Cooking Mama

[importaku]

Title: Cooking Mama
Publisher: Taito
Players: 1 to 5
Release date: JPN March 23rd

Official website: http://www.taito.co.jp/d3/cp/cooking_mama/index.html

Screenshots

[Emir]

Is this difficult to play without knowledge of the Japanese language?
I'm finding Ore No Ryouri pretty easy to understand.

[Johnny]

Is this difficult to play without knowledge of the Japanese language?
I'm finding Ore No Ryouri pretty easy to understand.

Yeah, any impressions regaridng language barrier etc would be really welcome.
I'm being tempted by this one the more I see/read about it

[importaku]

Well i have been raving about this weird little game since i very first heard about it & now i have it in my sweaty little hands, i can confirm it totally kicks ass.

Theres quite a few options on the main menu but they can all easily be worked out, its no harder to navigate than jump superstars or band bros.

The cooking takes place from the main dish menu, you select a dish to cook from the plates sitting on the shelves, they seem to be random each time you start a new game for the very first time.

The cooking itself takes the form of small minigames, a bit like made in wario. After each task mama rates you from bronze to gold depending on how well you did.

I had to do various tasks like beat the eggs, then flip the meat round in the flour to coat them, then dip the meat in the beaten egg & finally into the breadcrumbs.

Now for the fun & slightly hard bit, during the actual cooking on the top screen is marks that come across from right to left & with them there is a command in japanese (think donkey konga). When the command reaches the arrow you have to either.

Adjust the cooking temp,
Press the meat down in the pan,
Shake the pan,
Add an ingredient,
Stir,
And in some recipies you have to blow into the mic to cool it.

Dont let the text put any of you off, im going to translate those bits for you all so you dont have to guess.

Anyway once you have completed cooking you just have to arrange it all on a plate them select finish. You are then given a final score depending on your cooking peformance. Once you complete a dish, more start to unlock in the selection screen.

There are a few more modes on the title screen like challenge mode where you have to complete a dish without making a single mistake.

I'll post more later (^_^)

If you have played ore no ryouri then you will have a good idea what to expect.

[Emir]

Can't wait for my copy now.
Cheers fella.

[Johnny]

Excellent write up mate. I'm just heading over to order mine now

[Johnny]

For anyone who wants to see gameplay footage, there's a great video here.

[importaku]

I have worked out a few more modes.

The challenge mode is different to what i thought, you basically have a list of all the cooking steps to try out. For example if you want more practice chopping onions you select that certain step.

It consists of 5 stages getting harder each time. This is a good mode for honing your cooking skills. However the cooking steps only unlock to try in challenge mode once you have done them at least once in the main game.

The other mode is a weird one, its like the main game but instead of cooking 1 dish you get to combine 2 together of your choosing & then cook them.

I also discovered theres variations in the recipes, for example when you cook the burger. Just before you get to cook it a menu pops up letting you add to the recipe, for example you could do a plain burger or you could select an american burger which is topped with a fried egg. The extra steps then kick in & the recipe changes.

There seems lots to unlock at the moment, i have already unlocked 20 recipies & they keep coming, theres also the gold medals to aim for on each dish & getting a perfect score in the challenge mode.

[buster_broon]

That does look great

[Emir]

For anyone who wants to see gameplay footage, there's a great video here.

Thanks for that(^_^)

[Vince]

Cheers for the impressions, thats another game to add to my expanding want list.

[Julio III]

Nice to see some impressions of gameplay finally. May have to put my order in now, argh, more money going out...

[dataDave]

LOL! Can you set fire to stuff? I might try it out, sounds fun.

[importaku]

You can burn the food if you leave it cooking too long. Sadly no you can't burn down the kitchen & no you can't whip out your knob for mama to see.

[Miguel007]

It sounds fantastic, another one ordered then.