Peeking at Cooking Mama's potential
Jeux France has a beautiful image of a Japanese Cooking Mama: Cook Off ad that has our tummies rumbling. It also offers a peek at the game, via teeny-tiny screenshots tucked in at the bottom. It got us thinking -- is this a port/sequel that gets you excited? Certainly the gameplay seems well-suited to the Wiimote, but Cooking Mama DS was an easy choice due to price. It's doubtful we'll see as much of a price break for the Wii version ... so is it tasty enough for you to pick up a copy? There is, after all, additional content for the Wii in the way of the parade of international "mamas." Is it enough?
We want to hear what you think about this game and its place in the burgeoning Wii pantheon of games. Will it catch on in the way that the DS title didn't quite manage? Will it offer that universal playability (it's for everyone!) that has been the Wii's best selling point so far? The Wii version does, after all, offer multiplayer functionality, and living room "cook offs" have a lot of fun potential.
In fact, we would dare say that this is better suited for the Wii than for the DS. For what it offered, the DS game was fine; we got a fun little title that was a bit thin on content for a suitable price. But a game like this could really shine when you pile a few wannabe chefs into the living room for a little chopping block action. Not only that, but for those of us who already enjoy actual cooking, the Wiimote offers more natural motions for such actions than does the stylus.
The Japanese version of the official site is up, so if the few screenshots that are floating around out there don't give you much of an idea of what the Wii version looks like, hit the site. It's pretty easy to navigate, no matter what language you speak (or read), and it offers some sneak peeks at the game.
It looks to us as though the Wii version is definitely an expanded sequel, but there's also the danger of one-note gameplay even with more features on the content side. Chopping and stirring up a storm might be fun at first, but as with any repetitive motion (and these aren't likely to change much as the game progresses), it could easily get boring. Multiplayer aside, is there enough difference in the wide range of international recipes to keep the single player mode interesting? The DS game lost some flavor as gameplay progressed; after all, there are only so many times you can make Mama happy before it's time to put that one aside and load up something a little more competitive, like Mario Kart.
A lot of our questions won't be answered until the Japanese version hits shelves in February (the US release is as yet undated), but it's always fun to speculate, and we'd love to hear your opinions on how this game will fare. The ad reprinted at Jeux France is also the subject of one of Joystiq's Ad Critic features, so if you feel strongly about the presentation one way or another, head over there and let your voice be heard.
