Order Up!
Ages: Everyone

This game takes cooking games where no cooking game has gone before. Many out there were basically time management games. Others actually required players to prep foods by chopping, mixing, slicing and still others like Cooking Mama 2 had players prepare a range of ethnic foods. Order Up does all that plus adds a social component involving twelve sous chefs with different skills and as many customers with very different personalities and tastes in food. The novel addition to the game is the Chef Spices, which render foods salt, sour, sweet, spicy and aromatic and can tempt your creativity into making something absolutely uneatable.

The Wii remote is put to good use with actions like stirring, chopping, flipping with disembodied knives, and spatulas. Players start out working a hamburger joint and progress through a diner, a Mexican restaurant, an Italian restaurant and finally a fancy French one. The culmination is the Fortified Chef Competition - the game's salute to the Iron Chef.

The graphics are cartoon-like, which works well personifying the characters, but don't expect dishes that look like the cover ofGourmet magazine. Voice overs are excellent with a lot of attention given to each of the characters. The game's instruction book is helpful, showing the functions of the remote and even gives helpful hints on the back page.

Fun Factor: Fun - even more so with tht remote
Female Factor: Fair mix for both the chefs and customer
Player Friendly: Handy manual is a good addition plus the Chef's hat.

Reviewed by: Editor - 08/08