PlateUp – Review

PlateUp is a new favorite around our house. We love Overcooked and saw this one had some similarities so we had to try it and we love it! It combines Overcooked, Hello Kitty Cafe and Dairy Queen Tycoon in our opinion. Anyway, you can learn more in my review for the game!

Why PlateUp?

If you’ve ever played a co-op cooking game and thought, “This is fun, but I wish I could design the kitchen myself,” PlateUp! is the game for you. Developed by It’s Happening and published by Yogscast Games, it blends the chaos of a frantic kitchen with the strategic planning of a restaurant tycoon and the replayability of a roguelike. The result is one of the most addictive co-op games in recent years.

Each run begins in a small, empty restaurant. During the day, you and up to three friends rush to serve customers, cooking meals, delivering plates, and washing dishes. At night, you spend your earnings on new appliances, decorations, and layout changes, and pick between new dishes and upgrades. Each day gets harder, with more customers, more complicated orders, and new challenges. The goal is to survive for fifteen days and build a restaurant that can turn a profit under pressure.

What sets PlateUp! apart from its genre cousins is that you build the machine yourself. Efficient layouts, automated conveyor belts, and smart appliance placement can turn a messy operation into a well-oiled kitchen. There is real satisfaction in watching a design you carefully planned handle a lunch rush with barely any input from you.

As I said before, we think that it combines Overcooked, Hello Kitty Cafe and Dairy Queen Tycoon gameplay wise. Overcooked with how you cook, serve, wash dishes etc. Hello Kitty Cafe since you need to take their order have them seated and decorate your kitchen and finally Dairy Queen Tycoon with upgrading your kitchen and the different locations you can visit.

How We Test Games

For testing games we use a Nintendo Switch firmware version 2H. Hardware includes Joy-con and Pro controller on a large screen TV. Tests are done with up to 5 players. We take turns playing and evaluating games.

Whenever possible we play multiple players. We also use a Nintendo 2DS, DS XL, and for PC games we use a Ryzen 7 1700x CPU, AMD RX580, running on Win 10. This game is up to 4-players on one Nintendo Switch.

Pros

Deep, rewarding strategy. Every run presents new decisions. Do you focus on speed, automation, or customer satisfaction? Different combinations of dishes, upgrades, and layouts create very different restaurants, and experimenting never gets old.

Excellent co-op. The game supports up to four players, and it shines with friends. Communication, role division, and shared panic make for hilarious and memorable moments. It also works well solo, as automation lets one person manage a surprisingly large operation.

High replayability. The roguelike structure means no two runs are quite the same. Random cards, dish choices, and customer behaviors keep you adapting, and the unlock system gives you steady reasons to come back.

Charming presentation. The simple, colorful art style is clean and readable, which matters when the screen is full of customers, plates, and appliances. The music is upbeat and fits the pace of the gameplay.

Strong value and community support. For a modest price, you get dozens of hours of content, and modding support extends that further with community-made dishes and features.

Cons

Steep learning curve. The game does a limited job of explaining its systems. New players may feel lost when their first restaurant collapses without any clear idea why. Understanding customer groups, appliance synergies, and efficient workflows mostly comes from trial, error, and outside guides.

Clunky moments and bugs. Cramped layouts and the way characters navigate tight spaces can occasionally cause frustrating mishaps. Technical issues exist too, depending on platform and version.

Summary

Overall, PlateUp! is a standout in the cooking game genre because it trusts players with real strategy instead of just frantic button-pressing. Its biggest weaknesses, a lack of onboarding and occasional frustrating difficulty, are real, but they matter less once you understand the game’s systems. With a group of friends, it creates the kind of stressful, hilarious, and rewarding experiences that keep you saying “just one more run.”