Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido Has Shockingly Poor Launch In Japan

It is way too expensive.

Codename: STEAM 2

I'm not shocked, it's a decent at best mobile game being ported onto the Switch at FULL price. I would have been much genuinely shocked if the game managed to sell more than 15,000 copies. Doesn't have to unique and 'wow' value that Splatoon had or the excellent timing that Arms had. I'd imagine the game would have sold marginally better if it was only half price.
I'm all for Nintendo trying new things and especially creating new IP'S, but they should really be more than just a small puzzle game about sushi.

I bought the Switch version.
The game was quite entertaining, but $ 50 for an HD 2D game with poor 3D background (on the Map), i thought it was pretty overpriced.
Better it sold with $ 30 for both 3DS & Switch version.

Not THAT shocking. I mean, I know japan was popular for its Sushi and Anime arts style, but not really shocking.

I loved the demo but with everything else that's coming out on Switch, life-expenses, and just other things, I can't justify a $69.99 CDN game when the 3DS version is just $49.99 CDN. I would prefer it on Switch though but it was definitely overpriced for what it is, just an HD version of a 3DS game. And the fact that it wasn't included in any of the E3 discounts (because it released prior to E3) & the fact that at most I could get $4 knocked off with My Nintendo Gold Coins, it just doesn't seem worth it right now. I'll pick the game up when it receives a more realistic price-point, or I'll wait to find the game used.

I’m not sure who’d want to pay $50 for a puzzle game. Definitely not me.

Something to do with the price per chance? If it was say, £24.99 I’d have bought it in a heartbeat. By forty notes? Nooooope!

Sushi Striker has a very large amount of content and is very addictive. Mark my words, it would have sold so much better at $30. It will inevitably become an underrated gem down the line.

I played the demo and thought it was absurdly fun...but not worth $50. $35 would be the absolute most they could charge for it.

$50 is way too much for this game. It should be a $20 eshop game.

This was the first game in awhile that I was actually audibly stunned when I saw how much the MRSP was.

not really that shocking. i've enjoy the game, but i'm not really surprised that it's not a big seller.

The demo was ok but the characters were obnoxious. I didn't expect it to be a hit here but figured it would sell better in Japan.

Welcome to 2018 where everybody calls a good puzzle game overpriced because there are "free" mobile game and everybody forgets how those earn their money.

Great game, sucks it sold badly but these days people expect such stuff for "free" with microtransactions it seems, it's not the 90s anymore...

Ah well, nothing to do about it because even if it was €/$20 people would still say it's to expensive.

(€50 is too much but my point is that nowdays any price above "free" would be too much for most people because smartphones)

The only 'shocking' aspect is that so many people paid that price for it.

Deliberately overpriced so that when the price is cut 50% people start thinking £20 is reasonable, rather than waiting for it to drop to £5 if it launches at £20.

Do puzzle games sell well out the gate anymore? I feel like this will have legs. I know I still have to pick it up.

So does this mean we ignore it as a new IP so we can say Nintendo doesn't do new IPs enough?

I'm enjoying it alot, but it does feel like a mobile game priced at $50. It'll sell so poorly that I doubt Nintendo will issue another print run at retail. We could be looking at what will be the rarest first party Switch game twenty years from now.

I really like it. Gameplay's fun. Story's predictable but its cheese lovable.

Money talks. And at $50, all it’s talking about is “nope”

With new IPs some you win, some you lose. The Switch version can be bought for £35, so clearly Nintendo think it's a second tier level IP, but it's still to high for what it is.

@Ryu_Niiyama I doubt it.

Puzzle games sell well on systems if they are cheap, €50 is expensive for this but I know too much people that think puzzle games should be "free" because they are on smartphones (and totally ignoring the €99.99 in app buys)

The only puzzle game exception is Puyo Puyo Tetris, it sold well because we don't get Puyo Puyo games that often in the west, but even that game is like €25/€30 at launch.

I love Nintendo but they definitely bend their fans over whenever possible. Agree with most commenters here that $50 is way too much for a puzzle game. On that note they should also only be charging $50 for their digital releases and $60 for physical copies to make up for extra card costs. In saying all this I'll still buy most of their 1st & 2nd party games

@Rayquaza2510 welp, time will tell.

