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Sushi is my favourite food, Sushi Go Party is one of my favourite party games, so I was very excited to see what Sushi Go Spin Some for Dim Sum would bring to the table. Let’s grab our chopsticks and dig in!
Rolling the rice
Sushi Go Spin Some For Dim Sum set up is simple - hand each player a menu board and 4 chopsticks tokens, place the spin table in the middle of the table, shuffle the cards and distribute them into even piles in the steamer baskets and pop the squishy dim sum bun in the centre. Make sure each player is clear about which plate is in front of them by placing their colour plate token in front of that steamer basket.
Starting with the first player, you choose a card and place it into one of the twelve spaces around your menu board. If you choose to take the card in the steamer basket in front of your plate, you take it for free. If you would prefer to take another card, this is where the spinning in Sushi Go Spin for Some Dim Sum will come in. You can spin the table in either direction but it will cost you one chopsticks token per steamer basket you pass by. If you don’t have any chopsticks tokens, then you must take the card in the steamer basket in front of you.
Whenever you take a steamed bun card you get to take the squishy bun. On a subsequent turn you can use the bun to spin the table as many places as you like for free before returning the bun to the centre. If you take a steamed bun card and the squishy bun is with another player you can take it from them.
Once all players have 12 Dim Sum cards surrounding their menus, the game is over and it’s time to count up the points. The player with the most points wins.
What’s on the menu?
With the game play being that simple it all comes down to picking the best cards to go around your menu. The menu lists the different ways each card scores. All of the player menus are the same. This was a little surprising to me after having played a lot of Sushi Go Party and enjoying the mix and match of putting different cards into play, so that each game is a little different. Sushi Go Spin Some for Dim Sum seemed a step back from that.
There are 10 ways to score points listed on the menu. Collecting small or large sesame balls give you 1 and 2 points respectively. Turnip cake you only score on if you end with an odd number at the end. The egg tarts are cumulative scorers gaining 1/2/5/9/15 the more tarts you have. The shumai, shrimp and chive dumplings all score separately but are very similar. They score based in sets. You need pairs of the Chive dumplings, three’s of the shrimp and sets of four of the shumai dumplings. There are also special plates which score 4 points if you have all the items listed on that special plate elsewhere around your menu. Finally, you score for left over chopsticks tokens, 1 point for every 2 tokens.
Yummy or not?
I played this with my husband and two children. The children both really enjoyed it. They were drawn in by the spinning board element and the adorable squishy bun. Getting the squishy bun was one of the main focuses for them. It was quick to play and with all the cards out in the open it made it much more accessible for children. My 9 year old has played Sushi Go Party quite a bit with us and enjoys that. This was a great way to bring our 6 year old into the game.
As an adult, I much prefer Sushi Go Party and wouldn’t feel the need to play Sushi Go Spin Some For Dim Sum over it. However, I think the point of Sushi Go Spin Some For Dim Sum is that it’s a cute, simpler version with spinning and squishy buns to draw children in and I’m ok with that, because it worked. They had a lot of fun, they laughed and squished the bun and spun the table to get what they wanted. The artwork is very cute and overall it’s a bright and light game.
For the children it’s more straight forward that each time we played, the menu was the same so they could learn what the cards did and what was a good idea. A great game to start them with light strategy. For me, I felt with some different menu options with different cards to mix in on different games it would have given better replay ability.
I feel the point of playing games as a family is that everyone has fun and enjoys spending time together. That’s exactly what happens when we play Sushi Go Spin Some For Dim Sum. May the laughing, spinning and squishy bun squishing continue!