Cooking Mama (Nintendo DS, 2006)

I already love to cook so when I heard about Cooking Mama I got excited. I debated for months on whether or not I should get it based on the mediocre and poor reviews I've seen elsewhere..mainly from people around my age (I am 23). Eventually, I decided to try it out for my self. I am glad I did!

You first start off with about 16 Japanese and American dishes. You can unlock more recipes as you master certain skills such as chopping, grating, measuring, etc. Some tasks are highly difficult for me such as peeling the potatos with the potato peeler, and cutting tough/thick cuts of meat completely before the timer runs out. That all just adds to the challenge for me. You can practice the recipes in practice mode before you are graded on them...still being timed though. When you feel confident enough, you can make the recipes for a score and medal in make mode. If you get everything right, you will receive a gold medal for that recipe or silver or bronze accordingly. The only weird thing is, if you fail at a task cooking mama's eyes go on fire...creepy! That's such a minor thing though.

The graphics are very bright and cheery...pretty cartoonish. The sound could not be any better. When things fry, you hear a clear frying noise, same with all the other tasks such as chopping, cracking eggs, etc. This game completely shows of the DS's stylus capabilities...the entire game is played with it. The stylus becomes the utensils. There are around 70 different recipes you can make total...some will be similar to others and require doing pretty much the same tasks. That what bores some people, but for me it's an exciting thing making each new recipe...especially since you really have no idea what you will unlock next. As I stated before, some recipes are American and some are Japanese. It's kind of interesting seeing how to make recipes from another country. Each recipe usually takes between about 1-3 minutes to make. This game is highly addictive, and if you dont spread out your time, it is very possible to finish the whole game in a short period of time. Even if you end up making all the recipes, it's fun to re make them just for the sake of it, or to get a higher score.

My younger sister is 11, and she enjoys this game probably more than I do. If you're into something that will make you think more or is more mature, then this game will not suit you. However, if you love to cook, or want to take a break from all those hard action games, then this is a sure winner.

Don't forget about Cooking Mama 2 coming out in a month or two I believe!!

Cooking Mama can be described as a cute, interactive cooking game for Nintendo DS. All controls in the game are done with the Stylus pen: chopping vegetables, boiling water for pasta, stirring soups and adjusting the heat (you actually blow into the DS microphone to cool soup down!), breaking eggs, spreading sauce, kneading dough, folding dumplings, and my personal favorite - flipping and pan-frying food!

If you love cooking, or want to learn more about it, this game could be a good starting point. It actually features some pretty healthy and diverse meals, perhaps with a stronger asian influence than other world regions. Meals don't take long to make, so you can cook a quick meal while waiting in line, and easily save/quit the game when you want to. Each time you cook a meal you get new meals to make, so there is no shortage of foods to make.

The game may lose some of its luster and value after repeated playings, but it is still a great game for kids, or to pass the time. Highly interactive, very cute and creative, and best of all, you learn about cooking without running the risk of losing a finger!

the game is hust ok We don't play it very often. When we first bought it we had fun with it but we got bored fast.

I bought my 8 year old daughter a Nintendo DS Lite for Christmas. She put on Santa's wish list a few games she wanted. I could not find it in any store because I was told that it was a rare game and hard to find. When I gave it to my daughter, she was thrilled. She plays it all the time more than any other of her games. It has so many different menus that you could play it all day long. I have two teenager daughters also and they have races to see who can get the fastest time. I play too when no one is looking. It is a really fun and cute game and I highly recommend it to boys as well as girls of any age.

I bought this for my 13 year old son! At first the idea seemed strange to me... my son actually wants a game with no shooting or monsters? wow... well he is totally hooked.... and so am I. The graphics are not great, and neither is the music, but there is something addicting about it. And the recipes are "delicious", the better you do, the more recipes you can choose from. But if you fail... Mama gets upset with you!!! you don't want that!
Great game, refreshing new concept. Kudos to Nintendo!!

I really enjoy playing this game! Its simple, easy to understand and provides portable entertainment. My kids, 7 & 9, really dig this game and laugh heartily when they mess up and make Mama mad! I mean - why wouldn't you think it funny to be carefully pouring cooked pasta from the pot to the strainer, go too fast and *plop* the whole mess on the floor!? "Mama will fix it!" AHAHAHA! I've caught Hubby playing it a couple of times, too.

The playability is accurate and goals are easy to accomplish - when the skill is learned. The reality in my opinion is right-on...I *HATE* shelled seafood - makes me squirm to think of shrimp cocktail with the legs and body on the meat *BLECK*! Well - I was just as grossed out to have to de-shell shrimp and crab on the game!! Akkk! Pretty realistic... ripping legs off *shudder*...

Overall, I find it a blast to play for those few minutes while waiting for the rice to boil in my own kitchen. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys a casual game for the game itself :o)

i baught this game for my daughter who loves to help cook in the kitchen.
she loves this game, there are so many levels and it makes you pay attention and really cook the meals and you get graded on it. There is nothing about the game i dislike.

Fantastic game! Even teaches you a lesson on cooking! I first got turned on to it when I brought the system. It is a cute little game and fun to play with others as well. A recommended buy.

I bought this game for my daughter's 11th birthday. A friend of hers had it and she loved it immediatley. I've played a few times and it's fun to test your skills doing things like peeling shrimp, flipping food and making a presentation of the food you "cooked". If you enjoy being in the kitchen and cooking, then this game's for you. There are many tasks you can choose to do- more than I know- but the kids, boys and girls alike, enjoy playing this game.
It was a great price, quite affordable actually (between $15- $20) and worth every penny of it. I would buy it again as a gift.

