Osmo Pizza Co. | Review

Disclosure - We were sent the products below for the purpose of this post. All thoughts, opinions and photographs are our unless stated. This post contains affiliate links. 

We have been using Osmo now for almost a year now and it has made our home schooling a little easier and definitely more fun. We currently have Osmo Detective Agency and Super Studio Mickey and Princesses but today we are reviewing our newest addition to our games, Pizza Co.

What is Pizza Co?
You have been left in charge of a pizzeria whilst the owner takes a well earned vacation. He hands you the keys to the shop and that's when the fun begins. Each day you will have a variety of customers come in to your pizzeria to purchase a pizza. It's up to you to make the perfect pizzas for each customer and create a 'buzz' about your shop.

How To Play
To play Pizza Co you need to have the Osmo Base, red reflector and a compatible device (iPad or Amazon tablet) which is not included. If you already own the items you are ready to play.

Place your pizza base close to your iPad with your ingredients to hand. Your customers will enter the shop and order a pizza. It's up to you to create the perfect pizza for each customer. They may order plain cheese pizza or a pizza with two mushrooms on and a pepper, it changes every time. Once you are happy that you have made their pizza you swipe the pizza to the right. This will push the pizza in to the oven on the screen. You will be able to tell from your customers reactions whether they are happy or not.

The customer will sit down and enjoy their pizza. They will let you know when they have finished and are ready to pay. To let them pay you turn the pizza base over and they will hand you their money. However sometimes the customers require change so you will have to work out how much change is owed and place their change on the upside down pizza base.

It may sound easy but believe me you will soon have a queue of customers waiting to be served and also waiting to pay. It's very fast paced however you can change the setting to fit the level of ability. There is also a junior mode too.

What Is The Aim Of The Game?
The overall aim is to make your customers keep coming back for more and have lots of people talking about your pizzeria creating a 'buzz'

At the end of each day you will be given a review of your day including your income, how much you spent on ingredients, rent and also how much in tips you received. You will be then given your total net income which will go straight in to your bank and you will receive your buzz score. You can use the  money you have earned to upgrade your shop with new items such as a new oven or wall decorations.

Is It Educational?
Absolutely.  Osmo definitely makes learning fun and can help encourage the following..

Following Instructions - You need to follow the customers instructions to make their pizza.
Colour Recognition - Customers may ask for just green ingredients or red.
Sorting - Your ingredients and money have their own trays so they need to be sorted after each day ready for the next.
Patterns - Some customers may ask for a smiley face pizza or a sunflower.
Maths - Maths features throughout the game with addition and subtraction when customers are paying their bills and also fractions when a customer just wants half a pizza with ingredients on.

What We Loved
Having physical items to use really enhances the play and makes it more realistic when playing. The pieces come in a compact storage box too which is very easy to store. The option to change the settings based on ability is a great feature. You can choose to just include notes when handling the money or for more complicated maths you can include coins too. The game can be played alone however I really enjoy playing with little J too. Sometimes I will be in charge of restocking the ingredients or handling the money whilst little J creates the pizzas.

What Could Improve
Not really an improvement just a recommendation but you need to be in a well lit room as sometimes the sensors don't pick up the pizza sliding in to the oven or the ingredients on the pizza.

For more information regarding Osmo and games available you can visit Osmo 

Pizza Co is definitely our favourite Osmo game so far. It's fun, fast paced and educational too without the kids realising.

Michelle