What Is Sushi-Da? A Complete Guide to the Typing Game
How to play Sushida
Sushida is a free online typing-practice game featuring a cute conveyor-belt sushi design, where sushi flows along the belt.
Themed around conveyor-belt sushi, users choose an all-you-can-eat course from 3,000 yen, 5,000 yen, or 10,000 yen, and compete on how much of a bargain they can get—how much they can eat (type)—within the limit.
When the game ends, the prices of the plates you ate are displayed, and if you come out ahead of the price of the course you chose, you can rank in, learning the level of your typing skill compared to other users.
Also, the difficulty can be set in detail, and the color of the plate changes depending on factors such as the number of characters you type. The higher the difficulty, the higher-grade the sushi topping, and the plate color changes too—quite an elaborate and unique design.
Now, let's look at how to use Sushida specifically.
1. Select a mode and start
Open Sushida (https://sushida.net/) and select a play mode from "Play Sushida," "Play Quietly," or "Play with Furigana," then click "Start" on the next screen.
2. Selecting the difficulty and course
You will arrive at the difficulty selection screen, so choose the difficulty near the top and then the course (number of characters and time limit) near the bottom. The difficulties are "Practice," "Normal," "Accuracy," "Speed-focused," and "One Shot," and if you don't choose, it automatically becomes "Normal."
The difficulties and courses are as follows; if you set it to "One Shot," an ordinary person like the author finishes right away…
<Sushida difficulties>
- Practice... The plates flow slowly, and it ends when the time limit is reached
- Normal... The plates flow at normal speed, and it ends when the time limit is reached
- Accuracy... If you make a typo the characters reset, and it ends when the time limit is reached
- Speed-focused... If you fail to type even once while a plate is flowing, it ends
- One Shot... A single typo ends the game
<Sushida courses>
- Easy 3,000-yen course... 2 to 7 characters, time limit 60 seconds
- Recommended 5,000-yen course... 5 to 10 characters, time limit 90 seconds
- Premium 10,000-yen course... 9 to 14 characters, time limit 120 seconds
3. All-you-can-eat starts!
When the game begins, the screen shows a conveyor-belt sushi lane, and plates of sushi flow from left to right, so type the displayed characters while a plate is on screen. If you type successfully before it flows off to the right, you've eaten that plate. If you make a mistake, a warning sound plays in sound-on mode, and in One Shot mode it ends on the spot.
The displayed characters change the sushi topping and plate color depending on the difficulty, such as the number of characters, and as with ordinary conveyor-belt sushi, the price changes according to the plate color. The image above is the most premium "ikura and uni" plate at 500 yen, and not only the character count but also the typing gets quite difficult.
Note that if you keep typing continuously without failing, 1 to 3 seconds are added to the time limit. How much is added is shown in the "combo meter" at the top right. To keep eating sushi for a long time, it seems important to reduce mistakes as much as possible.
The displayed characters sometimes include sushi-related phrases such as "chutoro" or "written 鰤 and read buri," but basically ordinary words, current-affairs terms, everyday phrases, and the like are displayed at random. The operators have officially answered in their Q&A that this is to give breadth to the words displayed.
From time to time, humorous expressions such as "oh my, madam" also appear, so you can type with enjoyment.
4. The bill
When the game ends, it displays how much worth of plates you were able to eat in total, and shows the sum of the prices of the plates you ate—and how much of a bargain it was—relative to the amount you paid (the price of the course you chose at the start).
For example, with the 3,000-yen course you've paid 3,000 yen to enter, so if you eat 4,480 yen worth within the limit, you've come out 1,480 yen ahead. It's fun, and quite a well-made design.
In addition, the number of correctly typed keys, the average number of keystrokes, and the number of mistypes are also displayed, so its functionality as typing software is spot on.
5. Ranking
When the total price of the plates you ate comes out ahead of the amount you paid, a "Display Ranking" button appears, and you can see where your score ranks among 10,000 Sushida users who chose the same course as you.
This ranking display is a mechanism that leads to further motivation. Note that the ranking is reset at timing set by Sushida's operators.
That is how to play Sushida, but strangely enough, after playing a few times you start to feel like eating even more sushi.
Moreover, Sushida, which combines fun with practicality, took first place in the overall search ranking of Yahoo! Kids News in December 2022.
For today's children, for whom using a PC is essential, Sushida lets them acquire typing skills enjoyably—truly killing two birds with one stone. Because it also has sufficient functions as typing software, it is even used in corporate recruitment tests that require typing speed.
In this way, Sushida is a very unique, well-made, and appealing game, and its premise themed on conveyor-belt sushi is a highly recommended game that sushi lovers won't want to miss either!
Sushida averages
Sushida is not only unique and fun but also excellent as a typing-practice tool, so it has been used as a useful tool for typing practice in student contests and the like.
Sushida's average score is not made public, but since the ranking is displayed, you can predict an approximate average—for instance, by treating around 5,000th place as the midpoint—and it works out roughly as follows.
- Easy 3,000-yen course: average keystrokes 3.1–3.3 per second
- Recommended 5,000-yen course: average keystrokes around 4 per second
- Premium 10,000-yen course: average keystrokes 4.6 per second
These are reference values only, but referring to the text-input speed certification test conducted by the Japan Information Processing Examination Association, the average input rate for university students and working adults is about 1.9 keystrokes per second at around grade 2 level, so Sushida users' scores are quite high compared to the level of typing in general.
