TGS Hands-on impressions: Cooking Mama 2

I’ve never actually played Taito’s original “Cooking Mama” for the DS, but since the series has sold over a million copies world wide, a sequel is inevitable. Since I always wanted to try out the franchise, I was excited to test a Cooking Mama 2 recipe, and the game was a true pick-up and play experience. It was fun and easy to prepare ingredients for a batch of tempura, but just when I let my guard down the deep frying began and this last step was even a little challenging (I dropped a fried mushroom on the floor!).
The game of course grades your ability to prepare each recipe, and supposedly you can decorate your finished dishes to your own liking and log each design within the game (this isn’t a feature I got to try).
Best of all, for playing the game at the show, I was given a very earthy-looking Cooking Mama tote bag, which I’ll be sure to bring to the grocery store from now on to receive my 10 yen recyclers discount.
verdict: A must buy for anyone that loves cute graphics and cooking, and of course fans of the series. I think that the game is even intuitive enough that those who want to challenge their Japanese a bit should import, import, import!
official site: Taito’s Cooking Mama 2