I saw this game in a store recently and thought maybe my daughter would like it. She is 11 years old and wants to go to culinary arts school when she graduates from high school. She loves to cook. She helps me at home and when she is with her nana, she helps her bake cakes, cookies, etc. I just thought she might enjoy this game since it is about cooking different things. I was right. When she starts playing it, it's hard to divert her attention away from it. This was an excellent choice!!

This game is LOTS of FUN!! WE have little competitions with the family on who cooks better for a better score!
GREAT GAME!!!

Food-themed titles are pretty much a rarity in the western gaming world; there are some RPG's that have some cooking components to them (Tales of Phantasia comes to mind, for example) and, if you're a retro gamer, you've surely played Food Fight and Root Beer Tapper. In Japanese gaming, such titles are a lot more common, some titles that I can remember off the top of my head: Ore no Ryori, Nabe Kazoku (both PSone), Burger Burger Pocket (GBC), Curry House CoCo Ichibanya (PS2). This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise if you've visited Japan because Japanese tend to be near food-obsessed - watch the classic '85 film Tampopo for reference.

At first glance, it's fairly obvious that Taito (this title's publisher in Japan) really went out of their way to create a quality title: graphics are very cute with lots of color, the dixieland-ish music somehow matches the game, and the game really makes use of the touch screen and microphone. In fact, I would venture to guess that this game makes the most use of these features; the touch screen is used for tons of actions: cooking, pressing, kneading, turning, mixing, to name just a few. The mic is used solely for blowing to cool food when boiling on your stove.

In essence, Cooking Mama is a bunch of simple minigames disguised as phases of cooking a dish: cutting, mincing, boiling, etc.; the ultimate goal of which is to produce a set-recipe dish. Think Warioware and Feel The Magic/Rub Rabbits and you have a fairly good idea of what makes this game tick. However, unlike these games, Cooking Mama has no central story.

That's right, there's no real motivation to cook all these dishes except to unlock other recipes of which there are quite a few, some 50+. There are a few game modes available such as a practice mode, mini-game challenge mode, and a recipe combining mode that yields odd combinations like potato salad over rice, but they are all centered around the same throw-a-bunch-of-minigames-together frame.

For those of you who happen to purchase the import version of the game, there is a fair amount of Japanese in the game but it's all in kana so it's easy to read (or look up, if that's what you do). A small amount of trial and error might be necessary to figure out which actions are required at certain times but the game is friendly enough to hold your hand when it's most necessary. For Japanophiles, there's not really much to ooh and ah at, except for the cooking theme, but (though not guaranteed for the US version of the game) one thing of note is the types of dishes that are used in the game. Lots of dishes that are true to real Japanese home cooking: wonton, croquette, spaghetti napolitan, curry, tonkatsu and all portrayed and "cooked" as uniquely as Japanese themselves do.

Overall, Cooking Mama is a fun diversion but probably not a game that will be played for extended periods of time. I hate to harp on the point again that a story mode would have really helped the game because, just like how spices are used in real cooking, it would have made an OK dish even better.

I loved the game!
Even though it was in Japanese, it was still easy to understand,and I have to admit...my little brother and sister became addicted to it, as well as my mother and father..
It is truely a game for all ages.

We love this game,and how it makes you go through all of the motions to cook a single dish.And we all love making a dish that lets all of us do it.

You get to cut, flour,saute, stir, serve and more in this cooking game and you never have to clean up a messy kitchen! And you learn to make great meals every time!

Each time you perfect a cooking skill or score well in the making of a dish, you get other dishes unlocked...

The cooking mama is funny when you botch up her recipe! hahahaha but she helps you through it and you can repeat it as many times as you need until you get it right!

Good fun, very girly, cute graphics!

My daughters really like this game a lot! They are 9 & 10. They laugh and cheer each other on to accomplish the "cooking" task! I would recommend this game!

Okay I admit I am a 48 year old mother of 3, nana to 4 and I love this game!!! It is so fascinating how sensitive the screen is when you are chopping items, adding ingredients and such. It gives you so many options to change the recipe and add things. I am amazed that there are so many levels in such a little game!! I asked Santa for Cooking Mama 2 because I liked this so much. My husband only wishes I liked being in the real kitchen as much as I like playing this game sometimes!! Enjoy!!

I chose to buy it for my daughter because it was just sitting there for 3 weeks. Once I bought it for her, I knew she would like it. When she played it, she would not stop playing it and she was non-stop. I could only make her stop playing by saying that a bought icecream for her. From playing this game, she has learned to cook very well and she cooks breakfast and lunch for me every morning. She loves Coooking Mama.

I bought this for my daughter's birthday. It was on her wishlist. Apparently you can use recipes and "cook" things. I really don't understand but she loves it. Based on that I am rating it "excellent".

I never thought this game would make such an impact on the entire female population of our family and friends. In fact, if there is another copy avaliable I would like to order for my eldest daughter to have at her house, maybe an Esater gift. Thanks

It was a christmas purchase for my daughter; who has not stopped raving about it. It has encouraged her to do more cooking in the kitchen.

Bought this for my 7 yr old daughter for Christmas 06 present. She loves it. Plays it all the time. She yells at it sometimes.

Great game, I purchased this as a gift for my mother-in-law, and it is very original!! The cooking levels in the game are pretty realistic, from learning to crack an egg, to creating your own recipes! Anyone who is looking for something different for a game, this is definately it!