Review: Cooking Mama
nds
11.09.06 / 02:05PM / Joe
Two years out, the DS has nicely matured. We’re past the days of tech demos being sold as full games (ahem, Yoshi’s Touch-n-Go). We have enough new-concept, high-profile games to outweigh the launch day panic of N64 ports ahem, Super Mario 64DS). And thanks to the GBA’s agonizingly slow price point death, Nintendo finally feels confident enough to stop selling their first-party DS games at the $35 level (ahem, Pokemon Trozei). The DS rode out that initial wave of gimmicky criticism and has positioned itself as a must-have, just in time to lateral a little of that mindshare over to the Wii.
Although I think that two freaking years was far too slow, at least we’re here now and have something of which we can be genuinely proud. Because back when Nintendo first announced their little “third pillar,” it was far from an instant success waiting to happen. As far as I'm concerned, they beat the odds that it would be an absolute train wreck.
Which brings us to Cooking Mama, a tiny little game that perfectly epitomizes the DS in 2006. It’s an un-asked-for title in a little-seen genre that makes full use of the stylus with a collection of on-the-go mini-games that retails for $20. Got all that? Enough hyphens for you? This is the promise of Nintendo’s post-GameCube strategy: smaller, non-traditional games with a potential appeal to a broader consumer base.
Predictably, Cooking Mama is about cooking. So right off, you're wondering how you enjoy a video game about cooking, which is, more often than not, simply sitting around waiting. The fun of cooking is in mixing ingredients and creating something that tastes good, and how can a DS game replicate that? To my knowledge, Nintendo has yet to implement a lick sensor.
The answer is to make each physical act of "cooking" into a short mini-game. Cooking Mama is like WarioWare without the speed.
So "chop the onion" means you have to mimic slicing with downward strokes from the stylus. One task shows a pot with an assortment of ingredients around it - salt, egg, cream, etc - and you have to dump them in as the proper order is revealed. There's even a slow-moving DDRish oventop game where you stir, adjust the heat, and blow into the mic. ...oh hell, let's just do one.
  
This is Chicken in Cream Sauce, a fairly complicated level. First, you chop up the chicken, the onion (only one cut! Weak) and slice the carrot. These are all separate mini-games, which is kinda annoying.
  
Then you saute the onion and carrot bits. I really like the saute tasks, because you have to figure out which foods need longer to cook and add them to the pan in that order. Then you roll the chicken chunks in flour and coat the frying pan with butter. Again, every one of these pictures is a distinct mini-game.
  
Pan-frying the chicken is one of the DDR-type games, where you have to match certain instructions that float by. After that you make the cream sauce; the game pixelizes the ingredient that is next and you have to guess which it is. Then you have to stir it up without splashing. Remember, this is all done with the stylus.
 
The final step is another DDR matching game, where you add the chicken to the sauce, stir it up, adjust the heat and occasionally blow on it. Then you're left with the final result; Mama grades your skills.
Wasn't that super-cute? It's hard not to giggle at how endearing the whole thing is.
The recipes range from breakfast to supper, and there are plenty of Japan-centric dishes. It's nice to see that the American release wasn't culturally stripped of sushi and takiyoki. Happily, there are enough tasks that you won't feel like you're doing the same games over and over.
Most of the mini-games are both accessible and interesting. You'll be surprised at how the designers broke down some complicated steps into a set series of cut this / bread that / saute this / serve that. One of my favorite bits isn't even a game... it's when you get to arrange the meal on the plate, or draw in ketchup on top of the meal. The game's sound effects are well done, providing a believeable assortment of sizzles and chops and splashes.
Beyond the recipes, there's also a Combine mode, where you can make your own dish from a short list of choices. There's also an arcade-focused Skill mode where you have to perform the same task with increasing difficulty. (And for the record, there's a Send a Demo choice hidden in the Options menu.)
Cooking Mama gels as its own happy little package. It's not a full-featured mega-title... but it's also $10 to $15 cheaper than full-featured mega-titles. It's probably just enough content to have seventy plus recipes to unlock and master (you're rated on a 100-point scale for your performance), but you're not going to find a very deep, rewarding experience.
Overall, it's rather hollow. It does not make you feel like a chef in the way that Guitar Hero makes you feel like you're actually playing guitar or that DDR makes you feel like you might actually be pulling off a choreographed dance routine. The games are fun and the concept is cute, but it might as well be a collection of mini-games about fishing or stamp collecting.
For example, there is often a disconnect between the string of mini-games and any semblance of a real recipe. Some recipes require you to prep nearly every ingredient; others will just jump ingredients in as you need them. Why do I have to dice the onion in one recipe, but the onion just appears fully-cut in another?
There is nothing immersive to the ridiculous conceit of adjusting the oven's temperature up and down and up and down during one boil. That may make for a more "gamey" experience, but it doesn't make much cooking sense.
Some of the tasks aren't very clear, even after several attempts. I still can't get the "separate the yolks" game to work; I always fail and piss off Mama. And there are some tasks that are just annoying... like when you have to slice a potato or whatever exactly one time. That's not even worth the effort of the instruction screen.
Another bit o' weirdness is that if you totally botch a task - say, you drop the omelette on the floor - the game will say "Mama will fix it!" and you will still be allowed to continue. Yeah, your score will go to crap, but you can finish out the recipe. I guess one of the undertones of the Touch Generation is that you never see a Game Over screen.
You should also have the option to run through all of a recipe's tasks without stopping for the useless break screen between each one. Part of what keeps WarioWare so compelling is the frenetic nature of an impending mini-game avalance. For a title that seems to struggle with emphasizing a good game over good cooking, you'd think they would have carried that out all the way instead of just half-hearting it.
Again, most rhythm games have figured out the balance between making the simulation experience fun and keeping it feeling real. Cooking Mama could have used a lesson in that. I would have enjoyed the levels being much more "realistic," with a greater attention to the details of the genuine recipe. It would have been cool to walk away from this game with a working knowledge of a couple real dishes, rather than just a vague notion. It comes this close.
Cooking Mama is cute and cheap, and I enjoy the non-standard silliness of it all... but I have a feeling they're going to have to kick it up a notch if they expect the Wii version to grab much attention. 11.09.06 / 02:05PM / Joe | 
