Cooking Mama Wii is essentially the DS game with a couple extra modes and more dishes than most will have the patience to complete. While the first game was unique, quirky, and occasionally fun, the Wii version feels a bit old and tired. Sure you get to use the Wiimote to perform all the actions that you once performed with the stylus, but every single one of the gameplay modes is exactly the same. That being said, if you didn’t catch the DS version and you’re starving for something to play on your Wii, this might be worth a rental at best.


Mama likes to play mind tricks on the weak.
From the main menu you can choose to complete dishes, compete against rival cooks, or even play against a friend. In the main mode brought over from the DS version, you’ll cook single dishes and then get rated by the Stalinist Mama. What’s new this time around is that after every few dishes you’ll unlock a competing cook from some friendly nation that you can compete against to unlock frivolous awards. Thank goodness for some semblance of a quest or story mode as the original DS version was pretty much just a sandbox tech demo in some ways.


A taste of the action.
So the core of the game is cooking food dishes. You do this by completing mini-games that mirror a step required to cook the dish in real life. Each step is timed and after you complete or fail each step, Mama will give you a grade and move you on to the next step. The mini-games include fast cutting, slow cutting, peeling seafood, mixing stews, cracking eggs, and much more. The developers have done a great job at mapping the controls associated with each step for the most part. Anything and everything that requires you to flick the Wiimote or swing it around is great. Everything that requires you to accurately point the Wiimote and perform an action is so-so. The worst action by far is peeling which is horribly inaccurate and incredibly frustrating. A close second is preparing some of the seafood but at least in that game things respond correctly.


I love me some slicin'.
Flip the Wiimote to crack the egg and then hold down A and move the Wiimote to open it over the bowl. Move the pointer to the correct position on the meat, hold down the A button, and move the Wiimote in a slicing motion to cut that steak. Hold the Wiimote vertically and make a circular motion as fast as possible to stir the ingredients. Hold the Wiimote horizontally and do a crank motion to grind the meat. Flick the Wiimote in the direction shown on screen to kneed the dough. All of these actions are what makes Cooking Mama fun. Unfortunately they’re partnered with some other gameplay modes that are just plain inaccurate or just plain boring and frustrating.