I decided today that it was a great time to do some more board game posts. Many of us are looking at some quality time inside our own houses and I think board games can be a great way to pass the time. Some friends and I are talking about playing a virtual game night through Google Hangouts so we can have some virtual social interaction. In that spirit, I am testing out some new video recording space and so I made a little video to go along with this post.

Sushi Go and Sushi Go Party are two related games. They work the same, but the “Party” version just has an expansion with more cards. The theme is sushi and the game play is as simple as Pick, Play, Pass.

Sushi Go is a great game for nearly any group of people. It’s marked as ages 8+ but even non readers can play because there isn’t any text you need to read. Like I said in the video, the game play is as simple as Pick, Play, Pass, which means it’s fast to learn and you can just jump in and play. The “Party” version mixes it up a bit and adds some cards with more variations in the kinds of sets you need to make and a little more strategy you can use for messing up your neighbor if you can stick them with a card. For example, with tofu you can have too much of a good thing: one or two cards are worth points, but if you have three tofus they are worth zero. Here’s an example round worth 13 points: 10 for having a set of 3 sashimi, 1 for the dumpling and 2 for the salmon nigiri. To score a tempura, you have to have a pair so this one on its own is scores nothing.

The game play is really fast. We have learned through many many plays that it helps a LOT to wait and count “one…two…three… FLIP” when everyone is ready to play their cards and WAIT to pass until everyone has flipped. It is easy to be in your own world and get ahead or behind passing the hand of cards and suddenly they are all piled up with one person.

There are several versions of this game. Sushi Go is the original. Sushi Go Party has all of the original game but adds about double the number of cards with different kinds of sushi. Sushi Roll is a dice version a little like Yahtzee. I have put all of them in my Game Night Amazon list here (so you can order them without having to leave your house.) There are also iOS and Android versions so you can play on your phone or tablet.