GameSpot editors' review
-
CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 07/30/2008
- Released on: 07/22/2008
- Originally published on GameSpot: Order Up! (Wii) Review
Recently, a handful of full retail games have been devoted to emulating the challenges of food preparation, and Order Up is the latest of these games to embrace the Wii's motion-sensitive controls. As a short-order cook in Order Up, you to use the Wii Remote not only to slice, grate, and cook food, but to prepare up to four dishes simultaneously and plate them all in a timely fashion. The challenge of accurately prepping each ingredient while coordinating multiple dishes is highly engaging, and you'll find yourself hungry for more after completing this delicious, but not quite filling, game.
The meal ticket will show you how well you've prepared each ingredient. Seen here: Not great..
You begin the game as many chefs begin their careers--by jumping out of a plane, landing in a dumpster, then strolling into the local fast food joint to take a job as a short-order cook. Yes, Order Up is a bit goofy, but it works to great effect. The rotund, bean-shaped customers and cartoony locations are amusing caricatures, and the food looks quite good, if not exactly mouthwatering. Starting out at Burger Face under the tutelage of a pimply teenager who aspires to fast food management, you learn how to prepare that most American of dishes: a burger and fries. Your preparation of each ingredient will be judged as poor, OK, good, or perfect depending on how well you perform the action required. Slicing tomatoes requires you to time your cuts precisely, while prepping lettuce requires that you rip four leaves off as quickly as you can. Dicing, carving, grating, and mashing each demands its own motions, and each (with the exception of tricky tortilla folding and vexing lettuce grabbing) is easy to master and pleasingly responsive.
Cooking items is less a matter of mastering motion controls and more a challenge of timing. As each ingredient cooks, you'll see a colorful cooking meter pop up that tells you the food's temperature on a scale of frozen to flaming. The indicator arrow will slowly progress from one end to the other, and snatching the food off the heat when the arrow is in the green zone will earn you a perfect rating. Using the fryer is that simple, but the stove top and grill have another indicator icon that moves faster than the arrow. To keep these vittles from burning, you'll have to stir, toss, and flip accordingly. Fail to do so, and you'll have to bust out the extinguisher and put out grease fires--one of a handful of inoffensively frivolous minigames. The stove and grill can accommodate two items each; so, along with the cutting board, fryer, oven, and food processor, you could conceivably be preparing eight ingredients at once, though this will rarely happen. On top of that, you can hire up to two sous chefs, who will prepare one ingredient at a time in their own space with varying degrees of precision depending on their unique proficiencies.
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