Order Up!! To Go Review (iOS)

Oh Chillingo, why must you offer me exactly the kind of game I love and then cruelly take it away by annoying the crap out of me with adverts and underhand ways of trying to make me spend money? Don’t you realise I’m a stubborn cuss who objects to developers making game progression so mind numbingly tedious in the deluded hope I’ll cough up for gold stars? It’s a shame because Order Up!! To Go is a really good game for the iOS platform. the swiping gestures required for cooking translate perfectly and don’t suffer with user ineptitude (much).

At various points in the game progression you’ll unlock special visits from restaurant critics offering a chance to earn more coins or more frequently surprise hygiene inspections. These see you frantically smearing the surface of your iPad pretending to scrub dishes or trying to flick rats off your counter tops. You can limit the more annoying of these visits by paying to have your kitchen cleaned. The cynical part of me suspects that this is just added motivation to buy in-game currency.

I played three restaurants out of a possible seven, simply because I don’t have months and months to devote to playing the game the cheap way. The management side of the game lets you decide what dishes to stock the ingredients for. This adds a very nice planning aspect to the fast-paced swiping-like-a-maniac segments. Once the cooking day starts you’ll receive a stream of customers and the game becomes a juggling act to keep everyone happy and dishes leaving your kitchen in a timely and presentable fashion. Alongside the normal customers you’ll also be served up picky versions who want a unique twist on their order – manage to work out what they want and you’ll earn bonus payments.

I would happily recommend this game to anyone. It’s free (to a point) and it’s fun. I just wish Chillingo hadn’t gone for “making the game dull unless you pay” route. That said, there’s every likelihood I’ll roll over and pay. A good game deserves it.

Order Up!! To Go is available now for iOS 4.0 or later.