Cooking Mama, available for the Nintendo DS, is one of the best and cheapest games released this season and a definite must-buy for anyone with the system. The game, which falls in part-cooking simulation and part-short minigames, is another risk by Nintendo to when it comes to games. It offers a new experience suitable for gamers both young and old.
The game has three modes: “Let’s Cook”, “Let’s Combine,” and “Use Skill.” In all three modes, the top screen of the system shows your teacher, Mama, giving you an assignment, a timer, and various bars or icons to let you know how the task’s going.
At the end of each task in any mode, Mama will tell you how you did. If you did a horrible job, Mama will be mad, with fire in her eyes and soul, and will give you a bronze metal. If you did well, Mama will assign you a silver medal and give you a hearty, “Well done.” If you manage to do everything perfectly, Mama will be pleased and give you a gold metal.
“Let’s Cook” is the main mode in the game, with the other two being variations and offshoots which offer more as you advance. It begins with 10 of the 76 potential recipes offered.
When you select a recipe, for example pork curry, you will be given an option to first practice all the steps, or to go ahead and right away make the recipe. As you follow the recipe, occasionally along the way new options will be offered to expand on it and make a new recipe.
For example pork curry can become beef curry or vegetable curry. When you have finished all the steps of the recipe, based on your overall performance, Mama will give you either no medal or one of the copper, silver or gold medals. In addition, if your recipe manages to earn any medal, you often unlock a new recipe.
Overall, this is a fantastic game with tons of replay value. It feels more like an actual cooking activity since every action is carried out using the stylus. The exception is when you happen to be cooking or stewing in the pan, you might need to blow into the microphone to cool it off.
The only downside is at times the screen isn’t sensitive enough to register where you are chopping, peeling, or poking. Aside from that, Cooking Mama is a lot of fun and for under $20 is a great deal.