OBJECTIVE OF SUSHI GO!: Build the highest-scoring combination of sushi dishes across three rounds.
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 2 to 5 players
MATERIALS: 108 playing cards, pencil and paper for scoring
TYPE OF GAME: Card game (drafting / set-collection)
AUDIENCE: 8+
OVERVIEW OF SUSHI GO!
Phil Walker-Harding designed this card game for Gamewright back in 2013, and it’s still one of the fastest ways to fill fifteen minutes at a game table. Sushi Go! won Best General Card Game at the 2015 UK Games Expo Awards and picked up a nomination for the Origins Award that same year, which says a lot for a game built around picking one card and passing the rest along.
The idea is simple. Build the best sushi meal you can from whatever cards land in your hand, one card at a time. There’s a catch though: you never see your full hand twice. Every card you don’t take goes straight to the player next to you, and the hand coming back to you has already been picked over by everyone else. That tension between grabbing what you need and denying your neighbour their combo is the whole Sushi Go Card Game in a nutshell. These Sushi Go Rules haven’t changed much since the original 2013 release, so whichever edition you own, the scoring stays the same.
SETUP
Shuffle the full deck before anyone looks at a card. Deal size depends on how many people are at the table:
- 2 players: 10 cards each
- 3 players: 9 cards each
- 4 players: 8 cards each
- 5 players: 7 cards each
Set the rest of the deck face-down within reach. You’ll deal from it twice more once the first two rounds are scored. Grab a pen and paper too, since someone needs to track everyone’s running total across the whole Sushi Go Game.
HOW TO PLAY SUSHI GO
A full game runs across three rounds, and each one plays out the same way.
DRAFTING AND PASSING
Everyone looks at their hand, picks one card, and lays it face-down at the same time. Once every player has chosen, flip the cards face-up together. Then pass your whole remaining hand to the player on your left and pick up whatever’s been passed to you from the right.
Keep repeating that: pick a card, reveal, pass, pick up. Once nobody has cards left, that Sushi Go Round is finished and it’s time to add up points.
CHOPSTICKS
If a Chopsticks card is sitting in front of you from an earlier turn, you can spend it to grab two cards instead of one. Take your first card as usual, call out “Sushi Go!” before the reveal, then take a second card and lay it face-down too. Once both are revealed, slide the Chopsticks card back into your hand so it gets passed along and someone else can use it later. You can only cash in one Chopsticks card per turn, even if you’re holding more than one.
THE SUSHI GO CARDS
Here’s where the strategy actually lives. Every type of card scores differently, and knowing the payoffs changes what’s worth fighting for.
Tempura pays off in pairs. One card is worth nothing, two are worth 5 points, and a second pair in the same round scores another 5.
Sashimi is the gamble of the deck. Two of them sitting in front of you score exactly zero. Land a third one and the whole set jumps to 10 points.
Dumplings reward greed. One dumpling gets you 1 point, and each extra one adds more than the last: 3, 6, 10, and 15 points for five or more.
Maki Rolls show one, two, or three rolls printed on the card. Add up the icons at the end of the round. Whoever has the most gets 6 points, second place gets 3. Tie for first and you split the 6 evenly, with nobody claiming second place at all.
Nigiri and Wasabi work as a pair. Egg Nigiri is worth 1 point on its own, Salmon is worth 2, Squid is worth 3. Drop a Wasabi card down first and the next Nigiri you place on top of it triples in value, so a Squid Nigiri on Wasabi is suddenly worth 9 points. Only one Nigiri can sit on each Wasabi, though nothing stops you from playing several Wasabi cards in one round if you can back them all up.
Pudding breaks the pattern completely. It scores nothing during the round. Keep every Pudding card you draft in front of you instead of discarding it, because these Sushi Go Cards only get counted once, right at the very end of the game.
SCORING A ROUND
Once every hand is empty, tally up everything except Pudding and write down each player’s score. Discard the round’s cards face-up, but leave Pudding cards sitting in front of their owner. Deal a fresh hand from the leftover deck, same size as before, and start the next round.
END OF GAME
After round three is scored, a handful of cards will still be sitting in the draw pile. Ignore them completely, they don’t come into play.
Now count Pudding. Whoever has the most scores an extra 6 points, split evenly if it’s a tie. Whoever has the fewest, including anyone with zero, loses 6 points, again split if there’s a tie.
Add it all up. The player with the highest total across three rounds wins the game. If two players are tied for first, whoever holds more Pudding cards takes it.
SUSHI GO PARTY AND OTHER VERSIONS
Gamewright didn’t stop at one box. Sushi Go Party scales up to eight players and lets the table build a custom menu before each game by swapping in different card sets, so no two sessions play quite the same. Sushi Roll trades cards for dice: roll a handful, keep one, pass the rest, and score it the same way. There’s also a 2023 spin-table edition called Sushi Go!: Spin Some for Dim Sum, which swaps the drafting mechanic for a lazy Susan full of baskets.
FAQ
How many people can play Sushi Go?
The original box supports 2 to 5 players. Sushi Go Party pushes that up to 8.
How long does a Sushi Go Game actually take?
Around 15 minutes once everyone knows the cards. First-timers usually need a bit longer while they work out what Wasabi does.
Do I have to put a Nigiri on Wasabi if I already have one out?
Yes. If a Wasabi card is already sitting in front of you and you draft a Nigiri, it has to go on top of the Wasabi rather than off to the side.
Why doesn’t Pudding score during the round?
That’s the whole twist of the dessert cards. Everyone forgets about them for two rounds, then the fight for Pudding majority at the very end can flip a close game.
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