E308: Wii Fanboy flips burgers in Cooking Mama: World Kitchen

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I should preface this by saying I'm not a huge Cooking Mama fan. Sure, she's great and all, but preparing fake food often held a spot in my heart next to making real food. I'm just no good at either activity. But, that isn't to say that Cooking Mama: World Kitchen isn't better by leaps and bounds than its predecessor.

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There are two things that became quite apparent when I first picked up the game. For one, I wasn't playing as Mama herself. Second, whenever I failed something, the whole recipe wasn't shot! And, as you can imagine, I failed quite a bit.

In the E3 demo build, only one recipe was available: cooking up a steak burger. As one might imagine, the entire process from preparation to creation to serving the dish up was covered in the demo, through a variety of clever minigames. These activities included grinding up the meat, chopping the onions and cooking everything up. Fans of past titles will find this to be a boatload of fun.

But, what about this whole "failing, but not really failing" thing? Well, you get a second chance now, thanks to Mama herself. For example, when shaping the bread for our rolls, we slipped and caused the bread to go flying. Enter Mama, who dives to the rescue with a plate. If you line her up with the falling bread, she will catch it and the recipe will resume. If you miss, the dog will eat it. But, the recipe will still resume. This means that the flow of the game won't be compromised by repeated failure and those who might not be so skilled in the game (see: me) will find that they can keep on playing, despite their shortcomings.

Another thing that is going to be a bit of a change is the updated presentation. With the graphics receiving a slight update to 3D, I found that it helped give the game its own style. Not that the previous titles were short on style before, but this new updated look really punched the visuals up. At least, that's what I thought watching the title in motion.

With only one recipe to prepare, I actually found myself wanting more when stepping away from Majesco's booth. Cooking Mama: World Kitchen looks like it will totally trump the previous Wii game, offering up some clever ways to use the Wiimote and the cooking fun that has made the franchise Majesco's biggest property. Look for Cooking Mama: World Kitchen to release for Wii later this year.