June 2, 2024
By Esteban Ramirez
Staff Writer
PlateUp! is a restaurant management game that blends roguelite elements to create a chaotic experience best enjoyed with friends and family. It was released Aug. 4, 2022 on Steam and Feb. 15, 2024 for consoles.
The gameplay is simple at first. Players choose a main dish to cook and a restaurant layout. As players progress through the days, more main dishes and extras are added to make the game more challenging. If players fail to satisfy a single customer, the restaurant gets reset, and players return to the lobby. Although they have to start over with a new layout and potentially new main dish, they gain more areas and dishes as they level up, along with helpful furniture and appliances.
The game allows a maximum of four players. While there is a bonus in coins if fewer people play, it’s definitely a much better experience with more players.
On the surface, it isn’t a complicated game, but under a time crunch, the game gets stressful fast.
Each main dish comes with unique challenges. If players choose steak, they must wait for the customers to specify how they would like it cooked. Each dish is also assigned a number of coins based on the dish’s difficulty. Steaks cost five coins, while other main dishes can range from three to 10 coins.
After each day, there is a planning stage to make the restaurant more efficient. At this point in the game, players can shift the location of appliances and furniture to make it more convenient for players to grab the dishes, food and ingredients. Buying new appliances and furniture from their blueprints can make all the difference between success and failure. Players can upgrade appliances and furniture from their blueprint to increase work speed, but sometimes these upgrades come with downsides. Players can upgrade sinks for washing dishes to wash them twice as fast, but these new sinks cannot be used to get water for cooking recipes.
PlateUp’s simple graphics and concept make it ideal for people who are less acquainted with video games. On the surface, it isn’t a complicated game, but under a time crunch, the game gets stressful fast.
Will the customer order dessert after they finish eating? Are there more customers waiting outside? Are all the dishes washed? Is there enough countertop space for orders to be moved? Days that start stress-free can quickly turn problematic when trying to manage many responsibilities at once. This is why it is best to have more players who can split the responsibilities of the workload and, therefore, progress in the game.
I give the game an 8/10 because, while it is fun, once players pass the 15 days, no new restrictions and challenges are imposed. This is likely to be a drawback for experienced gamers, but for casual players, PlateUp! presents the perfect recipe.
