Review - Cooking Mama: Cook Off

I have to admit, I haven’t played the original Cooking Mama for the DS, but all in all, I found this game completely boring. The idea is that you play several minigames for each stage of food preparation, and at the end you have a meal, rated based on how well you did at the minigames.

Firstly, the minigames were really boring. They usually involved movement, and — like real cooking — took no logic, problem solving or thought. Most of the games just involved moving in a particular fashion, and I must admit, I was frustrated with the control. Maybe it is just because I was trying to do things that I do in real life, but the controls seemed overly sensitive. This extra annoyance did not add to the gameplay at all, and wasn’t a challenge that I thing was intentional.

Secondly, things didn’t really show any sign of progress. Things didn’t get harder and I wasn’t really doing anything beside picking a dish, and then making it. The “Friends of Food” mode didn’t quite cut it as a story. This would have been so much better if I had a concrete goal. For example, I own a restraint and am building it up, or something. I don’t know, but the way things were, I had do motivation to do anything.

There was a very small variety of minigames, just a handful. Doing these things over and over, just in different order with different ingredients isn’t really fun at all. For some, maybe the cooking part is educational, but I cook a lot, and nothing was more interesting than reading a cookbook (which as you can imagine, isn’t interesting). I think they did give a good idea of what it is like to actually be in a kitchen, and if you don’t cook, there is a small chance this’ll give you the confidence to get in the kitchen. But maybe they shouldn’t have reproduced the cooking experience so accurately… since it is boring.

All in all, I only give it a 5 out of 10. Among other reviewer, it has an average of 62%, so it doesn’t look like other found it that interesting either. Quite a disappointment since Wired News said it is the Best “Game of CES 2007″. Guess CES 2007 didn’t have many good games.

Save yourself the money and don’t get this. If you have a thing for food and don’t want to actually cook, then maybe this is for you. But seriously, we can find a better game for you.

Tags: wii nunchuk, no more heros, wii games, new releases, nintendo wii game