The last time we saw Order Up was in late May, when we got our first hands-on preview of this quirky cooking game for the Nintendo Wii. We managed to grab some more time with this title for an in-depth look at a typical day in the life of an Order Up restaurant manager, which, we can tell you, is no easy feat.

　　The fine quality clientele at Gravy Chug.

　　Your day begins in the island district of Port Abello, where you must first decide which one of your five restaurants you'd like to cook in: Mexican, Italian, Chinese, the burger joint and the dingy diner Gravy Chug. They all looked tempting, but we settled for the dingy diner, where the customers amuse us with their truck-stop manners and Old West one-liners.

　　Before going inside you must eagerly await the arrival of the paper boy, whose daily route sees him pass by each of your restaurants. You can choose to let him pass quietly while you scour the newspaper for new chefs to hire, kitchen equipment, cleaning products or cooking tips; or you could shake your Wii Remote until he falls over, kicking off one of Order Up's mini games where you can earn extra money. If you choose the latter, the paper boy will drop a whole bunch of newspapers which will then be rustled up into the air by passing trucks. Your task will be to aim the Wii Remote at the airborne newspapers and click on all them before they fall to the ground within a time limit. Each successful click earns you more dough (pun intended).

　　Once inside the restaurant there's not a moment to lose--the first of your redneck customers are already whining about their hungry bellies. If you're a beginner you'll be cooking on your own; later on when you've gathered enough pennies you can hire one or two Sous Chefs to help you out. The meals are done table by table, and you can expect around 10 or so customers in a day who will either sit by themselves, in pairs, or in fours. This means that at your busiest time, you'll be expected to churn out up to four orders per table.

　　After the loudmouthed diner waitress takes a table's order she'll pass them on to you, and these will be displayed one by one at the top left-hand corner of the screen. From there on your task is to open up each order and, using the A button on the Wii Remote, drag and drop the different ingredients to their respective stations: chopping board, stove top, deep fryer, grill, oven, and food processor. If you have Sous Chefs, their individual icons will be displayed in the bottom right-hand corner--to pass an ingredient to one you simply drag it from the order to their icon and they'll take care of the rest.

　　As a beginner you'll only be cooking about four or five different recipes, and the cooking itself consists of simple actions like peeling, chopping, frying, baking, stirring, flipping, grating, and more. Each action that requires actual cooking has a heat meter that lets you know when food is ready to be flipped, stirred or ready, and are graded based on three evaluations--poor, good, or perfect. With a typical Gravy Chug order like hamburgers and fries, you start out by dragging and dropping the meat onto the grill with the A button. While that's going, you can peel the lettuce by grabbing the leaves with the B button and then pulling outwards until all four leaves are off. You then use the A button to drag it onto the plate. Back at the grill, the heat meter is indicating that the meat needs flipping: simply place the hand cursor over the meat, press the B button, and flip the Wii Remote upwards. To cook the fries, drag and drop into the deep fryer, press the B button and push downwards to drop the fries in.

　　Each station cooks different ingredients.

　　Then it's on to the chopping station where you need to chop the tomato by pressing the B button and making a chopping motion (just like chopping a real tomato) Next, go to the grill where the meat will be just about ready--grab it off the grill with the A button and drag it to the plate. Take the fries out out the deep fryer (also with the A button) and drag them, along with the chopped tomato, onto the plate. Don't forget to press B on the waitress' bell once the meal is ready so she can deliver it to the customers. Different recipes will require you to do different things, but the controls remain the same: the A button for dragging, dropping and selecting, and the B button for actions. Remember that speed is the name of the game, as all meals must go out together, and no one will tip you for a cold burger.

　　After serving your last customer you can head off to the market where you'll spend your hard-earned tips on new recipes (120 in total) or spices. There's also a black market for those hardcore cooks. There's not a boring moment in an Order Up day--the next day it's another restaurant, a new set of customers and new recipes. A note to the wise: don't play Order Up whilst hungry, otherwise you might find yourself pausing halfway through with a never-before-seen desire to cook.

　　Order Up is already out in the US, but won't hit Aussie shores until October. Check back on GameSpot soon for a full review.