"The recipe is finished! And it's a little...half-baked."

Well, well, well. What do we have here? A COOKING game? Yes, that's right folks. The first ever cooking game for your Nintendo DS. The name is Cooking Mama, and you'll be able to do everything from flipping to frying to peeling to boiling.

Sounds fun, right?

Somewhat. Just somewhat.

Gameplay!

Anyways, Cooking Mama is very simple. You have the main menu where you can cook one of 76 recipes, combine recipes, or use “skills. I'll go in depth on these now.

As you may expect, the bulk of gameplay in Cooking Mama is the, well, cooking. You can choose from a few recipes at first, but as you complete more and more you unlock more recipes. Who saw that coming? You can also earn medal ratings. Bronze, silver, and gold medals, to be specific. Who else saw that coming? Anyways, it's pretty fun. The cooking isn't the most realistic, as you progress instantly from step to step and everything always comes out completely perfect or completely wrong. Recipes are usually sets of 5-15 different cooking mini games stringed in a row. These include peeling potatoes to rolling dumplings and deep-frying pork. Sounds fun, right? Well it is. However, the premise of getting all gold medals is extremely frustrating – and not at all rewarding.

Often you'll be trying to pass one part of a recipe, constantly failing. Often times this is due to the touch screen's disabilities – per se the potato peeling game. You have to be extremely exact with your movements, one pixel off and the movements won't register. This issue arises in a few other games and becomes extremely aggravating after a while.

Replay Value? What Replay Value?

Oh yes. And your reward for gold medals? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. After all that chopping, frying, pounding, rolling, blowing, cooking, nothing. No rewards. Pretty lame, eh? This game is pretty much suited for pick-up-and-play times for a few minutes at a time.

Also you've got this “combine” menu. Pick from a few base ingredients, then mix with other ingredients. Voila, you've got “X with Y “Z”” recipe. Pretty lame. No medals too. It's basically just…cooking two things…in a row.

Okay, once you're done there you can try out the skill section! Whee, pick from your favorite mini games and try to complete 3 or 5 in a row without throwing your DS across the room! Some mini games are long, and when they require multiple passes on the stages, losing on the last stage isn't exactly the most exciting thing in the world. In fact, once you pass all the skills, you don't win anything.

Didn't see that coming, did'ja?

Sound and that other good stuff.

Well, on to the smaller things. What I did like was the music. Nice, calm and relaxing piano music is the perfect off set to multiple “YOU HAVE DISPLEASED MAMA! DON'T WORRY THOUGH, SHE'LL FIX IT!” showings after many mini games. Also, pictures are very nice – and enticing. The recipes will make you very hungry, perhaps even inspire you to cook! You never know.

All in all, this game is worth it used or for 20 dollars. Don't pay full price. It won't last long. Perhaps if they added in a few unlockables asides extra recipes the gameplay would be more exciting. The good points are how it looks, and the general concept. However, the makers seemed to just not follow through and deliver a solid game. This one seems a little well…

Half-baked.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/27/06