dimeuhday's Full Review: Cooking Mama: Cook Off for Nintendo Wii
So last night I cooked up some minestrone soup all from scratch in less than 5 minutes, not only that I was able to prepare exotic foreign meals in seconds. However Mama herself rated my meals. She didn’t quite agree with everything I had to cook. As a matter of fact, most of the time she wanted me to try harder. Sniff sniff.
But Mama listen, it’s not my fault really, the controls on your game… um, well they blow!
Cooking Mama Cook Off was first released for the Nintendo DS, and after reading an excellent review on the DS version, I just knew I had to try the newly released Nintendo wii version of the game. Cooking Mama Cook Off has brought to me 55 food recipes from 10 different nations, using 300 different ingredients, which I now can prepare on my television set with the ease of just flipping my wrist around.
I can now cook foods from Japan, America, France, Mexico, India, England, Spain, China, Italy, and Germany. Sweet!
The entire game itself is basically a series of a bunch of mini games that are placed in order to complete a certain food dish. However each task is time limited. So if you don’t chop the vegetables fast enough or complete the task on time, Mama will tell you to try harder. But instead of giving you a re-try you are thrown quickly into the next ingredient.
For me Cooking Mama Cook Off was sort of a bore. Each different recipe pretty much asked me to do the exact same thing as the last recipe. Nothing is really that different, and tasks become tedious and repetitive. Let me explain some of the tasks that you will be seeing a lot of.
GET TO THE CHOPPA!
Some recipes ask that you chop up some vegetables, waving the wii remote up and down as if it were a knife. You will have about 10 seconds to chop the vegetables.
*This task is far too easy, and I honestly wish they would of at least tried to make it a little bit harder, or maybe longer.
PEEL IT!
In order to peel vegetables you simply wave the wii remote up, and then down and the skins will come off. Hmph!
*The controls for this task make it quite difficult for me to perform this task. For some reason when you hold the remote upright like the game asks me to do, the sensor does not read the remote, and gets stuck a lot. You will most likely fail this mini game many times. I know I did.
GRATE THAT POTATOE!
Some recipes call for grated potatoes, ginger, cheese, or carrots. Waving the remote left and right can do this easily, and the vegetable will grate. However sometimes the grater will get clogged and you have to hold the wii remote upright and pound it down. For some reason, (like peeling) the wii sensor does not sense the remote anymore, and will simply get stuck or do nothing at all.
*Although the controls will glitch up, you will still be given enough time to complete the grating process. You have about 20 seconds to complete the grating task.
BUTTER ME UP!
There will be some recipes that call for buttering up a pan. There will be a large pan on the screen and a pat of butter. You have about 40 seconds to cover the entire pan with butter. This task is pretty simple. All you do is move the wii remote around and fill in the blank spots. It sort of reminds me of coloring. You will finish this task before time runs out.
STIR IT UP!
Stirring can be done by simply moving your wii remote in a circular motion; It’s pretty easy to do, although sometimes things can get a little glitchy and just stop for no reason at all.
IT’S GETTIN’ HOT IN HEA!
Heating foods are simple. Your dish will be placed in either an over, microwave or grill. You have to watch the bottom screen and make sure you turn off the device the moment the timing clock gets into the red. If you do not turn off the device fast enough you will burn your meal. You have about 6 seconds to get it right. You also do not want to remove your dish too early. This particular mini game does not call for any wrist motions. Simply click the ‘turn off’ button. It’s pretty simple.
FRY IT UP!
Fried foods can get tricky. You will be prompted to flip the fried foods whenever the screen asks you to. You can do this by flicking the wii remote in an upward motion and the food in the pan will flip around.
This particular mini game is easy except for the fact that everything is timed to precision. If you flip too early, or too hard the food will be ruined.
BARBEQUE, BARBE-QUE- A STINKY STINKY PEW PEW PEW!
The BBQ in Cooking Mama Cook Off is a little strange. You heat it up by using a Japanese fan. You move the fan back and forth to get the coals to start burning. Once the colas are burning be sure to keep an eye on the screen and not so much on the flame. You will be asked to flip the food that is on the grill. If you do not do this in time, your food will burn, and you will fail. Mama is not going to be happy!
