Cooking Mama

"Don't let Mama let you down, becasue she will!"

Introduction: Well, I recently picked up Cooking Mama for an eight-hour car ride. I wasn't planning on getting it, but then bought the game on a whim the day before the trip. Throughout your life you might have had people tell you not to buy things on a whim. As I learned, they are right. While Cooking Mama is not a terrible or broken game, it wasn't worth the $20 I paid for it. Mama ain't the next Emeril, my friends, she just ain't.

What do you do? Other people have said that Cooking Mama is WarioWare with a food twist. That is true. You'll be preparing dishes by going through the steps of the recipe. Each step is it's own little minigame. These minigames range from chopping, peeling, and grating to measuring water, sautéing ingredients, and cracking eggs. After you complete each minigame, you'll be given a bronze, silver, or gold medal depending on how you did. At the end of the recipe, you'll be given one of the same types of medals depending on which ones you scored during the individual tasks. To perform almost all of these steps, you use the touch screen, and, actually, they all work and are fun to do…the first ten or so times you do them.

This brings me to the main problem with Cooking Mama: there's not a lot of variety in the steps of the 70 different recipes. Sure, a lot of the recipes are unique, as you'll be making things from potato salad to curried pilaf (what is that again?), but the steps to cook the recipes are all very similar. For example, to cook potato salad you'll have to slice a carrot. To whip up some curried pilaf you'll have to chop an onion. Chopping both of these things is basically exactly the same thing. The carrot obviously looks different from the onion, but you do the exact same thing to chop them both. Chopping isn't the only minigame that gets repetitive, either. Almost all of them feel the same no matter what recipe you're making. Needless to say, this makes the game get old fairly quickly.

Another problem with Cooking Mama is that most of the recipes are Japanese/Asian. Sure, there are a few western-type foods, such as the aforementioned pizza, but the majority of the recipes originate from Japan. Now, you might not see this as a problem, especially if you live in Japan, but being a resident of the Western Hemisphere, I don't think this is ideal. A lot of the recipes you've probably never heard of before. For example, have you ever had soba? Probably not. My point in all of this is that I think the game would've been a lot more fun if I was making food that I eat, not food that people thousand miles away eat. I realize that a Japanese developer made the game, but maybe there could've been more localizing to the game to make it friendlier to the Western audience.

The main mode in Cooking Mama is called Let's Cook. Basically, you just complete a recipe, unlock a recipe, and repeat. There's not a story or anything to tie the game together. Essentially, the goal of the game is to unlock recipes or, if you're a perfectionist, get golds on every recipe. The game feels like a bunch of taco fillings thrown on the floor without a tortilla. Needless to say, I would've preferred if there were a “tortilla” to give the game some cohesiveness.

What do you see and hear? Cooking Mama's graphics are varied between cartoony, and sort-of-a-little-more-realistic. The things in Cooking Mama that are cartoony include various kitchen utensils, such as cutting boards and pots, and Mama (who is there when you cook). While I'm on the topic of Mama, there's one thing I need to mention. When you do badly on a minigame and fail, Mama will get angry and her eyes will light on fire. This is a nice little graphical touch that adds to Cooking Mama's overall quirkiness. The thing in Cooking Mama that is sort of realistic is the food. I don't mean to say that it's picture quality - it's still fairly cartoony - it just looks more realistic then the rest of the game. However, some of the “realistic” looking food actually looks ugly, such as the shrimp. While not terrible, I think the whole game would've looked better if the developers just made everything cartoony.

The sound and music, like the graphics, is just okay. The sound effects such as the sound of knives chopping, eggs cracking, and meat frying are all actually pretty good. They sound fairly realistic and add to the overall feeling that you're actually cooking something. The music is where the game gets into trouble. The soundtrack consists of essentially one song, maybe two or three, that plays over and over. The song itself is nice (it's an upbeat piano tune – I love the piano) it's just that there's simply no variety. If there were just more songs, then the music would be fine.

Does it last and is it worth it? Cooking Mama's replay value is probably it's worst aspect. For starters, there are only 70 recipes in the main mode. You'll probably be able to unlock all of them in 3-5 hrs. There are two other modes to play, but neither of them seems a lot different then the main mode. Also, like I mentioned earlier, the game gets repetitive, so you won't want to play the recipes over and over.

Overall, I would say don't buy Cooking Mama unless you can get it for the price of a rental, because it is worth renting. The minigames are all fun and the novelty of cooking will at least keep you entertained for a while. Also the graphics and sound, while not great, don't really detract from the experience. Cooking Mama is not a terrible game, but it's not a good one either. Some might think it's a steal for $20, but even the cheap price can't justify Cooking Mama's flaws.

Summing It All Up:

Two words that describe this game are…repetitive, short

Two words of recommendation about this game…use caution!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 06/26/07