Plot: What’s it about?
Sushi Castle tries to shatter the mold of a twin stick shooters, which is noble since the genre is overrun in the X-Box Live Indie Games. The premise is to take the twin stick shooter into the dungeons, which is about as fresh a take on the genre as you’ll find. You take control of a ninja, who must navigate a series of randomly generated dungeons, killing and looting. The random angle is also great, as it adds replay value and keeps playthroughs fresh. You still use the thumb sticks to move and unleash your weapons, but doesn’t feel like a retread because of the visual design and of course, being a ninja instead of a space craft or zombie hunter. I have read some criticism of Sushi Castle being similar to Binding of Isaac, but games often share elements and Sushi Castle is able to stand on its own as a fun game. The frenetic pace and combat mechanics ensure it stands out from BoI, so the criticisms were not well founded.
As you progress through the dungeons, you face a number of enemies and don’t worry, it isn’t the same handful of foes in each room. Sushi Castle boasts over twenty enemy types and of course, comes complete with boss encounters. So between the depth of the enemy roster and the random dungeon, Sushi Castle is a game you can play numerous times and still have new elements to discover. This is a twin stick shooter, so of course weapons are of utmost importance to the game experience. The game has no shortage of damage dealers to wield, including some downright hilarious food related ones. You have a wealth of equipment to uncover as well, which is used to increase your abilities. As you should be able to tell, a lot has been put into making Sushi Castle an in depth experience. The mechanics might seem simple, but there is a lot to see, do, and murder in this game. This is a tough, but very fun game that will have you coming back over and again. So if you enjoy a good challenge, Sushi Castle is worth checking out.
Video: How does it look?
As this game was created by Milkstone Studios, I expected a polished product and I was right. Milkstone has some of the best looking games on the Indie Games front and Sushi Castle continues that trend. The visual design is clean and simple, yet has ample visual flair to dazzle your eyes. The cartoon inspired designs are fun to watch, with cool characters and of course, plenty of blood splattering all over the place.
Audio: How does it sound?
The sound design is solid too, with cartoon inspired sound effects and solid music. You don’t find a lot of good music in the Indie Games, but Sushi Castle has a fun soundtrack. I was never annoyed or tempted to mute the sound, which is a real triumph for an Indie Games release. The sound effects are on the mark as well, with just the right amount of silliness to the elements. So in the end, this sound design is quite good.
