 2-player game, each player receives 10 cards. For a 3-player game, each player receives 9 cards. For a 4-player game, each player receives 8 cards. For a 5-player game, each player receives 7 cards. Players must keep their cards secret and ensure they are not seen by opponents.
The remaining undealt cards are placed face-down in the middle of the playing surface. One player is selected as the scorekeeper and a piece of paper and pencil is handed to the player for that purpose. The next section explains in detail how to play Sushi Go.
How to Play Sushi Go
This section provides a guide on how to play Sushi Go. A Sushi Go game is played in three rounds. At the start of a round, each player selects one card out the 10 in their hand. This is the card the player wants to retain and is placed face-down in front of the player. After everyone has selected a card each, each player reveals their selected card. Note that the card selected by each player will stay in front of them until the round ends.
Each player then passes the remaining 9 cards in their hand face-down to the player on their left. This is simply the players swapping hands. Each player then picks a card from the 9 new cards in their hand and place it face-down. The cards are revealed after each player has selected a card. This leaves each player with 8 cards in their hand. Once again, each player swap hands with the player on their left. A card is picked and the rest is again passed to the player on the left.
Wasabi and Chopsticks are special cards and must be used as follow. Any squid, salmon, or egg Nigiri card a player selected must be placed on a Wasabi card if the player has one. This is to show that the Nigiri has been dipped in Wasabi and its value tripled. Only one Nigiri card can be placed on each Wasabi card. A player can have multiple Wasabi card and in this case, they can place one Nigiri card on each Wasabi card.
If a player has a chopsticks card in front of them, they are allowed to take two cards on a future turn. To use a chopsticks card, a player will take their turn normally by selecting one card and place it face-down in front of them. Before everyone flips their selected card, the player who has a chopsticks card will call out “Sushi Go” and proceed to select a second card from their hand. The card is also placed face-down in front of the player. After this, all the players will reveal their selected cards. Before exchanging hands with the player to their left, the player who played a chopsticks card will put the chopsticks card back into their hand to bring the number of cards in their hand back to the same as the other player’s hands. After this, players will swap hands and play continues normally.
Note that a player can have multiple chopsticks card in front of them but only one can be used per turn. The picking and passing cards process continues until the players are out of cards and each player has 10 cards face-up in front of them. When this happens, the round is over and the cards in front of each player are scored. It is helpful to group cards of the same type together to make scoring easier.
Sushi Go Scoring Guide
Scoring takes place at the end of each round. All the other cards are scored at the end of each round except for Pudding cards that are only scored at the end of the game. The cards are scored as follow;
To score Maki Roll cards, each player adds up the Maki roll icons at the top of all their Maki roll cards. The player who has the most Maki roll icons earns 6 points. If multiple players tie for the most Maki roll icons, split the 6 points evenly between them and ignore any remainder. No points will be awarded for second place in this case. If there is only one player with the most Maki roll points, then the player in second place earns 3 points. If multiple players tie for second, divide the 3 points evenly between them and ignore any remainder.
To score Tempura cards, a set of 2 Tempura cards is worth 5 points. A single Tempura card is worth 0 points. It is allowed for a player to have multiple sets of Tempura cards in a round of the game. The player receives 5 points for each set.
For Sashimi cards, a set of 3 Sashimi cards is worth 10 points. A set of 2 Sashimi cards is worth 0 points. A player can have multiple sets of Sashimi cards in a round and earn 10 points for each complete set of 3 cards.
For Dumpling cards, the more Dumpling cards a player has, the more points they get. If a player has 1 Dumpling card, the card is worth 1 point. If the player has 2 Dumpling cards, the player gets 3 points. If the player has 3 Dumplings card, they get 6 points. If the player has 4 Dumpling cards, they get 10 points. If a player has 5 or more Dumpling cards, 15 points are awarded to the player.
For Nigiri and Wasabi cards, Nigiri cards are worth 3x the normal value if placed on top of a Wasabi card. A Wasabi card with no Nigiri on it is worth 0 points. A squid Nigiri is worth 3 points but if it is on top of a Wasabi card, it’s worth 9 points. A salmon Nigiri is worth 2 points but if it is on top of a Wasabi card, it’s worth 6 points. An egg Nigiri is worth 1 point but if it is on top of a Wasabi card, it’s worth 3 points.
A chopsticks card is worth 0 points.
The total scores earned by each player at the end of a round is recorded by the scorekeeper. To start a new round, players discard their cards face-up beside the draw pile while retaining only their pudding cards. Pudding cards are scored at the end of the game. The dealer gives each player new cards, the same number as that of the previous round.
After the third round is scored, the cards left in the draw pile are ignored and the Pudding cards are scored. The player with the most pudding cards receives 6 points. If there is a tie, the 6 points are shared evenly between the players that tied and any remainder points are ignored. The player with the fewest Pudding cards loses 6 points. If multiple players tie for the fewest Pudding cards, the 6 points deduction is shared evenly by the players that tied. Note that in a 2 player game, no one loses any points for Pudding cards. Only the player with the most Pudding cards is awarded 6 points.
Winning the Game
The player with the most points after 3 rounds is the winner of the game. If there is a tie, the player with the most Pudding cards among the players that tied will be the winner.