izigame.me

To preface this review, I'm inherently biased towards this game. Blex Chapman, the lead developer, is one of my best friends and I helped him on a prototype of this game for a GameDev class back in college. I helped with playtesting and even joined him in advertising the game at MagWest 2024, so to say I'm biased would be an understatement. Regardless, I think this game deserves a thorough review and I'll try my best to come at it from a non-biased standpoint.
At its core, Super Sushi Roll is effectively a 2D interpretation of the marble game or Super Monkey Ball with an emphasis on time and level mastery. Levels are designed with tons of shortcuts, collectibles to unlock new cosmetic sushi, and the occasional secret to discover. This is one of those games that'll click well with people who are intrinsically motivated, caring less about rewards and more about personal stats or the core feeling of accomplishment. I'm not sure how hard it'd be integrate with GameMaker but it'd certainly be nice to see an online leaderboard function so you aren't just challenging yourself for the highest score.
The biggest thing Super Sushi Roll does well is how it takes me back to playing classic flash games. With how the game has one mechanic that's central to the whole experience, to the fantastic music and art, to the general pick-up-and-play energy the game exudes, it makes me think back to when I was a kid and I'd open up Miniclip or Armor Games and find something that felt new and novel to me. Levels are a good length, never being longer than two minutes for their time limit but the only penalty for taking longer is a free retry. Movement and physics can be a little tricky to get a feel for, but they're fun to master as you play more and more. Level memorization and exploration feels rewarding as you can find ways to slash your time with shortcuts or taking advantage of level mechanics. This isn't a game where I'm thinking about what I'll get by winning, it's all about how I'll win and use that information to improve.
There are a few things that I do think could to with improvement (especially after watching people play at MagWest). I feel the tutorial should be mandatory as it definitely aids in figuring out the controls. I think that there could be a way to better visually indicate how your sushi would be launched by the chopsticks, as one would expect it to be launched like a catapult instead of how it works in the game (which is something that isn't hard to get used to, but initial impressions are important). I think the moving platforms could have some better way to be moved rather than with the same controls as the chopsticks, but I'm not sure as to how to get that to work on both KB+M and controller without over-complicating the control scheme. Lastly, I think the general level order could be rebalanced as some areas have some difficult levels placed too early in the progression which can easily serve as roadblocks.
Overall though? Super Sushi Roll is fun as hell. I know my playtime on Steam is low but over the years I've put a couple dozen hours into the game and I still really enjoy it. I think the handful of issues are things that could be ironed out but they don't ruin the experience for me. I haven't seen any other attempts at making a 2D marble game so it feels very fresh to me and I have really enjoyed seeing this project evolve over the past few years. Whatever Blex plans on making in the future is something I plan on playing, not just because he's my friend but because I think he makes good things.