Fantasy roguelite restaurant sim Goblin Sushi drops a fun, frantic demo

Ever been to a sushi restaurant and seen a poo just go past on the conveyor belt? Us neither, but that’s Goblin Sushi’s penalty for grabbing the wrong ingredients. It’s fair to say our cave-based restaurant won’t be getting a 5 for food hygiene.

But developer Old Cake Factory doesn’t expect you to succeed on your first go or even your fifth go. The dev dubs Goblin Sushi a restaurant-action-sim “rogue-like restaurant-action-sim”, underlined by its run-based system.

We’ve dabbled in Goblin Sushi’s Steam demo and things can become pretty frantic. As the owner of the titular restaurant, you’re charged with putting together a growing range of sushi items, ordering ingredients and making enough money to keep your landlord happy.

From lanky creatures with mouths in their knees to robotic goblins (we bet J.R.R. Tolkien didn’t see that coming), you’re never short of customers. Thanks to Goblin Sushi’s quirky cartoon graphics, they’re an appealing lot. At least, they are until the moment they storm out because you didn’t serve them in time.

We had a blast with the demo, dishing up meal after meal, raising our eyebrows at some of the wigglier and slimier ingredients. Your customers will storm off if they’re not served in time, but the real menace is your landlord. He turns up far too frequently and if you’ve not got enough cash, or can’t raise it in the space of a few minutes, he’ll shut you down.

Rent hassles aside, we also found ourselves shaking our fists at our goblins’ lack of manners. You’ll get several identical orders, particularly when you’re starting out, but your customers will grab whatever’s in front of them. We lost a few customers because their meals never reached them, so we’re hoping the final game includes the ability to reverse the direction of the conveyor. That, or a big goblin-swatting stick.

Goblin Sushi doesn’t have a release date as yet, but you can download its demo here on Steam.