click to enlarge
As you can see,
Cooking Mama has no story. It's straight off the bat to the gameplay. So, what is that like? Well, I'll tell you. You are given a list of recipes that you can complete. By completing each recipe new recipes open up.
To complete each recipe you use the touch screen to do various activities in a very mini game like setting. For example, to make gyoza (a Chinese dumpling) you have to chop the cabbage by making slashing motions with your stylus. For boiling an egg, you have to turn the heat up and down on the stove and blow on the water (only, that's not how you really boil eggs).
However, the problem is the game doesn't always register a movement. I would be slicing to my hearts content while the knife stayed stubbornly still. Also, there is a mini game in which you add ingredients to a pot. The top screen shows the ingredient and you have to add them all before time runs out. The problem is if you add it too early, you fail. If you let time run out, you fail. I guess I'm just not fast enough because even when I knew what to add, I failed. Frustrating? Yes.
After you finish a recipe you get a score on it. These scores seemed totally arbitrary. In some I got lower scores when I'd done more correctly (and gotten more Goods and above) while in others I got higher scores yet I'd messed up more.
Overall, the gameplay in Cooking Mama is as frustrating and nonsensical as trying to cook a chocolate soufflé over a campfire.
