Order Up Review

Starting a few years back on the Nintendo DS, cooking games became mainstream with titles such as Cooking Mama, Ratatouille, Diner Dash and Cake Mania. Being the casual system that it is, there should be no surprise that the Wii has found itself to be home to its own Cooking Mama title, as well as various other competitors, such as Order Up from Zoo Games. Does this trip to the kitchen serve up a gourmet gaming experience or just fast food mediocrity?

Since this is not only a casual, but also a budget game, you have a limited number of options to choose from. You can only be as one of two chefs (a male or a female) and get dropped into a dying fast food chain. You quickly find yourself unemployed, after a short tutorial with one of your fellow burger flippers showing you the ins and outs of the business. Instead of looking for another job, you buy the lot of the burger chain and open a restaurant of your own.

The basic gist of Order Up is to prepare the food as quickly and warmly as possible to your customers. You earn money through tips and are rewarded based on speed and temperature. With this money you can buy assistants, spices, equipment and recipes. You will need to impress the food critic with your ultimate goal being earning more stars for your restaurant and finally opening new restaurant for your emerging food empire.

Preparing, cooking and serving the food could not be any easier (or more realistic than real-life). You will chop lettuce, slice tomatoes, grate cheese, boil water, spread butter and so on all using distinct motions with the Wii Remote. Much of the trick is learning to multi-task. While you are cooking a burger on the burner, you should also be frying fries in the deep fryer, cooking noodles and slicing tomatoes. A temperature meter lets you know when food is under-cooked, over-cooked or just right. You will need to flip the burgers and stir food in pans to avoid burning them.

Overall, Order Up is a worthwhile investment that will keep amateur chefs craving more dishes. The game is too short, lasting only a good six or seven hours, but with a harder difficulty level, you can get enough replay value out of this to last you a while. I really wish that a two-player split-screen cook off mode would have been included to play against a friend. Other than that, this package is solid for the price. In that sense it is neither McDonald’s nor Steak and Ale. It’s more Applebee’s than anything.