Cooking Mama

This game is really fun for all ages. I enjoy it very much and it's fun to challenge people and play it whenever!

I literally did all I could the first couple of days after getting this game. I overplayed it. And now I'm running the risk of doing it again with the second one.

I must admit I'm not much of a cook in real life, but this was actually quite fun. I liked chopping, but I find peeling so much easier in real life. And I didn't cry whenever I cut the onions. There are some aspects of the game I struggled with. It's very repetitive. I hated doing the boiling/frying/grilling segments of the game. And I mostly got bronze or silver for the dishes I managed to do. I got a couple of golds (sandwich and something else!) which I was proud of. And I did tend to swear at it quite a lot, which was funny to everyone else sitting around me at times, when I didn't realise I was doing it. And I got some strange looks blowing into the microphone on the bus.

If you're mostly rubbish at some of the dishes (understatement), you will find you can't really advance to bigger dishes, and it does get frustrating making the same dish over and over. So I eventually gave up. The practising bit was useless, I never really bothered with it, but I did like the skills section, where you could practise your skills - only to find out you were really hopeless.

I have started playing Cooking Mama 2 and have found some differences. But then I did complete about 8 dishes in half an hour - so I wonder how much longer it will last?

This is not a game you can play over and over again and not get bored. Once you know how to stir, cut, mix etc it pretty much is the same except for the steps in the actual cooking process. That applies to the cooking process too, cause it can't be different each time around for the same dish. A video clipping from amazon would have helped the decision process.
The graphics definitely is a weak point. If the game had options to create your own recipes would have been great to challenge friends. Like other games it should have had levels of difficuilty for any dish. That would make it a little more interesting. Other games also maintain your skill level and that could have very well been incorporated too(brain academy for example). All in all the creators need to put their thinking hats on to keep the gamer engaged. Thats key when you have a hand held. I would not recommend this game.

** I'm not sure how much the cooking mama II game is going to address. I'm big into cooking and hosting parties and this game was a let down, maybe i had high expectations.

It's fun but if you overplay it gets boring. The food is mostly stuff I've never heard of. It's pretty easy though. I would say ages 7-13??

This is really fun! You can cook tons of both weird food, and normal food. But I'm warning you, if you play it too much, it can get really boring, really quickly. If you're looking for a fun game for the Nintendo DS, then I suggest buying this game.