I have always considered myself a hardcore gamer but when it came to spending my last $2 on Ramen, a $59.99 game was not really practical. Unfortunately, I was faced with this problem the first half of the year as were many of my friends. I soon axed my casual game snobbery when I started playing games like Burger Shop and Little Shop Memories on Gamehouse.com. I recently downloaded a little gem called Youda Sushi Chef that didn't disappoint.
I used to hate sushi. I mean despise it. In fact, I threw up at the mere mention of seafood thanks to a disgusting fish pie I was forced to eat as a mere lass. A few years ago, at the demand of my other half, I tried a roll. It wasn't an ordinary roll, it was a Mr. Pi Green Tea roll. Dude... HEAVEN! I had never tasted anything so delectable! It's made up of salmon, tuna, avocado, and lemon wrapped in tofu skin. AMAZING! Yeah, yeah, I know. You wanna know about the game, not sushi.
SO- Youda Sushi Chef is a time management game that has you acting as a - YOU GUESSED IT - Sushi Chef! :: applause for the special people :: You open your restaurant and have to serve a bunch of annoying customers with varying needs. Unlike many time management games, however, you don't have customers with varying attitude problems. Your patience is tested in a different way with different kinds of orders. For instance, you could have a party of four to seat as soon as possible - make them wait too long and you lose their cash.
The real challenge, of course, is in making the sushi. You start off nice and easy in Sushi Kindergarten. Your patrons are slow and want to eat things with two ingredients. Well enjoy it because by the end of the level, you will be making hand rolls and special plates consisting of 5-6 ingredients of different amounts. Even with your fancy, shmancy upgrades, it's still a big challenge. Oh, and did I mention you run out of ingredients and have to order more? This truly is the memory game on crack.
There are six restaurants that you will be running throughout the game and you can name each one. I won't go into what I called mine. I am juvenile and farts make me laugh so use your imagination. After each round, you can upgrade your restaurant with cosmetic items, customer pleasing items and speed increasing items. Knives are SHINY!
The game graphics are well done. There's not a whole lot of animation going on but the facial expressions of the customers are amusing. and one of my favorite animations is at the beginning before you can afford the "crap vacuum". If you mess up a dish, it comes out like a plate of poop with eyes.
You can get Youda Sushi Chef for $19.99 at a bunch of different casual game websites. My favorite just happens to be Gamehouse.com. If you belong to one of the many discount clubs offered by these game sites, you can get it for as low as $5.99.
