For those of us of a certain age (think dinosaurs), one of the great pleasures of staying home sick from school was getting to watch "The Price is Right" with Bob Barker (yes, the Bob Barker, accept no substitutes). Why? Because it's fun to watch ordinary people do extraordinarily stupid things for cheap prizes and occasional cash, that's why. One of the best things on "The Price is Right" was the game Plinko, a strange game that involved dropping large tokens down a field of pegs, watching them bounce around and fall into areas at the bottom that involved money. Where is this all leading, you might ask? Well, Joey Betz and Jimp have teamed up to recreate the insane joy of Plinko in a flash game involving a lonely cat and a lot of sushi. Welcome to the bizarre world that is Sushi Cat, one of the strangest physics puzzles imaginable!
The story of our hero begins when he spots a lovely female cat in a window. Is she real? Stuffed? Who knows. All we know is that the poor kitty cannot get through the automatic doors into her building due to his slight weight. What's a neko to do? Why, gorge on as much sushi as possible to bulk up enough to open those doors!
The game itself is simple: you have a small number of bouncy, round cats, a playing field full of sushi and peg obstacles, and bins at the bottom. To clear a round you must drop your cats, one at a time, so that they eat the maximum amount of sushi they can on the way down. Fill up the cat's belly and you've passed on to the next round. After several rounds of sushi madness you rejoin the story of the increasingly fatter feline and his quest for companionship. Does he find the gal of his dreams? You gotta play to find out. Each round increases the difficulty as the obstacles become bigger and start to move about the screen. Fortunately there are power ups as you go on that give you extra cats; allow our feline hero to inhale the sushi in the surrounding area; or blast our forlorn feline friend out of a cannon to another area of the screen.
Although there's an enormous amount of fun and whimsy watching the progress of the bouncing kitty, there's not actually a lot of gameplay to be had. Once you've dropped the cat, it's all up to gravity and random chance, as there's no way to control the descent other than picking the right spot to release him from. Does this make Sushi Cat a bad game? Not at all. Between the kicking music, the fantastic anime-like visuals and animations, and the sheer fun of watching a round kitty cat power suck sushi make up for a lot. Not the greatest game around, but one of the most entertaining time-wasters imaginable. Surreal, silly mayhem in 15 levels. Just the sort of thing to put a smile on your face and brighten up your day.
Pretty short game, but it's fun for the time that it lasts. Because of the various level designs (and the shortness), it doesn't really get repetitive. Awesome upbeat music by Kevin MacLeod (how many games has he done the music for?).
And it's obvious by the end that the pink cat is
stuffed
. Then again, by the end, so is the blue one (though in a different sense :P).
Also, NOM NOM NOM SUSHI CAT IS HUNGRY
My first cat got lucky on level 13 and ate most of the sushi. Now he's huge and can't fit between the moving pieces to reach the bins. I've been waiting for about 15 minutes for random luck to squeeze him through.
I really wish I didn't like this game.
The artwork makes me cringe.
Way too cute, and highly addictive as well. Simple game play, lovable graphics, and decent story go a long way for this title. Did I mention the music?? The first are especially sounds like a Japanese-esque Sublime style. Everyone in the house is now stuck on this game. =^.^=
Dweasel, the same thing happened to me. I had to restart the game (it will save the levels). I actually had to maneuver so that the cats didn't eat too much sushi on each turn this time. I started down the middle with the cannon and shot straight down to the bins, that took about 5 or 6 off the screen.
Cat finally made it through.
Actually, both Plinko and Sushi Cat were inspired by a popular Japanese game called pachinko.
There's even a tag for it on this site, I believe.
Heh!
Fun for a while, but I found the movements so slow. Great music! - an interesting combo of reggae and japanese.
Cute game. I like the different special sushi.
I had a cat get stuck on level 14, between a moving circle and the wall. Fortunately, one of the buttons in the lower right corner is Reset Level.
This is a great game! Way too short in my opinion, I could have played all night. I'm a big pachinko fan so this is right up my alley. Also the music and artwork were nice. The theme song is really good and I love the cute cat animation! The story is cute but way too predictable. :P Good level design. The middle half of the game has a terrible color scheme though. Hope they make a sequel! OFFICIAL UNOFFICIAL SCORE: 7/10
On the level with six spinning pink bars, I tried to get the special vacuum sushi for a while, but gave up after about ten minutes. I didn't believe my luck when I got it first drop after that!
Islander & Dweasel: You don't need to reset the game; there's a retry level button in the panel on the right.
What's interesting about this game is that this kind of thing actually happens in Japan.
This might be a fun game... if it didn't run in slow motion! Good Grief why'd they do that???
