"Better than Mama!"

Cooking Mama is one of the DS games that simulate real life tasks. In it you cook different dishes from around the world. Be it Japanese Gyoza, Italian Pizza or American Hamburgers, if you can think of it, more than likely you can cook it!

Gameplay-8
This game simulates the job of a Professional Chef. You use the stylus to create dishes. The dishes are created through doing stylus based mini games. This works and the mini games have you do what you would do in real life. Now mini games are rarely difficult, but when I think of mini games I think Warioware. Warioware has 5 second mini games that you complete with a swipe of a stylus or the push of a button. The mini games in Cooking Mama are longer and harder. But they are not harder in the sense that you can't do them. They're hard because they are hard to do in the time limit. And I have gotten frustrated. But besides that the gameplay in Cooking Mama is fine, and a lot of fun too. Also there is a mode where you mix dishes, but I find nothing special about it and you don't really mix dishes. I would have liked a mode where you create dishes picking a bunch of different minigames and mashing them together. Maybe for the sequel.

Graphics-8
I love the 2D art style and bright colorful graphics. When you are cooking sometimes when preparing the dish it will be like real shrimp, and most of the time when your finished the dish will be real. The "real looking" dishes are good but some times you can't tell what they are. Which is fine with me. I don't care what I'm cooking. I think some people might have wanted a realistic looking chef and things like that but I love the cartoony look, I couldn't care less.

Audio-7
The sounds of things being fried and stuff. The music is a little repetitive. There aren't many other sounds, and nothing really stands out. But the cooking sounds are good like water being boiled and pretty much things you hear when cooking.

Replayability-6
You may get bored really quick with this game. But it is perfect for short bursts. You may find the recipe mixing mode fun, but I do not. Maybe if I was able to create a chocolate pizza. . .

Buy Or Rent?
It depends about what your interested in. It's not a game that ends so Renting might not do it justice. For $20 it is a fun little distraction, and for people who like to S rank and Gold medal things, this is a perfect game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/21/06, Updated 08/31/07

Game Release: Cooking Mama (US, 09/12/06)