Cooking Mama 3 (DS)

Gamecow’s Price	RRP $69.95     Save $7.00 $62.95
Availability
Genre	General: Simulation
Platform	Nintendo DS
Release Date	12/11/2009
Rated

Cooking Mama 3 (DS) Product Information

The third game in the world-famous Cooking Mama series!

Girls of all ages have discovered the fun that Mama brings home, and she’s just getting started. Mamas ready to show you new challenges, new game modes and new recipes. Challenge Mama to come up with new recipes, shop for the best ingredients and give yourself a chance to fix your mistakes before Mama does.

With improved game play, graphics and multiplayer modes, girls will love the latest outing with Mama.

Features:

• 200 mini games
• 80 recipes
• Improved game quality
• Two new game modes:
  - What shall we make? Pick two ingredients and the game will come up with a tasty recipe that includes them both
  - Lets go shopping! Mama sends you to the shops to get ingredients will you be able to remember what she needs?
• All the classic game modes you’ve come to love, including Lets Cook mode and Cook For Your Friends mode
• Diary mode with virtual stickers
• Wi-Fi multiplayer
• New Challenge mode clear a target that Mama sets you (e.g. peel 50 potatoes in 2 minutes)

Cooking Mama 3 (DS) Review

Cooking Mama is one of the best selling franchises on the Nintendo DS, and for good reason -- this game caters perfectly to the casual market. Essentially a mini-game compilation, this title loosely focuses on cooking simulation, but don't expect to become a better chef by playing it. If you're looking to learn how to actually cook you should check out Personal Trainer: Cooking. However, if want something with a quirky personality, try out Cooking Mama.

For newcomers to the franchise, the game is simple: recipes are divided up into steps -- the number varies depending on which dish you choose -- and each step has its own respective min game that utilizes the touch screen to accompany it. Complete the mini games successfully and you'll have a tasty meal. Fail however, and you'll have a very angry Mama to deal with.

Cooking with Mama is basically like training mode. You can practice how to make things properly, and no matter how badly you mess up, you'll always make it to the end. There are 80 meals this time, and completing a recipe earns a new one for your repertoire, despite your skill. Cooking without Mama, and Let's Cook are less forgiving -- make enough mistakes and you'll have to restart the whole thing.

Let's Shop is the only brand spatula-spankin' new offering. Instead of asking you to prepare food, Mama tasks you with acquiring certain ingredients from the grocery store. Seems simple, but this mode has an extremely strategic angle. Once you're actually in the store, you have to dodge other shoppers, moms with babies and sample salesmen, all while keeping an eye on the ticking clock. Should you accidentally run into someone, you'll need to successfully complete a mini game specific to that person -- i.e. pacifying a mother's screaming child or eating all of the free sample food. If you lose the game, a heart is removed from your heart meter. Lose all your hearts, and you're sent home to a disappointed Mama. The issue with Let's Shop is that there are only four different shopping challenges. Shopping is an addictive and challenging addition to the series, so it's a shame that there isn't more of it.

Cooking Mama 3 delivers the same gameplay as the previous two titles, and while the addition of Let’s Shop is welcome, it’s too short to improve the game as a whole. If you’re a Cooking Mama veteran, you might find the formula tiring by now. But if you’ve never experienced it before, this will provide hours of effortless, home cooked fun.

Full review IGN