All this would be for naught without customers to order the food, and you have a steady stream of folks coming in as you progress through your day. A day generally consists of four to six tables made up of one to four orders each. Handling one or two orders at a time is pretty easy, but when you start preparing three or four meals at a time, the game becomes a frantic juggling act. You won't ever really fail, barring total neglect, but it is tricky to deliver all your dishes in good or perfect order within a tight time window. Dishes left too long will cool, and the customer won't be happy. Your reward for a meal well cooked is bigger tips that you can use to upgrade your restaurant, hire new help, buy new recipes, or purchase spices. Spices are used to make special dishes that will earn you more coin, and are also handy for catering to your customers' preferences. For example, you'll get a big tip for overcooking all the food for the gruff, Clint Eastwood look-alike, or adding a particularly aromatic spice to a dish for the farmer who got his nose kicked in by a burro.
Things can get hectic when you've got multiple burners a-blazin'.
As you earn stars for your restaurant by earning money, buying recipes, and impressing the food critic, you'll get the opportunity to purchase another restaurant. You'll work your way up from diner grub to Mexican fare to Italian food to haute cuisine, earning new recipes, new spices, and new assistants. Once you get accustomed to preparing perfect dishes every time, you'll find yourself trashing good food in your quest for the satisfaction of perfection. That drive will take you to the Fortified Chef Competition, an amusing, though not so challenging, parody of the Iron Chef series. Unfortunately, your journey is only about six hours long. Playing through the game again on hard difficulty is a good way to satisfy your craving for more, since the cooking meters are removed and you are forced to rely on more subtle visual cues, as well as your own sense of timing. Still, a few more restaurants would have filled this game out nicely.
Order Up is most engaging when you get into the rhythm of striving to cook perfect dishes, earning big money, spending it to improve your operation, and trying to cook more perfect dishes. It's simple enough that it's accessible to all, and its charming visual style and sense of humor make it an attractive package. Unfortunately, it feels a bit light on content, even at a less than full retail price point, and it would have benefitted nicely from a two-player mode in the vein of the final cook-off. Nonetheless, it's an entertaining, well-balanced game that provides a good deal of fun while it lasts.
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