@pjzelda that tenner extra doesn't count for Nintendo, 3rd parties need to pay license fee for using physical cartridge, Nintendo doesn't because they hold the license.

Same with Sony at least, but the costs are way lower because of blu-ray.

@Ryu_Niiyama indeed

@Magician Now I kind of want it in case it becomes a collector’s item. XD

I’ll be honest: this should have been a £15 download, not a full-price £50 title.
For £50 I get Breath of the Wild; the value of all other games is judged accordingly.

I'm sure that it's a fun game, but that price is laughable! There was no way that it would ever take off at $50, considering----look at what you can get for $50. This is a $20 download. With the right marketing, it could have taken off at that price.

Funny how that works. Over price a game, get poor sales.

It deserves to perform poorly. It is absurdly overpriced. Nintendo needs to learn that these types of games should, at most, be $30 at launch. People are voting with their wallets and I applaud them for that.

I honestly can't imagine why this didn't launch at the same sort of budget price as something like Captain Toad. It would still be overpriced by $20 or so, but it'd be a bit less ridiculous.

@Yorumi Because one weird puzzle game about sushi failed? The majority of their full priced Wii U ports have exceeded the sales of the originals. They have absolutely no incentive to lower their prices across the board.

I know Nintendo have been hurting after the financial bomb that was the Wii u but they really need to be careful with their pricing for this generation as it really will put people off. I can’t remember the last time I bought a puzzle game for that price. Bought puyo puyo Tetris for the switch at half that and my last puzzle game before that was probably zoo keeper on the ds(which I love) but that wasn’t full price either. Bizarre

@Phin68

Except that Codename STEAM had a lot of western lore and inspiration. I mean the main character was Abe Lincoln. I was kinda shocked that they released it in Japan to be honest. This is obviously very culture friendly to Japan so I fear that's a lot worse than STEAM unfortunately. The price point didn't help it though I'm sure.

Q) Did you pick up a copy of Sushi Striker?

A) I did, the 3DS version specifically, and was very surprised it was only £30 at my GAME store. It's a first party Nintendo title, so I was fully prepared to pay £40-£50 for it.

It's a fun game, a surprising amount of gameplay elements within it's core gameplay, but they are introduced at a decent pace. I must admit, I'm a little mixed on some of the rules and have been terrible at doing the Puzzle Huts. I do feel it was released at a bit of a poor time though, I had to stop playing to watch and record my thoughts on the E3 presentation.

I see people are bringing up pricing a lot, comparing a game once again with Breath of the Wild, which is something I've never understood. I feel what you're willing to pay for is entirely based on your personal preference or enjoyment. People bring up the amount of content of Breath of the Wild, but as someone who doesn't like the game at all or it's direction, I can have far more fun less content rich games such as Sushi Striker; thus being more value for money for me. I'm more than happy to pay full price for these games, hoping they'll be ones I enjoy based on what I've learnt and researched about them prior to purchasing.

The demo left me scratching my head. It seemed very limited yet also excessively manic. Without the demo I might have been fooled into buying it!

Not shocking.

I want this game, but it definitely needs a price drop. Not to say that puzzle games aren't worth as much as others, but it still seems high. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Puyo Puyo Tetris $40 at launch? They seem fairly comparable.

$50 is just a weird price point. At that price I'd expect most people to wait for it to drop if they're on the fence.

I enjoyed the demo, but not enough to pay a retail price. I'd feel reasonable paying $30 or $40. But there's enough other games at 50+ that I'm more interested in buying.

Just my opinion, but anyone who thinks those of us getting sticker shock are being big whiners simply needs to try and understand that some of us place a different value on how our money is spent. That's not to say people buying this at the current price don't understand money, but rather that not everyone's priorities and considerations are the same. It's all about enjoying a purchase, anyway.

No one wants to pay full price for what is basically a f2p mobile game

I have this game downloaded to my Switch and it's a good game.

I'm sure it's good. But it seems unlikely that it's better than Celeste. It seems unlikely that it's better than Stardew Valley. It seems unlikely that it's better than Golf Story. And it seems practically impossible that it's better than all three combined, despite costing the same price.

