From babysitting to camping, crafting and gardening, Mama can do it all! Now she’s back to her original passion: cooking! And Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic is her first venture on the 3DS. Is it a delectable delight or just stale leftovers? You’ll have to read on to find out!

At heart, Cooking Mama 4 is pretty much just more of the same. You have a cooking mode where you use the stylus, touch screen, microphone, and other 3DS capabilities to play culinary mini-games. Each recipe (more than 50 in all), has several steps, each represented by a mini-game. You’ll chop, knead, flip, and bake by following directions and prompts on the touch screen. If you’ve played any Mama game in the past, you’ll know what to do here. Some of the steps even use some of the 3DS’ capabilities, like motion controls. You may need to tilt the 3DS left and right to roll food around in batter, for instance. You’ll cook everything from Salisbury steak, seafood spaghetti, even corn dogs!

Aside from the main mode, you can also combine recipes to cook up some crazy new mini-games. In Help Mama mode, play mini-games based on household chores like vacuuming and picking up toys, since Mama is so busy with the cooking! There are also a slew of multiplayer challenges, and in Mama’s Gallery you can dress her up in outfits and accessories you’ve unlocked, as well as design how you want your kitchen to look.

They use the 3-D graphics capabilities of the 3DS in subtle ways. Food may look like it’s coming toward you in some games, smoke and steam appear to pop out, and Mama comes right at you at the results screen. But other than that, the game is perfectly enjoyable in 2-D, and the visuals on the bottom screen are on par with the Wii versions. The only problem with this game is the same as in any other Cooking Mama title. Some of the mini-games can be hard to figure out. But if you can’t get enough of Cooking Mama, you’ll probably want to order this one off the menu anyway.

Kid Factor:

Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic is rated E for Everyone with ESRB descriptors of Alcohol Reference and Comic Mischief. There is a mini-game where you open a corked wine bottle, but it’s just used for cooking purposes. Good reading skill is very helpful for the instructions before each challenge. But there are picture cues as you play. Younger gamers might get frustrated at some of the harder to figure out mini-games, but they don’t penalize you much if you miss. You’ll just have to put up with “Don’t worry, Mama will help you,” along with her now famous fiery eyes! Since some mini-games involve counting, matching, and measuring, it can almost be considered educational, too!  Some kitchen safety tips would’ve been nice, though.  I know lots of kids (and adults) who love the Mama games, so if your child has a 3DS and has never played a Cooking Mama game before, this may be a yummy treat for them!

Tags: Game Reviews