I am not a huge fan of idle games, but sometimes they get me hooked. In my challenge of finding all of the mobile, food-based games, I ended up with Sushi Bar on my phone. I knew it was an idle game, but in fairness, I needed to give it a shot.
And, I really enjoyed Sushi Bar.
You start off with a big, oval-shaped conveyor belt around a single sushi chef. This chef is slowly, sllloooowly, making plates of sushi that then get instantly placed on the conveyor belt and brought around to customers, who then pluck it off and eat it. You then earn money from customers eating your sushi to purchase upgrades and make your bar much better!
There are a bunch of different ways to spend your money. First off, you can upgrade your individual chef, which allows them to make new sushi rolls worth more money. If you get to a high enough level, you can purchase a second and third chef which also need upgrades. You can also upgrade the speed of the conveyor belt, the price you charge and the seats around the bar. These three upgrades do have a cap, so you’ll only need to upgrade a specific conveyor belt until it maxes out.
Luckily for you, this single conveyor belt of sushi isn’t all you’ll have. If you level up enough, you can purchase new bars in other countries, so you can end up with several sushi bars to earn money from. When you close the game and come back, you’ll also gain money from the time you were gone, just not as much as if you were there.
You can also interact with the game beyond spending your cash. You can tap your favorite sushi chef, forcing them to produce plates faster, or tap customers to make them eat quickly. There are a lot of limited-time events that show up on the side of the screen to let you earn more cash; a sumo wrestler or golden sushi being the most common examples. In exchange for watching an ad, the event will trigger, allowing you to earn a big bonus of money.
Similarly, when you level up, you will be given a bonus that can be doubled or tripled if you watch an ad. Most of the time an ad will play when you level up anyway, so it’s worth just hitting the button. Apart from between leveling up and picking optional bonuses, there isn’t many other forced advertisements throughout the game.
The amount of money you’re wracking in becomes intense, the number quickly adding up before your eyes. Upgrades become expensive, taking a lot of time, but once you grab a second sushi bar, you’ll be easily back to purchasing upgrades and investing in your place.
There is something about watching all of these lovely plates of sushi get eaten up — seeing customers nom on them before walking away. The screen becomes hectic with the amount of people around the belt, plates traveling around and chefs in the middle dicing up sushi. If you’re looking for a sleek little game to tap away at when waiting in line or bored on your couch, Sushi Bar might be one for you!
