Sunday, October 15, 2006

Cooking Mama (DS)

Reviewed by Kit
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Hello again. Time for another game review. Today we'll be talking about Cooking Mama, a stylus heavy DS game where you learn to cook.

Story:
Mama is teaching you how to cook, and you must follow her instructions to make the perfect meal. Plot really isn't necessary to this game. 2/5

Audio: The background music is cheery but nothing spectacular. You probably won't even listen to it after a few minutes. 2/5

Graphics:
The graphics, like the music, are very cute. They fit the game for its cheery atmosphere, but they wouldn't win any awards. When food is cooking though, the game makes sure you can tell that it is cooking. Colors change, grill marks appear, breading is caked on. While the graphics aren't impressive, they do what they are supposed to. 3/5

Gameplay:
You are given a certain number of recipes to start with. Each recipe has a certain amount of preparation. Depending on what is required you might dice, chop, simmer, stew, peel, boil, stir, knead, grill, and/or more. There are practice modes for each recipe so that you can perfect exactly what you need to do for each one. After you go through enough recipes though you'll have mastered all the different possibilities. If you cook the recipes well enough to Mama's expectations, she'll give you a new recipe to cook. Sometimes while cooking you'll be offered the option to change the recipe. This will unlock alternate recipes that you can cook again if you succeed in the preparation. Everything in the game requires the stylus. Gameplay is easy to pick up. 4/5

Replay:
Once you master a recipe you probably won't want to play with it again. So after unlocking all the recipes the game will lose its appeal. Perhaps you might want perfect scores on all the recipes, but that's the only reason to replay. 2/5

Overall:
The game is a cute idea, but like so many of its type it becomes repetitive quickly. The various recipes are fun to do, but there's no real joy in repeating them. i found my self skipping recipes that involved a lot of preparation or that required potato peeling (I never quite mastered that one). I'd recommend the game for a younger audience, or peopel with a lot of spare time on their hands. 3/5

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home