The sheer quality and variety of games on the eShop really makes this a hard one to justify. Games like BotW have raised the bar as to what people expect from a retail title. Games like Celeste and Stardew have raised the bar as to what people expect from a download title. Against this backdrop, it's not much of a surprise that poor old Sushido is struggling to sell itself.

@DockEllisD geez, it barely placed in the top 20 on the 3DS which has over 25 million systems sold in Japan!

They could have given the cross buy option at that price, or sold it at half price, but Nintendo is quite presumptuous lately. Face the consequences, Nintendo

Mmm... £40 for Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido or £10.99 for Hollow Knight. Decisions, decisions...

@Curlybobs Wait, Hollow Night is THAT cheap in comparison? No wonder this did so poorly.

Cya
Raziel-chan

@Yorumi I'm sure the suits at Nintendo have looked at the data when pricing these games. Even if they get some people off the fence (like Wii U owners hesitant to double-dip), they'd probably need a lot more people to buy the games to make up for the lost $20 - 30 per sale. Combine that with a still relatively small player base, and maybe it would lose them money.

Remember, for a lot of new Switch owners, these Wii U ports are effectively new games. If I didn't own a Wii U, I'd have been all over Tropical Freeze on Switch.

That’s what they get for trying to charge nearly full price for this game.

It looks great but not something I'd want to spend that much on. Looks more like a phone game.

Its too much. Looks like a $20 budget game. But price seems to be an issue for Nintendo in general this gen. DK has no right to be a full priced release with little new content, and Capt Toad is also launching at the same price as it did on Wii U with little new content, etc

$50 for a mobile style game? Sorry Nintendo even I wouldn't touch this. This is a game you could easily turn into a mini-game and just include on Mario Party or Wario Ware.

Was doomed to start with. Too japenese for the Eastern market

Sushi Striker is the biggest 1st party commercial failure since Codename STEAM.

And to think this game was once a 3DS exclusive...

If the game was priced like Snipperclips, I'm sure things would have turned out better, but alas...

it is actually surprisingly fun but it needs to be 25 physical at the most.

It’s a great little fun game but is expensive.

@Yorumi Believe it or not, I do actually think the people who intimately know Nintendo's finances and demographic trends are probably more well-informed on how to make a profit for their company than random people on the internet like us.

Nintendo is in last place... in what regard? It's the richest company in Japan, last I heard. The Switch broke all sorts of sales records in its first year on the market in comparison to previous Nintendo consoles.

But sure, the people behind the scenes are clearly idiots because one minor game failed.

With regard to sales? Nintendo has established itself as a sort of premium brand, sort of like Apple, and people who buy games on their systems are already used to paying normal prices for games. Which means, for example, indies can actually move a lot of units on the eshop without the sort of 'race to the bottom' pricing you'd find on PS4 or especially PC. It's why so many indie devs are clamoring to release their games on the Switch now.

I loved the demo and so did my wife but 50 bucks is way too much for a game like this. I will definitely purchase this on sale or pre owned or something . Max 20 dollar purchase.

Apart from the price, the name doesnt exactly roll off the tongue. This for £40 .... or the fantastic Hollow Knight (75+ hrs of sublime Metroidvania gaming) for £10. No contest!

The game doesn’t look appealing to me and I imagine many others.

I've really enjoyed my time with it so far. A lot of fun on the 3DS but yeah a bit expensive

That’s a shame. It’s actually a really good game. I believe most of the people saying it should be $20 haven’t actually played the full game. It’s very similar to Theatrhythm (same developer) in that its a simple concept but put in a great package and a lot of content. I guess Theatrhythm was okay at full price because of the Final Fantasy name.

no shock at all...
I tried the demo and found it almost free-mobile-game level bad –saving for the animation and story, but the game itself sucks fishtails

For that much money I expect games like Zelda BOTW or Mario Odyssey.

I bought it for my GF. She loves it. I think that alone is worth the price.

It's good, but it should be 30$ physically on both platforms, or less digitally.

I am not surprised at all.

The game might be worth that in terms of how much fun playtime you get, but the premise and art style are completely mismatched with the format.

I love puzzle games, but I wouldn’t pay full price for Tetris.

