Order Up! (Zoo Games)

Working in the food service industry is tough, gruelling work. And yet, Order Up! not only boasts compelling cooking mechanics — it also makes restaurant management a fun task. While other Wii games can cause frustration with unpolished controls, Order Up! shines brilliantly... for the most part.

Warming Up Your Kitchen

In Order Up!, you take the role of a rookie chef as you try to make a name for yourself on Port Abello, a tourist island filled with many different styles of restaurants. You start out training at the greasy Burger Face and work your way up to the ritzy Chez Haute. You'll not only have to assemble all of the dishes but also buy ingredients, hire assistant cooks, and keep your restaurant clean.

Every restaurant features a different menu based on its name. The Gravy Chug menu is filled with burgers and assorted sandwiches while the Chez Haute serves up expensive French dishes. The gameplay is relatively easy, and the game doesn't punish you unnecessarily for wrecking a few dishes here and there. I even burnt down my kitchen on my second day of work and suffered nothing more than mild shame.

Cut, Broil, Chop, and Slice

You'll spend most of your time on Port Abello fixing up various dishes for your customers. You use the Wii Remote to slice, flip, and fold ingredients; the real trick is to juggle multiple orders at once, since every meal must be served hot and quick. Being able to simultaneously handle a handful of orders in mere minutes is a rewarding experience, especially when you're tipped well for it. You can also assign certain tasks to your kitchen staff to carry out as well.

The game is a lot of fun, but the minigames that don't involve food, such as dish washing, really pull you out of the core experience. The controls can also be finicky at times — simple tasks like chopping an onion are easily mastered but more complex actions like tortilla folding can be as difficult as open heart surgery! The game also has charming visuals, but the text is ridiculously small; if you don't have a large TV, you'll literally have your nose to the screen trying to read instructions and recipes.