Nintendo DS - Cooking Mama

Format
Nintendo DS
Publisher
505 Games
Developer
Office Create
Country of origin
Japan
Genre
Mundane simulation

Cooking Mama

By David Rasmussen
14th Sep 07

Ever since the good old days of the PSOne (and that game which never left Japan which featured the art of cooking in a bunch of Japanese versions of fast food establishments) those with a hankering for video game cooking has been wondering when the next innovation in cooking in video game format would happen.
Sure, sure, Harvest Moon for the longest time has been offering you (depending on which iteration of the franchise we’re talking about) various means to cook during gameplay, only even at the best of times the cooking is still rather sterile and doesn’t really get you into the trenches of full on hands on cooking.
Even the old PSOne Japan Only release game which had cooking wasn’t very good at it, since a PSOne controller is no way to cook.

That all changed last year when Cooking Mama first graced the Nintendo DS, and a cooking experience never before seen was laid out before you. That was improved upon later, with the Wii version of Cooking Mama which had a little more added to it including hints as to who “you” are in the game (I don’t know but I am pretty sure you play as Cooking Mama’s young daughter… or is that a boy with a Final Fantasy style gender unspecific look to him… her… it… anyway you’re related to Mama and that is hinted at in family photos strewened throughout your working kitchen in the game).

But this isn’t the step forward, this is the first generation of the game. Cooking Mama for the Nintendo DS.
First off let’s nip something in the bud that you might have heard about in regard to the big comparision between the DS and Wii versions… in that the DS version has more recipes than the Wii version.
Well, upon further digging into the game it’s not exactly that the DS version has more recipes (which it does as it really packs 75 recipes over the Wii‘s 55) but moreso the fact that the Wii version is missing a few vital options available in the DS version (which goes a ways into explaining why it is packing 75 or so recipes).

If you are already a veteran of the DS version of Cooking Mama then you know by heart that the Wii version is short a few options in cooking, mainly the choice of alternate recipe types and the “Combine” option. During a good amount of the recipes (at key points) you’ll be able to choose to make the recipe a different way, depending on the options given to you at such and such a time of the recipes’ development. These options change the final result, and change the way you make the recipe as it’s being put together. This squeezes out additional recipe types in gameplay (you will eventually unlock said alternate recipes as you play through the game though).

The other option, Combine, is not actually a means to open new recipes as it is to lengthen the work you do by taking two pre-existing recipes and combining them into one dish (spaghetti and fried chicken, for example). This seemingly makes a “new” recipe, until you realize that you are just going through the paces of each recipe put together without the benefit of any new moves to combine the two together. This wouldn’t have offered much to the Wii version, but it would have put in abit of depth.

If there is any further ways the DS improves it’s recipe list, however, it’s in that it packs far more “throwaway” recipes than the Wii version. More recipes here are ultra simple (requiring a base minimum few steps to finish). While in the Wii version we had a few throwaways like popcorn, hotdog and “Ratatoille” (not to be confused with the movie of the same name) this one has more like your typical cup o’ noodles style recipe which requires only hot water to finish (and so on).

This version you have new cooking methods, or to be more precise old methods that was dropped from the Wii version for one reason or another. All of these are, yes, stylus centric (probably why they were dropped as they probably wouldn’t have translated well into Wiimote waving).
Fill a bowl with water or rice or whatever using a measuring cup that doesn‘t exactly tell you how much your filling in (meaning you have to do it all by sight only).
Hot peeling (peel a hot potato or something before you burn yourself and “accidentially” destroy the thing you are peeling.
Blowing on the microphone to “cool” food. This seems innovative, until you realize that it’s only used during a few sequences and isn’t really done with great depth.
The worst of the modes not appearing in the Wii version is microwave useage, which is just you punching in the numbers given you by Mama and pressing start. Well… that’s certainly “challenging”.
And so on and so forth.

Old reliable methods seen in the Wii version are back as well, but these will at times make you appreciate the Wii version all the more. Cutting is nearly impossible to complete as you must contantly realign your stylus after each cut (making for a time consuming process with a tight deadline hovering over you). Mixing is also hard as getting the stirring going with the stylus is far harder than doing it with the wiimote (and unlike the wiimote instead of stirring until you fill a meter you have to stir until it reaches a certain green area and then keep it hovering in that area by alternating between stirring and not stirring (too much and the contents of your bowl scatter all over the place)). Usng the rolling pin and a few other operations once made easy via the Wii is also harder to master with the stylus.

No voice acting (only in the Wii version), recpies can become a tad repetitive, and the challenge is mostly making the stylus do your bidding at times. As far as DS games goes it’s a nice addition for it‘s innovative difference over the average batch of cookie cutter mini-game laden titles, but due to it’s nitche audience appeal it won’t appeal to everyone (again, like Cooking Mama : Cook Off for the Wii).

When it comes right down to it you should have started with Cooking Mama DS first, and worked your way up to the Wii version later on. If you are going in reverse (from the Wii to the DS) you better be an ultra major fan of the Cooking Mama franchise because downgrading is not as easy as upgrading (when it comes to this franchise most certainly).

Still if you love cooking, and you love eating, and Cooking Mama : Cook Off for the Wii is on your list of Top 10 Games you own for the Wii? Oh, and you own a DS? Then going “retro” (so to speak) and reliving the past of Cooking Mama on the DS might do you a world of good… or not.
Cooking Mama for the DS cooks up 3 pots of chicken spaghetti out of 5.

-- David Rasmussen 14th Sep 07

Nintendo DS Cooking Mama Images