LET’S COOK!
If you were to make minestrone soup, the first mini game you would be playing would be chopping the vegetables for the soup. Next you will be mincing them for about 10 seconds-Mama will then grade your chopping skills, next you will be grating some potatoes- Mama will then grade that, after this you are to stir the ingredients in a big pot. Stirring them can be difficult, the tasks are thrown at you fast, and everything is timed. You have to add ingredients when the game prompts you to, then you have to lower and higher the heat on the stove when you are told to do so, next you are to stir the pot. If you miss one prompt during any of the mini games Mama will decrease your grading.
After you have finished preparing the soup, Mama will give you an official rating based on how well you have done in each step. She can be generous and give you a gold badge (better than Mama), silver badge, bronze badge, or the big boot. Try harder.
After you complete a recipe a new recipe will sometimes be added into your recipe book. Yay!
Now what would of really taken this game to the next level would be to add the real recipe into my cookbook so I could prepare these foods in real life. Not having that is a little disappointing, seeing how the game itself is close to $60, adding in a few real life recipes wouldn’t of hurt. Fun and educational! No such luck.
MULTIPLAYER
Yes, Cooking Mama Cook Off will allow you and all your dorky friends to battle each other in this game. Well at least one anyway. The screen is split in 2, and you and a friend will be able to prepare a food dish. Whichever person prepares it the fastest and with the best accuracy will win the game.
INTERNATIONAL FRIENDS MODE
In this mode, you are basically challenging the computer. This is great for us dorks who don’t have many friends. Sigh* however you compete up against 10 different international foreign friends whom specialize in making certain foods from their country.
I totally hated this because for one the wii controls in Cooking Mama Cook Off are not so reliable, and the international friend is a specialist. The computer will never miss a beat, and you will. You will lose every time, so I am disappointed that this mode was even added, and why the computer ‘never ever’ messes up. Grrrr!
HOW’S THEM GRAPHICS?
They are pretty much like the majority of the Nintendo Wii games out right now; cartoony looking, and drawn in a childlike Japanese anime way. The colors are bright and sort of pretty, however there does not seem to be a large assortment of different colors so everything sort of looks the same. I’m going to give the graphics a 5 out of 10. Although they lacked colors, they weren’t terrible.
WHAT’S ON THE MENU?
Some dishes you will find in Cooking Mama Cook Off include, sushi, hot dogs, hamburgers, fried shrimp, octopus, pasta, fish, eggs, soups, custards, steaks, and more.
Alrighty then, let me tell you what truly annoys me about Cooking Mama Cook Off.
1. The fact that every time I get a gold badge for a dish, Mama has to annoy me with her high-pitched broken English squealing voice. ‘Gweat Joba, Bedda Den Mama!’
2. The fact that the controls are sometimes so glitchy that they stop responding.
3. The fact that I can’t beat any of the computer generated characters.
4. That each recipe basically asks for the same prompt as the last
5. That the game promised 300 different ingredients, but failed to mention that almost all of them are in the exact same white bottles just with a different name on them.
6. That the game does not include the real recipe so I could cook some of this sludge up at home. Octopus with ink sauce! Um… ech.
7. After completing a dish, I couldn't see myself wanting to go back and do it again. Basically once the 55 dishes are done, so is the game.
SO WHAT’S GOOD?
Well Cooking Mama Cook Off will provide you with a few hours of good fun. It is also pretty neat to play in multi-player mode and go up against friends and family members. Although the controls stink at times, it’s still a good game. Good game, not great, not excellent, just okay. Not only that but a lot of the mini-games will provide some arm exercise. Get them guns a little toned up!
PASS IT ON
I wouldn’t recommend buying this one quite yet, however it’s one of those games that I have a feeling will decrease in price quickly. The game play repeats itself, and gets pretty boring, pretty fast. Until the price of this game goes down, as of now it is only worth a rent.
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