Cooking Mama (Nintendo DS, 2006)

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!