Game Reviews: 'The Mummy,' 'Order Up!'

Virginian-Pilot

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

$30 to $50 for Nintendo Wii and DS and Sony PlayStation 2 from Vivendi (reviewed on PS2)

Rated Teen

When "The Mummy" hit theaters in 1999, no one could have predicted that its star, Brendan Fraser, would turn it into a blockbuster franchise. Nine years later, not only is the third movie hitting screens Aug. 1, but "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" also is being incarnated as a video game.

This is a nearly mindless third-person action-adventure game. Anyone who has seen any of the "Mummy" movies should know what to expect: a lot of gun and hand-to-hand combat, exotic locations and a puzzle here and there just to let the guns cool down.

Gamers play as Rick O'Connell (Fraser) and his son as they travel from ancient Chinese catacombs to Himilayan peaks to defeat the Dragon Emperor's revived servants. The combat is disappointingly standard. The puzzles and hieroglyphic decoding can be handled by most elementary school students. Some of the enemies are interesting the first time but go stale faster than, well, a 3,000-year-old mummy. The game was built for the weaker consoles, which is why the graphics look like they come from ancient China.

The best thing to do is to skip the game and spend $10 to spend a couple of hours with Fraser and his new mummy - in a movie theater.

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Order Up!

$40 for Wii from Zoo Digital

Rated Everyone

With the popularity of reality TV shows "Top Chef" and "Iron Chef," it's no secret that cooking entertainment is a recipe for success. We've already tasted the game "Cooking Mama," but "Order Up!" takes kitchen creativity to another level by letting gamers run a restaurant.

While that probably sounds boring to some, this game is a lot of fun. As long as gamers can handle grumpy customers, rats in the kitchen and employees who fall asleep on the job.

The gamer plays a rookie chef looking for cooking fame in Port Abello, an island town where everyone seems to be a food critic. The goal is to win a chef's competition in the final stage. The first step, however, is to conquer the game's tutorial, a fast-food restaurant. The game moves from there to a diner and onto fancier restaurants.

Cooking is controlled by motions with the Wii Remote. Chopping tomatoes involves a chopping motion and cooking fries has the gamer grabbing the fry basket and then dropping it into the grease. Things get crazy when customers get involved. Many have special requests and getting those right leads to bigger tips. The gamer isn't alone, however; you can hire assistant chefs, but they tend to excel in some areas and "burn toast" in others.

"Order Up!" is a lot of fun and even funny, especially when the heat gets turned up in the kitchen.

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