@Yorumi YES. THIS. I don't think they realise just how much money they're asking for. I can't afford more than about 5 new games a year so I have to pick very carefully. It's such a shame because this looks fun but at that price I just can't justify it.

The trouble with Sushi Striker is it LOOKS like a mobile game that should be free. I wrote it off until I played the demo. It's more like PxD as an RPG with a puzzle battle system. It's not $50 of cool but is cool, and not really mobile-game like. But nothing about how it looks will convince people to spend more than $10 for it.

@Yorumi I do have to agree with this, though I'm not sure it's always as green grass as it seems. Any game you can get on PC, PSN, or MSS, you can get on Nintendo for $15-40 more. Nintendo's kind of the Apple of gaming. Which sucks for consumers, but I suppose is a victory in the industry. Microsoft's sales don't run as deep as Sony's and the PC stores, though, which surprises me. This week they do with the big E3 sale but most week's it's rows of farm simulator dlc while PSN has 7 pages of blockbusters on sale.

Nintendo is definitely the "premium price" platform unfortunately.

BUT there's a flip side. The other publishers have set market expectations to buy games for peanuts....which is why they've all resorted to finding sinister back door ways to extract the money from them while looking like heroes on the surface.

Same dance different tempo.

@Ralizah Personally I'm not quite comfortable with "Nintendo as an Apple-like premium brand". That's not what Nintendo has traditionally been and it's a fairly uncomfortable place for it to be now. It's getting to the point where I'm buying exclusives or games I prefer to be portable on Switch, and am getting everything else for 1/4 the price elsewhere. It's not the way I wanted to do it but it's becoming more economically manageable that way. I say this, as I pre-order my Lets Go Pikachu and ball bundle.....

We don't actually know what price it launched for in Japan. Here in the UK it's roughly £35 on Switch and £30 on 3DS. So not full price, but I can understand why some people would feel like it's too expensive. Personally I'm enjoying it a lot and feel it's worth it, but I do adore the characters, music, and gameplay.

No offense, the game is fun and everything (judging by the demo), but the $50 price tag is just insulting. Even $20 is still expensive for what it is.

They should have gone with the free-to-play model with in-game purchases. Or at least a free-to-start with a fair price, like Stretchmo.

I can’t feel bad for them. Nintendo took the lesson with Super Mario Run’s price/model but refused to learn from it.

@RainbowGazelle It’s ¥5.378, (approximately US$49) in Japan.

Since when Nintendo Switch owners complain about price I mean Switch itself it's a premium console they even buy cardboard price at 80 and never complain about price before still surprising to see a game base on sushi not doing great in Japan I wonder why

@The_Pixel_King its £34.99 in most places i got mine £35.99 from GAME

It looks like a stupid mobile game that I wouldn't even play for free, so not surprised.

@Chayshirin yeah and it lame lol should of only been like £9.99 max!

The price didn't bother me, it was more a matter of getting the controls down 😅

@Chayshirin It is $42 or $32 with Amazon Prime or Best Buy Gamers Unlocked. It is a great game indeed.

@gamerchick_22 Same with me. I absolutely love this game.

@NintyNate Nintendo has to make money too. Lol.

That’s because it is shockingly expensive

@SuperWeird It is not a mobile game. It is a fully fledged experience.

It is a great game, if people buy this game then Nintendo will make a sequel and have more confidence to release new IPs.

People say that they want new IPs, but then they don't support the new IPs. This is why we get releases of Pokemon, Zelda, and Mario. Hope Code Name Steam gets revived on the Switch or gets a sequel. I will be very distraught if this does not get dlc or a sequel. Musashi, Jinrai, and Springman for Smash!

@GKO900 I fully agree. It is a great game. Hopefully we get even more content.

@RainbowGazelle It is cheaper with Amazon, plus it was $10 cheaper than full retail price. I don't get why people are complaining so much about the price. It is a wonderful game. I too adore the characters, music, and gameplay. I played it on both the Nintendo 3DS and Switch.

@NEStalgia Totally agree, lootboxes, incomplete games, dumb dlc not included, and season passes are the plague.

@Findonovan95 It is a great game, I personally have loved my time with the game. Musashi and Jinrai for Smash!

@Pod I disagree, the game is a masterpiece.

