Wabisabi SushiDerby

I originally thought this was going to be a cute little sushi racing game where you actually control the sushi. Turns out you’re basically their manager. It's like Umamusume: Pretty Derby but with sushi instead of horse girls. You buy sushi, train them, give them different skills, upgrade their stats, and send them into races. The catch is that sushi has a limited shelf life, so their stats slowly go down over time. Eventually, you have to replace them with a fresh one and start the process again. It’s actually more fun than I expected. You start out as the underdog, slowly unlock better sushi and equipment, and work your way toward the final race. The races themselves are mostly automated, but you can cheer your sushi on for a speed boost and use their special abilities. There are also random chopstick attacks, which can be brutal. You can dodge them... until your sushi hits an obstacle, loses speed, and gets eaten anyway. Or those chopstick RNG are back-to-back, so you end up eaten anyways. Losing an expensive, heavily trained sushi to bad luck is not fun. The main problem is that the game starts to drag near the end. Grinding the same races for money and training starts feeling more like a chore, and I had no interest in maxing out every sushi or clearing everything after beating the final race. Still, the game is ridiculously cute and has a surprisingly decent amount of strategy underneath it. I recommend the getting the game on sale if you're into this sort of thing. Just expect the grind to wear on you toward the end.

This game is small but worth every penny, like a bite of freshly rolled sushi in real life! :D I find everything about it incredibly charming. Thoughtfully designed tracks, lots of unique sushis, interesting mechanics, and well-drawn pixel art all add up to a lovely experience! The story's lighthearted and silly in a way that feels honest, it's pretty comfy for a high stakes racing game. Gameplay feels closer to mario kart than it does gambling, haha. Powerups and speed boosts can be timed around the track to help your sushi achieve victory even if your odds don't look amazing; at the same time you're always in danger of something totally throwing you off (other sushis, ofc evil chopsticks, BOWLS), which I find keeps things exciting! The freshness mechanic is a fun way to justify a new game loop, I love how little details tie into the theme. The story is short and sweet but I find every course plenty replayable thanks to the variety of sushi builds you can create. It took me maybe 10-12 or so hours to get 1st in the final race, but I trained a few different things and unlocked all toppings before going for it. :b I was on the fence getting this, thinking it might be too luck-based but it feels pretty balanced overall. The chopstick hazards can make or break a run but there's enough room to stay out of their way (mostly ;;). Upgrades available to you before each race are a bit of a gamble since choices are randomized, but with some selection skillz, money raised, and sushi exp, it isn't really a nuisance either. Overall for the price of this little gem I would totally recommend it to anyone looking for sweet bite-sized thing to get hooked on for short bursts of time, especially if you like improvement loops or the thrill of narrowly escaping death. Aside from wishing there were MOAR courses just because I've played so much, and more sushi facts from our tanuki friend, I kind of wish there were a "sushi hall of fame". Maybe for sushi you've made that have run the most laps before being eaten, highest total distance, maybe most expensive roll made and things like that. You get to name them so you do sometimes get attached! Rip 5ever to Kojiro my beloved game-winning amberjack! ;_;7 </3 Looking forward to if this dev ever makes additional dlc, some kind of sequel, or whatever else!

A very fun short game about cheering sushies that race on different tracks, however, the 100% might be a tiny bit frustrating with these magical chopsticks that just decide to ruin your run in a blink of an eye. Extra points for the fact that the game taught me about some sushies and they are super cute :D 8.5/10