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Players: 2-6 (ages 6+)
Playing Time: 10-15 minutes
If you’ve ever eaten at an old-school diner at lunchtime, you know that things can get a little frantic: waitresses scrambling to take orders, weaving in and out of the lines of waiting customers who cram into every available space. It’s crowded and crazy, fast but fun. And you’ll have a strikingly similar experience (though, unfortunately, without that delicious greasy smell) when you play the family-friendly diner game, Order’s Up.
To set up the game, you place the call bell (yep—a real bell) in the center of the playing area. Around it, you place four food tiles, which show diner-friendly food items like burgers, coffee, and cherry pie. Each player gets a guest check card (or two, depending on the number of players), showing six different menu items. The object of the game, then, is to be the first player to fill your guest check with the matching food tiles and call “Check, please!” to win the game.
Players then take turns rolling the diner die. Depending on what shows up on the die when you roll it, you could pick up a tile to add to your check. You could have to trade one of your guest checks for one of your opponents’. Or you could see an image of a bell, which means that all players have to race to be the first to ring the bell—because the first player to ring the bell gets to take a food tile.
As you might imagine, Order’s Up can get pretty crazy pretty quickly. Whenever a player goes to roll the die, everyone else holds their breath, waiting to reach out and ring the bell as soon as the right image appears. And, when it does, you might end up with a smashed, slapped hand in the process—but it’s all in good fun.
Order’s Up is a simple game to learn, and it’s just as simple to play. For the most part, you just need to pay attention, move quickly, and match up some pictures—though a little luck can’t hurt. You might want to devise a strategy, too. For instance, if you’re playing with two checks, you can either race to finish one first (because finished checks can’t be swapped) or keep both checks about even. After all, with one roll of the die, you could lose an almost-full card and be forced to start from scratch.
Kids will like the funky retro graphics—and they’ll love ringing the bell (maybe a little too much). The only challenge for younger players will be swapping checks. Once you start to load your check with tiles, it’s tough to swap them without sending your tiles flying—and that might pose even more of a challenge for smaller hands. Then again, maybe that’s just another part of what makes it such a wild and frantic game.
On your next family game night, give Order’s Up a try. Just be sure to have some burgers, fries, and milkshakes handy—because this fun, faced-paced game is sure to give you some serious junk food cravings.
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