Tedious, children can quickly outgrow this game
Written: Dec 10 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: teaches some hand eye coordination, lets them decorate a cake?
Cons: frustrating controls, not enough feedback on a meal well cooked
The Bottom Line: We don't need games to teach our children the joy of cooking, or kitchen safety. Some kids might like to run rampant in an imaginary kitchen, but mine didn't.
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| Baldwyn's Full Review: Mickey's Magical Kitchen for PlayStation 1 |
I actually bought this game based on the high Epinion reviews for my 4 year old daughter. It sounded fun, and the reviews were positive. I know that the game is fairly old, but thought I'd speak out on it, since my review is contrary to popular opinion, and the game can still be found used.
Basically, the story is, that you move into a house down the street from Mickey and Minnie (are they cohabitating now?) You have this well organized kitchen, and can create delectable treats for everyone to enjoy. There's bread in the cupboard, pots and pans, a well stock fridge, and an adequate pantry. A radio plays repeating music, and has a number of stations, interrupted with bulletins on kitchen safety. Plates can be placed on a table, and a variety of meals can be prepared: roast chicken, ice cream sundaes, milk shakes, fish on top of spaghetti. Cooking is achieved by placing things in containers, using the stove, oven, or microwave to cook them. If you leave things on for too long, they burn up. If you forget things like the lid on blender, a mess is made. There's a sponge to clean up.
In addition to freestyling cuisine, there's a "Good Morning Griddle" and "Bake a Cake" oven. In "Good Morning Griddle" you can cook up a batch of pancakes, fry some bacon, prepare eggs, and serve 'em up with syrup and butter to Minnie and Mickey. Similarly, a variety of cakes can be created, with a bunch of decorating options, all served up to our favourite mice.
My daughter gave this game a chance, and I grudgingly went along for the ride. The breakfast, and cake games are nice in that she gets feedback (of course, it's always the same feedback) from Minnie and Mickey. In some ways, she can be creative with the serving of breakfast, or decorating the cake. But there isn't too much replay value here.
As for freestyling a meal, the controls are very tedious. The cursor moves very slowly, and clicking can sometimes be inaccurate. The game doesn't always do what you think it should, unless the cursor is lined up just right. There are lots of meals to create, but it loses its appeal when no one is there to enjoy it. Mickey pops in to encourage, but it is clear that this is a random, repeatable event, so a bad meal, and a good meal get similar responses.
The graphics, naturally, are very cartoonish, and not finely rendered, but that's acceptable. The music is ok, but naturally reptitive and a bit annoying. The voice acting is consistent with Mickey and Minnie.
Other than some hand-eye coordination, and allowing a child to decorate a cake without messing up your real kitchen, I didn't find much value in this game. My daughter found the controls very frustrating, and then kept expecting Minnie and Mickey to eat her freestyle meal. There is some amusement in doing the wrong thing, watching ice cream go all over the place, but not much fun in creating a delicious meal. Hmmm. In the end, we have much more fun cooking together in our real kitchen!
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Baldwyn
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Member: Baldwyn Chieh
Location: Castro Valley, CA
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 4 members
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