Game Review: Order Up! To Go – Cook Your Way to Restaurant Ownership Glory

If you are a fan of cooking sim games you may think that Order Up! To Go is just another game in a long line of similar apps at first glance. But in actual fact the game – which is an IOS version of a 2008 Wii platformer – is part cooking sim, part time management game and as it is currently being offered free by Chillingo Ltd in the app store although I can’t say I am a big fan of either gaming genre I thought it would be worth at least giving it a try.

Sounds and Graphics 4.5 /5

As you might expect for a mobile version of a platform game the graphics in Order Up! To Go are pretty darn good. The world of Port Abello – the one you will be working in to grow your restaurant is bright, sunny, colorful and very charming.

The characters have a cartoonish appeal that would not be out of place in Saturday morning cartoon show and unlike some of the other cooking sims I have tried over the years you can actually tell what the food you are cooking which really does add to the appeal of the game in general.

The voice acting is a bit of a surprise, at least when it comes to mobile games because well, its very good. This again may be another benefit of the fact that this game was originally created as a Wii game (and will also be coming out for PS3 soon) and the standards console games are held to is much higher.

Taking all of this into account in this category Order Up! To Go merits a 4.5/5

Gameplay 4/5

If you are looking for a game that is easy to get through then Order Up! To Go is NOT the game for you. to get through this sim you have to like hard work because that is what it is.

In very basic terms the object of the game is to build yourself a nice restaurant empire in the town of Port Abello. Every “day” you must buy enough ingredients to prepare an estimated number of meals to sell later in the day. estimated because you have no way of knowing how many guests your establishment will attract. Its a lesson in management – buy too little and you will have to turn away customers (never a good thing) but buy too much and you will lose money on food you have to throw away.

When you open the doors of your restaurant and send your server out onto the floor he takes the orders table by table and brings them back to you to cook. And the cooking mechanism is quite complex. To prepare a meal as simple as burger and fries, you actually have to put in quite a lot of virtual graft. As the chef you have to drop burger patty onto the grill, then gesture to flip it only when it’s at the perfect level of doneness. You then have to drag your french fries down into the fryer and leave them there until they are properly cooked. At the same time you are chopping lettuce and tomatoes, trying to get them to meet the size guidelines. As each ingredient is finished you drag it to the plate and when the meal is ready to be served ring the bell fore the server to take it to the waiting hungry customer.

Every meal you prepare is ranked, and those rankings translate into cash, something that in this game you need plenty of. The ultimate aim is to buy better and better restaurants but there are also cleaners and staff to be paid, an inventory to maintain. Cleaners I discovered in my game are very important. Having forgotten to pay one I ended up locked in a mini game fighting off a rat infestation!

At the moment there are six restaurants for you to aim to own and they range from a rather low rent Mexican greasy spoon to a high end fine dining establishment that Gordon Ramsay might be proud of. In the original Wii game these restaurants were unlocked by meeting certain goals, here, as this is a freemium game, you can work for ’em or, you can part with some real cash and buy them.

I liked this game a lot more than i thought I might but it is hard work. As a nice daily distraction though I think it would be cool and it deserves a 4 out of 5 for sure.

Value for Money 4/5

A free game is always good from a financial standpoint but freemium games can get annoying and this one is no exception. There are always going to be certain things you just can’t earn and that can be frustrating if you are not a fan of paying for in app purchases.

Summary

If you like to have to GRIND when playing a sim game then Order Up! To Go should suit you. And if you like cooking games like Cooking Mama then this game should suit you too. But you don’t have to take my word for it, go try it for yourself while its still being offered free in the app store (because you never know when that might change)

‘Unroll Me’ Rolls Into the App Store, Free for a Limited Time

Now that Flappy Bird has flown the coop, casual gamers are looking for something as equally simple, but equally challenging. Plenty of clones have popped into the App Store to fill the void, but for some, the sting of the fresh wound hurts too much to replace one bird with another.

Unroll me is a simple, but challenging puzzle game that will give you something to do while waiting to catch the bus, but might be so addicting that you will waste your life playing it instead of feeding the kids.

The game is a lot like a sliding tile puzzle. You know, the one where there is a grid of tiles with one missing and your goal is to turn it into a picture. This game has a grid of tiles with a few holes. However, there are also some tiles that can be rotated and some that can’t move at all.

The goal is to get the ball from the starting tile to the ending tile by creating a path between the two. To do that, you must slide tiles around so that each one connects to another and forms the path. The path must also, finally connect to the end tile before the ball will roll.

The game is free to download. Each level is locked, except the first. You can unlock all levels for $2.99, but you don’t have to. You can just continue playing puzzles in order.

If you get stuck, you can use a hint. This will solve the current puzzle for you. The game includes three free hints. After that, you can buy additional hints for $0.99 each or five for $3.99. The hints are costly, so be sure to use them sparingly.

The game is also advertisement supported. However, any purchase you make will automatically remove the ads.

Grab yourself a copy of Unroll Me and cleanse your soul of the sadness of losing Flappy Bird. Download it in the App Store today.