Genre: Party/Fun
Console: Wii
Cooking Mama: Cook Off , the squeal to Cooking Mama for Nintendo DS, was released for the Wii last year. Made in Japan, you definitely get a taste (hah! Pun!) of their quirky style. From its opening screen to the game descriptions in bad Engrish, it’s full of touches of innocent Japanese anime culture reminiscent of the iconic Hello Kitty cartoon style.
This is also part of its appeal- the wtf?!? Lolz! factor. Who else would think of a cooking simulation game other than those crazy Japanese? With such simple gameplay, it’s very easy to pick up once you get past the vaguely described instructions. Although it may seem that this game is targeting a younger audience due to its graphics, the simplistic gameplay is something that everybody can enjoy. Based on a bunch of mini-games, you “cook” by imitating real life cooking actions shown on screen with the Wii remote, and depending on speed and the quality of your job you get a certain amount of points. Why you don’t just cook things yourself in RL is beyond me…
Simple as, yet in a multiplayer environment it can get incredibly intense. This is partly due to fact that occasionally, and usually at the worst of times, when you’re neck and neck with your mate, your movement doesn’t get recognized by the game, completely throwing you off the required task, but no matter how unco you are it’s simple enough for you to be competitive against your traditional leet gamer as there is very little button bashing required and the actions are intuitive. The added injection of alcohol in liberal amounts also makes this hilarious.
As a single player game it’s not recommended as a purchase. Gameplay is exactly the same but you’re playing the computer. No fun where you can’t give your blokey mate a hard time for being shit at peeling a carrot. I’ve had this game for a while now and its still hilarious with the boys around with a few cold ones. Cooking Mama is not without its flaws and does get repetitive if played frequently, but it’s awesome for the casual gamer wishing to add something different to their social games collection. There’s always space amongst the Singstars, Buzz and Guitar Heroes, for cooking up a storm.