Gamertell

Title: Order Up
Price: $39.99
System(s): Wii
Release Date: July 22, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Zoo Games (SuperVillain Studios)
ESRB Rating: “Everyone” for Comic Mischief
Pros: It expands upon the “cooking” game genre by adding in restaurant management.
Cons: Strange character art isn’t for everyone. Cooking can quickly become a chore. Instructions for using new items isn’t always provided. Occasional loading glitches.
Overall Score: Two thumbs sideways, 70/100, C-, ** out of 5

Order Up! is a game that will often be mistaken for a Cooking Mama rip-off. While the minigames have some similar elements, they go in two different directions when it comes to gameplay and execution. Also, while Cooking Mama can actually be entertaining, Order Up! becomes quite tedious. Order Up! tries to be lighthearted and offer a new gaming experience but it gets old quick…

Click through for the full review!

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Title: Major League Eating: The Game
Price: 100 Wii Points (US$10.00)
System(s): Wii (as WiiWare)
Release Date: July 14, 2008
Publisher (Developer): Mastiff (Sensory Sweep Studios)
ESRB Rating: “Everyone 10+” for crude humor.
Pros: Good utilization of the WiiMote’s motion controls, OK graphics and fairly addictive game play.
Cons: Some Wii freezing glitches and lackluster minigames.
Overall Score: One thumb up, one sideways; 86/100; B+; * * * 1/2.

Perhaps one of the oddest food related games is Major League Eating: The Game, a WiiWare release from Mastiff where you actually stuff your face as best as you can. It’s crude, it’s silly and it’s kinda fun.

Click through for the full review…

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Check out the gallery: Major League Eating: The Game WiiWare screen shots

Once upon a time videogames were all about blasting space aliens, breaking bricks, kicking ass as a ninja and/or saving a princess. Now, it seems like every activity imaginable has a videogame, from cheer leading to dog grooming to gardening. This is best exemplified by the insane popularity of cooking/food-based games, a genre that was practically single-handedly invented by a little DS game three years ago called Cooking Mama.

The title was immediately popular on the casual-friendly DS, and went on to spawn several sequels and tons of similar games, including other TV tie-ins like Hell’s Kitchen and Iron Chef, paved the way for more novel ideas like the cookbook software Cooking Navi, upcoming restaurant sim Order Up, and the more casual imitators, like the Cakemania series. Right now, cooking games are everywhere you look - you can hardly shake a rolling pin in a game aisle without knocking down something tasty-looking. But why the sudden kitchen invasion? I have a few theories.

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FROM APPLETELL - Grab your chef’s hat, put on your oven mitts it’s time to start cooking! In the game Cooking Academy you’ll be able to test out your culinary skills in the kitchens of a prestigious culinary school. You have the chance to prepare eggrolls, gyoza, pancakes, crème brulee and many more.… MORE »

Cake is yummy. Cake shaped like a companion cube from Portal is yummy and funny. An Ars Technica forum user by the name of Neko posted a picture today (February 9, 2008) of a most excellent cake. This cake is not a lie, it is moist and it will be served immediately. You wouldn’t even have to take a test first. The companion cube cake has already received much love and rave reviews from other viewers on the forum.

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To celebrate Thanksgiving, the Gamertell staff is taking some time off to be with our families (and very likely play videogames in the other room for many, many hours).

As a special, tasty treat for this holiday, here’s a look at the Gamertell staff’s favorite uses of food in videogames.

Enjoy!

Amy Sutton: My favorite use of food in a videogame is in Namco-Bandai’s Katamari series when you use a sumo wrestler to roll up food. The food sticks to him for a while and makes him fatter. Plus he makes a great gulping sound when you roll up the food.

Jenni Lada: My favorite use of food in a game has to be in the DS title Sprung, which was released by Ubisoft on December , 2004. Sprung is the closest thing to a dating sim released in the US. It had two game modes that followed 2 characters. In Becky’s story, there was a chapter called “Serving the Freezing Dish”. In it Becky had to get even with her ex-boyfriend. There were a number of ways to get revenge, and one of the options was to slip a laxative into his water glass. I remember replaying that scene for about four days trying to slip the laxative into his drink. Apparently a glitch was present in the game, because it was impossible. Even on Gamefaqs people were stumped. Even though it ended up being an impossible option, I still consider it the best use of food in a video game.

Lucy Newman: That’s easy. BurgerTime, an old NES puzzle game that came out in 1987 based on the arcade version released in 1982 by Data East. It was like old’ school Donkey Kong where you had to go up the ladders to drop the ingredients to the bun below. You couldn’t drop them willy nilly either. They had to be dropped in order- bun, meat patties, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and then the top bun - by walking over them to complete the burger. There’s a few rogue foods trying to stop you from completing your burger. A hot dog that looked more like a red chili pepper, an egg and a pickle. Your only line of defense was a pepper shaker. The original game was developed by Data East and published by Bally Midway in 1982 for the Aracade systems and later for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200 and 7800 (renamed Beef Drop), Commodore 64 (I still have my copy somewhere), ColecoVision, NES, Intellivision, Texas Instrument 99/4A, Apple II, MS-DOS, Game Boy and the PSone. There have been many remakes and spin offs of the game as the years went by including Mr. Whimpy, Pizza Time, Ice Cream Factory and a few others.

PJ Hruschak: Since brains in zombie games aren’t really food for the living and Burger Time (my favorite coin op arcade game) wad already mentioned, I’ll go a bit more recent. To help Home Simpson’s stamina and to get to his lard sized persona in the recently released The Simpsons Game (2007, EA Games), he consumes various food stuffs throughout the game. My favorite is in the ice area in the Katamari spoofing level where sea creatures somehow spit up oversized servings of sushi. Next I’d say Snake eating snakes for health in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater released in 2004 by Konami for the PS2.

Richard Snyder: Bonk’s Adventure - Turbografx-16 - Red Company - 1990. Food is a common power-up in many games, but only a precious few really touch upon how necessary it is for you not only to stay healthy but get stronger, and none do it more directly than the Bonk trilogy.  Whereas it goes straight to the stomach or thighs of some people who eat a lot, all the protein in Bonk’s world is destined right for the cavekid’s noggin even going so far as to give him temporary invincibility after the third snack, as well as the ability to turn enemies to stone by landing on the ground headfirst.  Lesson: Eat your protein, kids.

Joshua Mallory: Burger Time has my vote for BEST use of food, but it was already taken. Kirby Super Star, SNES, HAL Laboratory, 1996.  While tomatoes and various food items feature as health powerups throughout the game, the fact of the matter is that Kirby eats everything, including the enemies.  When badguys aren’t palatable enough by themselves, he can even become a cook and turn all enemies into food.  Kirby has starred in games since 1992, but KSS is arguably the best game of the series.