Before the launch of the iPhone Nintendo was already priming the casual market for video games. The Nintendo DS with it’s focus on unique inputs lowered the bar of entry for most people. I really loved how it moved touch screen gaming out of absolute obscurity, and years before the first iPhone or Android device was released. A lot of these simpler games were based on various slice of life and occupational themes. Cooking Mama is one of those such releases. It gained some fame during the Nintendo DS games with no less than three different installments, various spin-offs, and it continues even today. It’s one of those simple themes with basic gameplay, but the execution is what keeps people coming back. Today I decided to dust off the original Nintendo DS release to see how it holds up. Let’s fire it up and give it a look!
Cooking Mama has no story. You’re a chef at the direction of a kindly lady named Mama and she’s teaching you to cook various recipes. The first mistake you can make is assuming she’s sweet because if you mess up her eyes go aflame which is actually kind of funny. Either way the actual act of cooking is handled like a series of mini-games. It’s best to consider each recipe a level, and you have to complete various tasks to reach the end. You can mess up and ‘Mama will fix it.’ No matter how many times you fail an activity the game still moves forward. This only affects your final score. This approach reduces frustration and keeps things mellow. Cooking Mama is meant to be a relaxing game, and for the most part it’s just that.
What’s nice is the fact that you can choose the recipes you want to follow. There’s no set progression here. Go in any order you choose because many of them have steps the others don’t. Completing specific meals and getting high scores unlocks additional recipes, and you can tackle them in pretty much any order you want. Cooking Mama is meant to be played more than once. The first time through feels like you’re just fighting for survival, but subsequently you’re probably going to want to best your high scores. In this sense Cooking Mama has some arcade appeal. Getting gold medals on all of the tasks is no easy task, but I found myself getting better and better almost immediately. Sometimes the directions are a bit vague so it certainly helps once you know what you’re supposed to be doing.
The tasks themselves are all based on the touch screen. Sometimes the microphone is put to use (to simulate blowing on things) but the stylus is front and center. You’ll be slicing up meats and veggies, kneading dough, setting timers using on-screen buttons, sautéing food, filling up measuring devices with rice/water, etc. I’ve only just skimmed the surface of the activities here because there is a whole lot of different ones. All dishes share at least one but often most of their tasks with at least one other meal. That’s okay because it comes with the territory. For example chopping vegetables is almost universal in food preparation so I can’t fault the game on that. Some activities are most specific to just one meal such as rolling rice into balls for, well, rice balls. There are enough different tasks to keep gameplay fresh for a decent amount of time.
Honestly if I had to compare Cooking Mama to any video game it would be Wario Ware. I know that sounds strange, but hear me out. Generally you’re given short explanations on the task at hand, and have just a matter of seconds to complete them. Sometimes it’s as simple as pressing on-screen buttons. Other times you’ll have to stir and put ingredients into a boiling pot at specific times indicated by a gauge at the top fo the screen. Some of the meals have just a few tasks while others require many steps before it’s complete. In the end there’s no level that takes more than a minute or two to complete. This is perfect for a handheld title in my opinion where you’re often able to just play for a few minutes while on the go.
When Cooking Mama was first released I remember the publisher touting that you could follow the recipes in real life to make food. Unfortunately this game isn’t going to teach you how to cook. Everything is highly simplified. Not only do you not have actual real world cooking times but measurements for ingredients are absent as well. While I could see Cooking Mama giving vague direction on how to prepare specific meals it’s by no means a cook-book. That’s a really minor complaint considering this is a video game and not a tutorial on a real life activity. If you’re looking for something like that then there’s an actual Personal Trainer: Cooking title on the Nintendo DS that would be better suited to your needs. Bear in mind though that one isn’t an actual video game.
This type of software lives or dies by its controls. I’m happy to report that for the most part you won’t have many issues. Tasks such as chopping are done by tapping the screen and this is a very easy action to perform. Making cuts into fruits and vegetables is also quite easy and Cooking Mama has lines that guide where you’re supposed to drag the stylus. Even more complicated tasks like dragging containers to pour, or dropping condiments into dishes is surprisingly accurate. There are however a few tasks that I struggled with. Peeling vegetables can be downright frustrating. You have to move the stylus straight down for this. Sometimes if you accidentally move at an angle the game won’t register it properly. To make matters worse you have to remove ALL the skin from the food item before you can move on. It’s sometimes a struggle.
Cooking Mama is a decent looking game. Everything is rendered in sprites which works well, but doesn’t push the DS hardware in any meaningful way. It’s also very colorful and sometimes over the top in it’s cartoon stylization. If that’s not your thing then you’ll probably not be a big fan of this one. Food items such as fruits and vegetables, as well as meat and condiments look fairly realistic and it’s easy to discern what they are. Most of the time, that is. Every once in a while I was messing with an ingredient that if the game hadn’t told me what it was I would have no idea. The preparation area is always displayed on the bottom screen as well as the food you’re interacting with with Mama shown on the upper display. The soundtrack is very bouncy, and it’s nothing special. The music is serviceable.
