Jumping on the Bed!

Last summer Mancer mentioned some sort of game for the DS that was a “cooking” sim. “Huh”, I said, “That’s kinda cool.” not exactly dismissing it, but not exactly thinking it through which isn’t strange considering neither of us had a DS. Later we found that the game was coming state-side and Mancer’s interest was piqued. He received a DS for his birthday last year so Sabrina and I picked up a copy of Cooking Mama from BestBuy and a black case for him for his birthday.

After Mancer begrudgingly allowed us to put our “grubby paws” all over his shiny Onyx DS, we played “Cook” with Mama for a bit. Mama is so kind and gentle and gets pissed when you burn your meal, but that’s alright; ♪Mama’ll fix it♪ so you won’t starve. The controls are extremely intuitive even if the actual path is not. Perhaps I’m only good at cooking Spaghetti Carbonara and Chocolate-chip cookies. Using the stylus as a knife, a potato peeler, a ladle, or dragging ingredients from the counter into a pot and stirring is instinctive. I think that having practiced a lot of the moves in Wario Ware: Smooth Moves like (The Mortar and Pestle, The Umbrella, and others) will help out tremendously. Quick, simple, effective motions.

In two weeks, Majesco is releasing Cooking Mama: Cook Off for the Wii. While I’m not sure how well some of the activities will transfer from the stylus to the Wii-mote, I think we can trust that the game itself will be just as much fun. The only disadvantage that Cook Off has to its DS predecessor is that while the original Cooking Mama was only $20 and Cook Off is slated for the high-end pricing (of Wii games anyway) at $50. Add to the 300+ recipes the ability to battle it out with your friends, a lá Iron Chef, and you’ve got yourself a kick ass title the whole family should enjoy.

Fukui-san!