@Devlind I love the game too. Glad to hear that.

@nagash It is a deep and rewarding game.

@sr_388 Agree.

@admwllms I love it as well.

@BensonUii Lol. True.

@Darlinfan Me too. Bought the game on Amazon and don't regret it one bit.

@DigiF4N True. Great game for sure!

@iescalie1 yeah not that much though, should have put the effort in for Metroid, F-ZERO, starfox etc

@RushDawg It is priced right in my opinion. I am personally loving the game on both systems.

@NintyNate True.

@justin233 True. Hope it doesn't ultimately fall like Code Name Steam did.

@GoldenGamer88 Me too! It is a great new IP.

@Magician Hope not. Lol.

@Paraka Totally agree with you.

@20wonders Fully agree with your statement.

Well, I did my part... bought both the 3ds and the Switch version!

...3ds is no contest the way to go

@Yorumi yeah. Though they do have a point. I'll never buy a don't have full price again. I know it's half price in a year. Ms games I'll just get game pass. 2 fill price games a year let's me play the exclusives and other random stuff with a20% discount to buy. Nintendo i pay full price because i know i have no choice.

True. The game isn't Nintendo's finest IP. It lt was just a small Nintendo IP for the fans who loves this kind of genre.
I am not shocked at all. I enjoyed the gameplay though.

This game is lovely as a 3DS game but I really didn't like it on the Switch at all.

Mario Tennis Aces' launch sales will be interesting to see. I expect it to be the highest-rated Mario sports game in quite some time. Hopefully, sales reflect my optimism.

Honestly, I was shocked that this is a Nintendo game. I could swear - really - that it was an Indie game.

I received an email when this game released and thought "Oh well, nintendo helping great indie games, that's nice".

Shockingly it is "a new IP from Nintendo". C'mon, it's a genuine mobile game.

Doesn't seem too surprising, really. It's $50!!

I played the demo, and I actually really loved it. It's really fun, and it was way funnier than I thought it would be. Part of that comes from the ridiculous seriousness they give to the story, which is based on a crazy idea of a war about sushi. It's funny how dramatic it is!

Is it worth $50 though?? I don't know. Also, I keep hearing about how it's super polished and all that. Has anybody actually looked at the backgrounds on parts of the game?? It's like a nintendo 64 polygon fiesta rezzed up to be sharp and crisp, and it looks SUPER junky. I wouldn't call that a high level of polish. I turned it on, saw those, and actually said out loud "what in the world?" Then I played it, and loved it.

Worth money? Yes. Worth $50...? I'm not sold on that part.

@Rayquaza2510 I was talking about first party games specifically. I should have been more detailed with my comment. Agree 3rd party needs to charge the extra for licensing but first and second party offerings should be cheaper digitally. In fact they should be cheaper than even blu-ray because of zero manufacturing costs.

@westman98 loved the demo. Agree I hope it does well. Want to see Mario Strikers, Golf and even something unexpected like bowling but Tennis sales will probably determine if those happen.

I'm glad that it has a retail release and all, but for commercial sustainability's sake, it should have launched at the lowest pricing tier (being $AU$40) for Switch games if something with such simplistic and repetitive gameplay was going to have a chance of surviving.

I imagine that it may fare a little better in the West, where sushi is considered a more exotic food.

Oh come on, did you really believe this game would be a hit?

@iescalie1

If it is priced right, why is the Switch version $10 more than the 3DS version?

Had it been released at a cheaper price, it would have sold more. Honestly I'm surprised it was priced so high. The art style is kinda bad at times, from the demo I played. Plus it just feels like a mobile game vibe. Release it at 20 dollars and you got more people wanting it.

I bought it with GCU at Best Buy to lessen the pain a bit. After playing the Switch demo, I went with the 3DS version. So far, it’s been fun, colorful and wacky. For me, it was worth the $32.

Was hoping for little nightmare to do well. Blaze Blue Switch is done I guess also.. VITA is like the Dreamcast

One way on writing about the Japan sale chart without actually showing it 🤣

@DockEllisD TY!

You're shocked? This game looks and plays like a smart phone game. The day they announced the Switch port I wondered why they even bothered, over other/better 3DS games like Codename S.T.E.A.M, Ever Oasis and Tank Troopers.

