Cooking Mama: Cook Off

"Cooking Mama: Cook Off is not quite done to perfection. It's plenty of fun in small doses, though, and the multiplayer does give it a bit of a kick and adds some replay value."

"Though Cook Off is a lot like Cooking Mama on the DS, something significant has been lost in the translation to the Wii."

"That isn't to say players should write this one off, as there's still a ton of content for us to explore (two-player mode will have to wait for another day), and dozens and dozens of recipes for us to master. In addition, many of the actions - such as coating a pan in butter or whipping a bowl of eggs - feel much better with the Wii controller than they did on DS, and that many of the actions that do support Wii gestures instead of IR add to the overall experience a ton. It's going to come down to how many of those actions are in the remaining parts of the game, and whether or not they make up for the lack of tactile feel during the other portions."

"When it comes to captivating casual gamers, control needs to be simple and intuitive, and the Cooking Mama franchise needs to evolve to do that. We could rant all day about what technically works and why 1:1 motion is important, but in the end it’s an issue of whether or not the game is fun, inviting, and entertaining. The overall consensus; it’s still a fun game, as long as you can ignore some of its faults. The inviting presentation will still bring people in, it’ll still be a blast for certain gamers, and the act of doing motion-controlled cooking pantomime will be a hit with the younger crowd and a niche group of gamers. At the same time, the series has a long way to go before it really “feels right” on Wii, and if nothing else Cooking Mama: Cook Off can act as that first step towards an inevitable improvement."