For those that have'nt tried the cooking genre before fear not, this is the perfect game to start off with. Cooking Mama is the first food sim to use stylus control, and let me tell you it works a treat.

Despite the game being Japanese you wont be needing instructions on what to do, Chop the veg, stir the stew, press those pattys etc. Yep this is touch screen cooking at it's finest.

Theres no story in this game, just select a dish and prepare it as best you can. Theres over 70 different foods to cook in the game that vary from cutting up vegtables to preparing a full on main course, Yum.

Cooking Mama puts you up to the test with over 30 mini-games in which you will need to perform various cooking tasks. Depending on how well you prepared each one your'll be awarded one of 3 medals (bronze, silver or gold). Once you've completed all the tasks required to lay out a certain plate you will get an overall score for the plate, which is calculated based on your score for each task. Achieving a perfect score of 100 can be pretty hard, and in some dishes you'll need to hone some lightning fast Iron Chief stylus skills to do so haha.

Yep this game is pretty funny but thats part of what makes it so good. Cooking Mama never takes itself seriously and i found myself constantly grinning while playing it :-) The replay value is great, it never seems to get boring and with a huge amount of dishes to make you'll find yourself coming back to this game.

Theres nothing groundbreaking here for the music and sfx but they fit the scene just perfectly. The music almost makes it feel like your watching a cooking show on tv lol.

Overall Cooking Mama has great gameplay, good replay value, and does a good job of putting a smile on your face. Beware though as all those foods can make you hungry. You'll probably find yourself rushing to the refridgerator after playing for a while

On a side note if your new to this style of game and enjoyed it, you might also want to checkout Ore no Ryouri, CoCo Curry House Ichibayna, Yoshinoya and Yakiniku Bugyou Bonfire.