Open up your own fast food restaurant in Fast Food Panic on Wii and DS (DS version reviewed here). It’s like a cross between Cooking Mama and Diner Dash. Fry up burgers, pizzas, and more—plus keep your customers happy! It’s a hectic, yet fun twist on the two most tried and true casual cooking challenges.

On the top screen you can see your customers as they are seated. Make sure to greet them when they enter, clean up after them when they’re done, and chase away any pests and vermin. You can do this by tapping the appropriate button on the side of the touch screen. Watch out for food critics and big eaters who will require extra attention. In later stages, your waitress may ask for help manning the cash register or cleaning tables in stylus-based challenges on the bottom screen.

Speaking of which, on the bottom screen is also where you do the cooking. When your patrons order food, you’ll have to do a series of Cooking Mama style challenges to make burgers, pizza, sushi, pasta, steaks, and more. You can cook multiple dishes at a time, so when you put a pizza in the over or begin boiling pasta, you can leave them there and start some other recipes and come back when they’re done.

You can play through Story Mode or attempt to beat your high scores in Free Play mode. There are also a slew of cooking-based mini-games to try separately. The stylus controls are easy to figure out, and the game does a good job of gradually easing you into the gameplay.

The only main problem is that sometimes it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on in the top and bottom screens, but luckily there are sound cues to let you know what you need to do to keep your customers happy. Plus, I would have rather seen this game be about 10 dollars cheaper. The suggested retail price is a tiny bit steep for such a simple and short game.

Even so, Fast Food Panic provides a good amount of pick-up-and-play casual entertainment. Fans of Cooking Mama and Diner Dash should really enjoy this. Heck, even my mom likes it!

Kid Factor:

Reading skill is helpful for the text instructions, and younger gamers might have trouble with all the multi-tasking. Luckily, there are three selectable difficulty levels so players of all skill levels can have fun. Fast Food Panic is rated E for Everyone.

Tags: Game Reviews