I had no trouble paying the price for pyro tetris but this is ridiculous.

Played the demo and was unimpressed. I’d play this if it were $5, but any more seems like too much. If this really is like Codename: STEAM, it’ll get down to that sweet low price I’m looking for.

LOL Japanese don't like Sushi.

Looks like a future cult classic/underrated gem.
They overdid the anime cutscenes, driving the price up too much. Animation costs money while being nothing but filler. It's more bearable than constant text (as anyone who has played Tiny Metal can attest), but it's ultimately just fluff over what's a "mobile style" gameplay.

@iescalie1
Oh, I'm not saying it's anything but a masterpiece. I'm just talking from a marketing and demographics point of view. Business business business. and numbers.

Tis a great game, and there is a surprising amount of good content... I just feel that this game is the dictionary definition of “flew under the radar”. Even Nintendo’s, I recon.

I'm really enjoying this game. The story and characters are charming, and the premise is just goofy enough to be Nintendo. I really don't understand all the comparisons to a mobile game, as this game has a surprising amount of depth to it. In addition, the game and cutscenes are incredibly polished. At first glance I also thought it was over priced, but at about 10 hours in, I really feel like it is well worth my money.

@RushDawg The Switch is the hot item right now, that is why. Plus the game looks better on Switch. It is just ten dollars more. There are more controller options on Switch also.

@Farts_Ahoy I bought both too. I like both versions.

@iescalie1 You're REALLY stretching to justify that $10 increase. You had it right the first time though. The Switch is a hot item and Nintendo is trying to take advantage of that by WAY overcharging for a game that could easily be mistaken for a mobile game.

I'm sure it's a good game and I'm sure it deserves an audience, but Nintendo needs to learn that charging $50 for a this type of game is just WAY too much. If any other publisher pulled this stunt, there wouldn't even be a debate.

In any case, it looks like Japan is voting with their wallet on this one. I suspect the West will do the same.

@RushDawg Hopefully it sells decently.

@RushDawg With Prime the game becomes cheaper, like $42.39 which is like 3DS's price with tax. The game has wacky characters, excellent music, and great animations. Plus Jinrai is a super cool and cute sushi sprite.

@iescalie1 Every game is cheaper with Prime, that's not the point. The point is that this game is quite overpriced for what it is.

I actually haven't grabbed a copy of Sushi Strikers yet, but that's mainly because I've been busy. I WANT to, but something keeps coming up that makes me have to put it off. Probably going to grab it by this weekend, though I'll probably be hopping in and out of it this weekend until the Party Crash is over.

On the sales, I know the pricing may not have been the best (I need to play it myself to find out), but I'm actually more surprised that the 3DS version didn't sell as well as the Switch edition. I'm getting it on Switch, but I figured the 3DS' stylus and lower screen would be more appealing to people. I think the timing also worked against the game-I would have aimed for July or September, when there aren't as many blockbusters or big announcements so that it would have more attention.

Really curious to see how it does in the West. Fingers crossed that, either way, Nintendo pushes the game with things like sales, featuring it in the eshop, etc. (maybe something crazy like having Musashi as an assist trophy, I can see him tossing sushi plates at opponents, but that's WAY out there) Otherwise, I'll probably just try chatting about it when I can to get peope to try it out. I always get antsy about hidden gems like this, I figure I might as well talk about them instead of just scanning sites for opinions and numbers

Lol: Real Japanese don't like all you can eat buffets for Sushi (its a western thing). Japanese always eat Sushi with respect, 1 or 2. Not hundreds. And they don't fling their empty plates either!

I've been waiting to buy this on the eShop but it's still at the full price of £34.99! Other games have easily had a discount at some point but in the face of the decline of the 3Ds, you'd think Nintendo would give 3DS users a break and start flogging more software online but no. You cn pick up a physical copy of this for £10 or so second-hand or online so i'm thinking of doing this. I much prefer having downloaded software on my 3DS but i don't mind having a cartridge, preferably for non-UK sold European titles (like Tekken 3D Edition) or old DS games.
Nintendo needs to really do a rehaul of their 3DS eShop, especially in pricing, if they want to still make money from their limited European catalogue >_<