Ever dreamed of being a short order cook in a variety of restaurants but don’t want the hassle of dealing the nasty heat of the fryers and cleaning up people messes?

Order Up for the Wii allows 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. But there is a lot lacking, a lot of accessibility lacking and will find yourself tiring easily.

Gameplay begins by players choosing a male or female chef and then work their way up the food chain of dining establishments on the island. We all start at the bottom, and on Port Abello that means the greasy spoon Burger Face. But soon you'll buy your own place and, after you've impressed the local food critic, you'll be able to expand to bigger operations.

Gameplay is separated into days where you take orders, prepare dishes, and then count your money. Each level of restaurant has certain goals that need to be met grow your menu; earn a certain amount of money before you can proceed to the next eatery.

Cooking, and doing the other tasks in the kitchen, requires a lot of precision and mastery as you just use the Wii-mote and the num-chuck. Very rapid arm movements are needed that make your arms tire out too quickly and the sensor bar for the Wii doesn’t always pick up the movement.

As far as accessibility goes you have to move the Wii mote to do the action and use the num-chuck for navigation, meaning it’s a good game for the one-handed gamers. But anyone else with motor skill impairments or who need frequent breaks; this is not the game for you.

But for the colorblind and deaf gamers, you are in luck because the game features some great indicators and subtitles. 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.

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 in one of a handful of inoffensively frivolous mini-games.

The stove and grill can accommodate two items each; 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.

At a Glance

Overall, Order Up is fun and has pretty solid graphics but lacks on the controller accessibility because its very motion controlled. There are plenty of other culinary games that are more original and have a lot more of varied gameplay.

Hearing
Lots of subtitles with easy-to-read fonts.
Recommended score: 8/10

Visual
The indicators are good.
Recommended score: 6/10

Mobility
Only good for one-handed gamers.
Recommended score: 2/10