Sushida rankings
Among the many typing-mastery tools, the reason Sushida boasts such popularity—besides its unique premise of all-you-can-eat conveyor-belt sushi—is that it can display rankings.
You can see where your score ranks among the 10,000 users who chose that course, and you also become curious about how fast everyone else is.
Just how fast are the actual top-ranked users?
For example, in the case of the top-ranked player on the premium course, they ate nearly 105 plates and came out a whopping 40,000 yen ahead. Against a time allowance of 2 minutes, the play time was 3 minutes 40 seconds, showing that by typing continuously without mistakes, the bonus seconds added increased the time allowance to nearly double.
Speed is important in typing, but so is accuracy. There is no doubt that such rankings are a cause of Sushida's popularity and addictiveness.
<The No. 1 typing out of 10,000 on the premium course>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgMONk-LLPM&t=2s
Tips for eating lots of sushi in Sushida
Because Sushida clearly shows your score and ranking, once you're hooked you'll want to type fast and climb to the top—so what should you actually do to get faster?
Setting aside cheats and the like, if you want to raise your score in Sushida and eat lots of sushi, there are the following points.
- Prioritize accuracy over speed... In Sushida, there is a bonus where typing accurately without mistakes adds time, so your time allowance lengthens and you can take more plates.
- Practice relatively hard-to-type characters such as question marks and long-vowel marks, and get used to them.
- Practice frequently appearing words... In Sushida, the same words appear relatively often, so if you practice the words you got wrong after playing a few times, your speed will improve dramatically from the next time.
In other words, type accurately without rushing, and practice hard-to-type characters and words you often get wrong. At first you play half for fun because of the unique premise, but you have to take your hat off to how it is designed to genuinely help with typing practice.
What are Sushida cheats?
Sushida, which is also used at schools and companies, is a tool whose usefulness is recognized in society, but some users use a method called cheating—a trick to raise their Sushida score.
Cheat is an English word meaning trickery or deception, and in games it refers to the act of modifying things to raise one's score using illegitimate means. In Sushida, there are methods of cheating using programming languages such as Python.
However, this method constitutes a violation of the terms of use and carries the risk of litigation in the worst case, so this article recommends not using it; but keeping in mind that such methods exist allows you to consider whether an opponent might be cheating when competing on scores.
Knowing that such a thing exists is knowledge that won't hurt to have.
The smartphone version of Sushida
Because Sushida was developed for the purpose of practicing PC typing and raising scores, you basically cannot play the game on a smartphone alone.
However, since around 2022 Sushida's specifications were changed from the conventional FLASH-based ones to ones using a technology called WebGL, so it has become possible to display the Sushida screen using a smartphone browser.
That said, it only displays—the smartphone's keyboard cannot be used—so to play Sushida you need a keyboard that can connect via Bluetooth. The screen is a bit small, but if you use a Bluetooth keyboard you can play Sushida, so if you don't have a PC on hand, please try this method.
The Sushida screen displayed in the mobile version of Chrome
Celebrities and YouTubers who play Sushida
Perhaps because of its unique theme, many celebrities and YouTubers have posted videos of themselves playing Sushida, becoming a hot topic.
It's striking how everyone types while chatting cheerfully.
Mion Mukaichi (AKB48)
On the channel of AKB48 members Mion Mukaichi, Yuiri Murayama, Nana Okada, Shinobu Mogi, and others, Mion Mukaichi—who is said to be good with computers—takes on the challenge and posts good scores.
<[Sushida] Idols seriously take on a typing game [On]>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPKWZZxj8xY
DJ Shacho (Repezen Chikyu / Repezen Foxx)
DJ Shacho, a YouTuber active as Repezen Chikyu and Repezen Foxx, also takes on the challenge. He's not terrifyingly fast, but his speed is quite fast.
<DJ Shacho takes on Sushida>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqcNCne0RwQ
Mikuru Asakura
Mikuru Asakura, a fighter and YouTuber known as the organizer of Breaking Down, has also posted a video of himself playing Sushida. It's striking how he plays Sushida having fun together with the members.
<Mikuru Asakura tried typing and was too fast>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_SpLzXUakU
Summary: the appeal of Sushida
Sushida is a free typing-practice software you can use online—a unique game where you take on all-you-can-eat conveyor-belt sushi and compete on how much of a bargain you can eat.
From beginners to advanced users, anyone can practice typing, and you can also check your skill through the rankings and further refine it.
When you actually play Sushida, the unique and interesting premise combined with its pop design and humorous music make it addictive enough that you challenge it again and again. As you take more and more sushi plates, it harbors a mysterious appeal that makes you genuinely want to eat more sushi and come out ahead.
Also, beyond just being fun, it lets you accurately grasp your typing weaknesses, so much so that it is used at companies and schools. It is a very useful and appealing tool for anyone of any age or gender who wants to improve their typing skills, so if you haven't tried it yet, please give it a go.
References
Sushi打平均Summary【小中高校生·大学生と社会人】 (mazenta0.blogspot.com)
文章入力スピード認定試験 Japanese｜Japan情報処理検定協会 (goukaku.ne.jp)
Sushi打でチートするやり方があった！その方法を紹介 | Apple Geek LABO (apple-geeks.com)
