Cooking Mama – Review

What’s for supper, Doc? Mum, what’s for dinner? What are we going to eat, honey? Is that my stomach producing those crazy sounds? Time to create something tasty, something delicious, something that tastes as good as those meals only a mother could make. If you haven’t paid enough attention to her cooking art, now’s the time to catch up with ‘Cooking Mama’.

With the Nintendo DS touchscreen functionality, all types of videogames became available. Cooking Mama is one of those games and it’s a perfect match for the DS’s touchscreen aspect. Interact with cooking ingredients and kitchen tools such as pans, pots, rice dispensers and, of course, a very good knife! The purpose of the game—in my opinion—is to get enthusiastic about cooking. If you’re not a chef or don’t have any cooking experience, don’t worry, because Mama will teach you step-by-step how to prepare a delicious (looking) meal.

I’m sure not a chef-style cook, I’m rather lazy in the kitchen and totally not into making special dishes. One of the reasons why I was looking forward to playing Cooking Mama was that I expected it would inspire my cooking habits with new recipes, and also perhaps some new cooking methods. Another reason was, of course, that it looked very tempting as a game—cute and not too difficult to play (at least according to the Japanese videogame trailers posted on the Internet). As soon as it arrived I started my new kitchen adventure and it opened really easily with a small menu containing some playable options. ‘Let’s cook’ is the most tempting option to start your cooking simulation adventure with. Several dishes & recipes are displayed and it’s up to you which one to start with. By selecting a recipe, additional choices have to be made. If you’re confident that practice isn’t necessary to learn how to boil rice or chop up ingredients, you can start preparing a meal immediately. But as a cooking newb it is perhaps better to check out the practice mode first—although, after practising just a couple of the cooking activities you’ll be so convinced of your abilities that you’ll never ever again push the practice mode button.

Time for the real deal: Cooking! Get challenged to prepare a perfect dish by cooking the food as Mama says. Start several activities to complete the recipe/meal, such as peeling a shrimp, chopping onions, boiling pasta, washing rice, spreading pizza sauce, etc. To make it a little bit more daring, a timer is set to complete the activity. After the time is up, the activity and outcome will be judged and performance rewarded with a bronze, silver, or gold medal. If you’re not able to prepare the ingredients in time, you’ll see a big “Failed” on screen, and a Mama with fire in her eyes but still able to control her feelings, will state calmly “Don’t worry, Mama will fix it”. If all of the needed recipe requirements are met, your dish will be judged. Actually it is the sum of all the medals or failures collected during the preparation of the meal. By collecting medals, more recipes become unlocked—with a total of 76 recipes available, such as fried chicken, seafood spaghetti, potato salad or even (the never heard of before) takayaki! To extend your cooking simulation enjoyment, it’s possible to choose and combine several recipes into one and to test your cooking skills in a separate game mode.

As for the graphics, Cooking Mama could have been a Game Boy Advance game, because there’s nothing fancy about it, just bright colours, simply designed menus, and any kid would understand what needs to be done. All right, the design of the food, the kitchen materials, and, of course, Mama all look very cute, but keep in mind that it’s never anything special. Regarding sound, there’s only one main tune and some sound effects on offer—the sound of eggs cracking, water boiling, and butter melting, etc. All of which create a cooking experience as ‘real’ as possible. That said, I’m glad that the limited sound means that Mama must control her feelings when I mix things up and she doesn’t start yelling or shouting.

As mentioned above, Cooking Mama could have been a Game Boy Advance game if it wasn’t for the typical DS touchscreen control. All control needs to be done with the DS stylus on screen, whether by choosing a recipe, cutting onions, or putting ingredients in the frying pan. It’s fun to turn your stylus into a master kitchen tool to chop, slice, pan fry, knead, grate, mash, tenderize, mix, peel, carve, roll, and more. And don’t forget about the other DS game-controlling possibility, blowing in the microphone! When there’s a pan with water on the stove, it could use a little blow from time to time to cool it down. And don’t worry, because Mama will instruct you when to use either your stylus or lungs to control your kitchen activities.

From a female gamer point of view, it’s obvious that Mama is the leading lady in this particular cooking adventure. The game also made me feel like a young girl again, helping mum, following her instructions, and trying not to mess things up; although my real-life mum never had fire in her eyes when something went wrong. If you’re wondering if the game is targeted at the female audience, I’d reason that it isn’t, as in these modern times everyone should know and/or learn how to cook a meal for themselves and try to do the best to prepare something delicious—male or female.

Cooking Mama offers up easy gameplay, lots of recipes, an plenty of fun while preparing 76 different recipes. It also has an appealingly cute look and, thanks to the famous DS control possibilities, there are loads of positive aspects to Cooking Mama. The only negative aspect is that it can become extremely repetitive after a couple of meals have been cooked, and gamers who don’t have the drive to collect all available recipes, or have the urge to get the ultimate gold medal for each recipe, will not be very pleased with the game. Personally, I expected a game that would motivate my cooking behaviour with new recipes, but it didn’t work out that way. Although I had a virtual pleasant time with Cooking Mama in the kitchen, it didn’t change anything in real life. Mum, can you lend me some money for McDonalds?

Review by Wencke
Thumb Bandits European Correspondent & manager of GGU.