Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop Review

Howdy:    *Simple, addicting gameplay
                 *Lots of unlockables and customization
                 *Cook For a Friend Mode is great

See Ya':  *Shopping is tedious and repetitive
                 *Mama dresses like a cheerleader in one mode.

Mama’s quite quite a few recipes under her belt, as well as a couple different jobs now. After a brief venture into the garden to get some fresh supplies she’s back in the kitchen with Cooking Mama 3: Shop and Chop. The Cooking Mama franchise is based around quick, simple mini-games that when put together form the recipe for one of a number of dishes and Cooking Mama 3 continues that tradition. The question is, Is it worth another trip to the kitchen?

If you've played a Cooking Mama game before you know pretty much what to expect when you boot up this game. The first option available on the main menu is Cook With Mama. This is where you'll go to get the traditional Cooking Mama experience. You'll pick one recipe from the eight available when you start. Each step of the recipe is its own mini-game and Mama will give you instructions on how to complete the process. Complete the step correctly and Mama will tell you how well you did. If you perform poorly then Mama will help you, even though her eyes will catch fire and she looks angry. The recipes range from one or two steps up to almost a dozen. Many of them will have the same steps so you'll very quickly see all the mini-games available. After you complete a recipe you'll be graded on how well you did and unlock new recipes. Each of the steps is easy to understand and the motions required are simple to pick up and perform. There are a few steps that might take a couple of tries to get right, but after that it will be second nature and you'll be flying through recipes very quickly. Some of the older steps that have been in the game before have been tweaked a bit to add a bit of timing to them. One example, stirring, now uses and meter that you must follow precisely and will speed up as you go.

There are number of different game play modes available from the very beginning. Alongside the traditional cooking game you have a mode where you can cook for a friend. They do have differening tastes so some of the recipes they will like more than others. Other than limiting the recipes that you can cook they are all identical in game play. You pick one of the recipes and you begin. There's no explanation of the steps, no break in between to catch you breath. You simply pick a recipe and go. It's probably best to hold off on this mode until you've had a chance to learn some of the steps involved. If you fail one step you fail the entire recipe. It's a very quick mode and very rewarding for players that have found the main mode a bit stale. There is also a cooking contest where the object is to complete one step of a recipe as fast as you can. This mode records your highest score so you'll probably come back again and again to best your previous record. This mode of the game is not very deep, but it is great practice if there is one step you're having trouble with. You're rewarded for doing well, but not punished if you mess up.

The big hook to Cooking Mama 3 is the ability to go shopping. You can enter a grocery store where you'll navigate a maze of aisles and customers to find a number of the ingredients you are looking for. The mode is good in theory, but in practice it falls a little short. Mama is controlled with the stylus, but the controls are a bit finicky and unresponsive. Customers move faster than you do and if you bump into someone you're forced to play a mini game. There is no instruction to tell you how to complete the task you just have to figure it out own your own and chances are you're going to bump into the same people multiple times during a shopping trip. It takes you away from the action on the screen to do a random, extremely repetitive game and it just doesn't work as well as I think it was intended. The mode is good for a time or two, but after that you'll probably avoid it. There doesn't appear to be any reason outside of a change in the game to go shopping as it doesn't affect what you do in the kitchen.

Mama's received a bit of a face lift as well. This is the third installment of the franchise on Nintendo's handheld and Cooking Mama is one of Majesco's biggest franchises and it really shows. The ingredients for the recipe are all extremely detailed and very life like. The only thing keeping them from being truly realistic is that the game uses a stylized graphical design. Mama has a number of different facial expressions and despite them all being still frames they animate very well and her emotions come across quite nicely. It's very easy to tell what everything in your kitchen is supposed to be, and all the devices work like their real life counterparts. Mama still speaks in her charming broken English, but may get a bit annoying after you hear "You can do it, or Mama will help you" for the gazillionth time. Each mini game is accompanied by the apporpriate kitchen sounds, such as knives banging against cutting boards or liquids boiling on the stove. If the DS could emit smells it would feel like you really were in the kitchen.

There are a number of additional things to unlock and everything in the game is customizable. Each recipe awards you bonuses based on how well you did that will fill up a heart meter. If you fill up the meter completely you're given the chance to play a scratch off that will award you will a random unlockable. This can be anything from new colors for your pots to new clothes for Mama. If you complete the steps of the recipe quickly you have the chance to earn more pieces of the heart and that will allow you to unlock new items more quickly. It's a great incentive to learn the steps properly as it's quite a lot of fun to go in and decorate your kitchen the way you want or pick a new outfit for Mama. The only thing you can't mess with is her bandana. She's always wearing it, though you can change the color. You can change the details on the interface so that you're clock looks like a kiwi and all the colors and backgrounds are changeable meaning every person is going to have their own unique take on Mama's kitchen.

Cooking Mama is one of Majesco's biggest franchises and the game play is fun and addicting. Veteran's of the series will be able to jump into the kitchen with almost no help at all and be able to cook up a masterpiece and kitchen rookies will pick up the basics very quickly. The game play is simple, yet extremely addicting. The new modes of play are fun, at least for a short period, even if they don't add a lot to the existing formula. The cook for a friend mode is probably the best addition and one that will make series vets extremely happy. If you have friends you can challenge each other in single cart cooking action to see who can perform different actions faster. Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop is a worthy addition to any DS owner's library.

Final Score: 4/5

Review copy of the game provided by Majesco.