Cooking-Mama-Cook-Off
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Today's yummiest game video: Cooking Mama Wii 'soup'
Now you're cooking with gas. Er, the Wii. We initially joked on that there were several games you wouldn't see on the Wii, and yes cooking was one of 'em. Now we stand corrected, because Cooking Mama actually looks ... well, delicious. Fun, too. We never thought we'd be saying that about a cooking video game, but here it is. Next up, games based on cleaning and doing your homework. Check it out after the jump. You can practically smell the soup from here, and maybe we'll actually learn something while we play this one. When's Quantum Mechanics Mario hitting the shelves?
Get your hands dirty with Cooking Mama
Looks like the folks at GameSpot got their hands on a working version of Cooking Mama at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, and their preview answered a few of our recent questions about the game. It looks like the use of the Wiimote will make the game more immersive, as many more motions can be included, and it seems that they consider the Wii a step up for this game, and more along the lines of what it was meant to be. Cooking Mama: Cook Off features 300 ingredients and 55 recipes -- will that be enough? 55 recipes doesn't seem like that many, but the gameplay is very nuanced -- every little aspect can affect your outcome and your score -- so maybe that's where the replay value comes in. Good news for those looking forward to the multiplayer, too -- it looks incredible, and very Iron Chef. We anticipate many fun kitchen battles, just without all that pesky clean up. You can get a closer look at the multiplayer aspects in the video of a CES demo.
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.
Ad critic: cooking with Wii
Gaming site Jeux France has uploaded this Japanese ad for the Wii version of Cooking Mama. Since Nintendo's video commercials, which point the camera at the players themselves, would not translate effectively as a stationary print advertisement, publisher Taito has decided to rotate the camera 180 degrees and present the Wii as a cooking utensil. The logic here, of course, would be, "if you buy this game, you will chop peppers. Peppers are food. Everyone likes food; ergo, everyone will want this game" -- or something similar, we're sure. The advertisement is minimalistic -- lots of unused white space -- placing a greater emphasis and surface area on the pathos-appealing mock-up of the Wiimote being used to cook eggs and prepare meals while relegating screenshots to a tiny row on the bottom. We think it's a fair assessment that Cooking Mama is not pushing the graphical limit even for a Nintendo Wii game; in fact, it looks identical to its DS counterpart. The raison d'etre for the game is an experience that is meant to be easy and fun to play for a wide demographic. In that context, do you think the ad is effective? See also: Ad critic archive [Via bits bytes pixels & sprites]
