Review
Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic
By Jorge Figueiredo - January 24th, 2012
At any given time, there will be at least one person playing a Cooking Mama title on their DS while riding the subway; this is a scientific law*. And why not? Cooking Mama is, essentially, a mini-game based cookbook, taking recipes and teaching them using a gaming interface. Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic is the latest in the addictive series and is the first of the bunch made specifically for the 3DS – but it is not necessarily the greatest. Let’s take a look at why Cooking Mama 4 is not as tasty as it could have been.
As is the case with the previous games in the series, Cooking Mama 4 presents a recipe for a certain dish and breaks down the stages of cooking into discreet mini-games (some time-based; some not – most using the touch-screen); your performance will earn you one of four medals (black, bronze, silver or gold) and most likely some encouraging or disheartening dialogue from Mama herself.
You will use the stylus as a multi-tool, representing various utensils that you would find in the kitchen (like a knife or cleaver) or perhaps something a little more handy (er…like your hands**). The motion-based control of the 3DS is also used rather effectively to simulate other cooking processes (for instance, tilting and shaking it like you would a frying pan), most likely in the hopes of making the game feel more realistic. One of my favourite gimmicks is the use of the microphone to blow smoke out of the way while you are frying (read: burning) things on the stove. Whether you are cooking up a steak or making yourself some ramen, you will always find yourself with more than a few things to keep you engaged.
This mini-game would be much more fun if it was real – and combined with Perfection.
The problem is that you probably won’t be engaged for too long. I have never played any of the previous Cooking Mama titles, but I have seen quite a number of people playing them – and I have played Camping Mama; these other titles don’t look all that different from the one reviewed here. What should be the great differentiator – the 3D – is not really used to its full potential. I suppose that it is tough to integrate it into the process directly, due to the touch screen not being 3D-enabled; however, I felt like it could have been used differently, resulting in more immersion rather than what appears to be a cheap attempt to cash in on the hysteria that seems to follow 3D technology wherever it pops up.
The graphics are cartoonish; this is not such a big deal due to the focus being on game-play (or game-plating***). The same thing can be said for the music and sound effects – although the music tends to grate (ha!) after a while, the sound effects are decent. Perhaps the most annoying thing is Mama’s weird voice; after having played Camping Mama, it feels like I have heard it all before. Although, I do find it quite amusing that Mama either loves your work or absolutely hates it****.
Just what you need to do in a video game: clean dishes.
Decent representation of international cuisine (sixty recipes), tight controls and unlockables galore add to the “pros” column. The ability to combine dishes is entertaining, as is the download play feature (allowing four players to have a cooking competition on four 3DS’s using one cart). However, even these are not enough incentive to get this game if you own one of the previous titles in the series. Of course, if you are a neophyte to the Mama series, it is probably fine to start with this title if you have a 3DS – provided you play it in manageable portions instead of treating it like an all-you-can-eat buFfet (to preserve your sanity).
