Cooking Mama

You can also test your skill in the different minigames to achieve high scores, but there's no real reason to do this. You don't earn anything other then Cooking Mama's praise - and you know by now how I feel about her opinion.

Allot of the dishes are Japanese in nature (sushi, takoyaki) or from other south-east Asian cuisines. A few are ambiguous, like the sandwich and beef steak, and there are a few purely western dishes like pizza and spaghetti.

The graphics are average at best. It's all very cartoony and very simplistic, which I guess fits the style. The sounds are almost non-existent beyond the cooking noises and a few chimes and dings to let you know how you did. The game does use all of the DS's features, including the microphone for blowing on hot food. Perhaps my favorite part is when I'm permitted to plate the dishes by hand. This taking of the presentation out of the game's control makes me feel much more like a chef.

The game's biggest shortcoming has to be the time limit. I understand that it's needed to add a challenge to the game, but unless this is Iron Chef: Cooking Mama, it's needless pressure. I'd rather be able to cook at my leisure. Some tasks are especially hard under this restriction when the game doesn't recognize your stylus movements accurately (again, see: peeling).

Do I like Cooking Mama? Yeah, it's fun for short bursts, but doesn't have a lasting appeal after you've mastered all of the dishes. No multiplayer is a major oversight. However, as I said in this review's tagline, this is Gaming's equivalent to fast food: it's quick, easy, and fairly satisfying, but doesn't stay with you for very long. Alphasim out.