I finally gave up waiting on level 6 or 7. No, the fat cat never got stuck but I was sick and tired of waiting for it to finish bouncing.
Awww, a happy ending! :D
I'm pretty sure my cats, after dinner, would say "FULLY BELLY ACHIEVED", and then bounce around the house like Sushi Cat.
However, they don't speak, so they just bounce around the house. :-)
I love the game. I wouldn't mind another dozen levels, even without more story. But it's a perfect bite-sized game as it is.
Grassman -
I am aware of the roots in Pachinko, but since I didn't grow up in Japan it's not a fond childhood memory like Plinko.
That was basically adorable.
ah... that's was SO CUTE and SO ADORABLE! nom, nom, nom! what's not to love about sushi cat!
Man, that was way too short. The art style was hilarious, I could've played for much longer. I was cracking up watching a particularly fat cat squeeze through the tiny crevices. Sushi Cat's incredibly satisfied face at the end makes it all worth it.
I LOVE the game! My friend comes from japan (but is not Japanese) and he makes this kind of thing all of the time! 9/10, bc it is too short.
I love this game. Its sooo cute. One problem though, on lvl 14, One cat got stuck on the top far right. The moving circle kept rolling the cat like a ball of dough. Lol.
@V2Blast: Thank you for mentioning the composer of Sushi Cat's awesome music. I appreciate it.
Dweasel et al: I'm stuck at 13 and I don't think it's physically possible to collect my sushi, haha. Screencap:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v126/shusu/play/0400f4d9.png
I think the bottom round thing is going too slowly to force it down or bounce it up. If there's a chance to squeeze it down, it's got to be going at a different rate. ...WAIT. Power of the post. I take it back. I missed it, too! I think it rolled into a lower balcony, and finally got under a flower pot. Crazy. That took half an hour.
The ending
is disturbingly fetishistic, huh?
Would be more addictive if replaying levels auto-advanced to next level.
To all of those who are stuck on level 13:
It is possible to fit through. I made it, even though I had eaten all but three pieces of sushi on that level. Took a few minutes of waiting, though. ;)
I am getting really tired of waiting for my way too fat cat to get through the little gaps in level 13. Other than the aggrivation of getting stuck, this is a wonderful game. Way cheery and cute animation. The music and different types of sushi were fun. I think my favorite touch was the dragon cannon.
I LOVED sick days with the Price is Right! :)
Lovely game that is just the right size for a casual bite of entertainment and relaxation. Love the muted colour scheme. The problem is playing it makes me hungry for sushi.
I also like how the over-sized feline ball realistically behaves like a heavy mass and plops right into the bin without bouncing back up too much.
Stuck on 13 like everyone else!
My cat's stuck...lvl 13 :( Decided to leave the game on and hopefully it'll get thru after I've eaten my own dinner.
http://twitpic.com/160olc
This game does really goes to show how much a little spit and polish can do to make a game so much more fun (and so much more adorable). Super cute cat, super cute animations, super boing-ey physics too! They need to to sell Sushi-Cat plushies or something. They'd make a fortune. I just want to hug my computer screen when I play this game.
I spent a while laughing creepily to myself on one of the levels, whenever the cat was squushed between the moving platforms and made into a pancake with an eyeball. I found it a little odd that, for instance, squishing Sushi-Cat from the left and right didn't make him expand up and down. But in the whole game, that really wasn't anywhere near the issue.
Sadly, and to quote the words of the review: "Once you've dropped the cat, it's all up to gravity and random chance, as there's no way to control the descent other than picking the right spot to release him from." That's the bit really ruined it for me. Once the humor and uber-cuteness wore thin, I didn't feel like there was any real puzzle for me to solve.
hmm. i liked the theme song, so i thought i'd do a bit of searching around. I couldn't find anything by DJCUTMAN for this song. and I happened to find it on newgrounds! :O under a guy named Chris Davidson.
If anyone else is a huge nerd like me and likes to listen to chiptune, you can download it here.
http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/277599
I found that when your cat gets stuck on that level (as in all the sushi ate in one drop), clicking on the quality of the graphics (the Q button) will slightly alter the edges of the obstacles.
Cycle through at periods where you see the cat in a loop, and you will eventually get the cat to fall through.
I've gotten stuck on level 13 several times now. Once it took 20 minutes before the physics was correct and the cat fell through. The other time he ate all but one sushi; I left him for about an hour and he made it through.
Woo! Nice jelly moves! Love the ironic Beijing meets Tokyo reggae.
I love the gelatinous cat!
its been about 45 minutes now and Sushi Cat is still bouncing around level 13 with a full belly!
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