The time management game presents a nice introduction, with a simple story line for youngsters to follow.  My 6 year old daughter jumped in right next to me to explore the secrets this game has to offer.

As the story unfolds, my daughter desperately tried to ‘skip’ the intro movie.  I stopped her from doing so in the hopes that she would get more into the story of the game.  She still wasn’t convinced, but I was impressed with the introduction movie.  Flo is approached by Mr. Big to take over his theme park restaurants because he is having an awful time running them.  Of course, Flo accepts the challenge.  The intro scene has character audio and text that you can read, and for those impatient 6 year olds, a skip button!

After the intro scene, you dive right into serving customers, bringing them their food, taking the bill, cleaning up, and even cooking!  Flo does her share of cooking on the deep-fryer with Fries & Fish as her specialty.  The game is very fast paced.  I especially appreciate the coordination and color matching it has to offer for children.  Customers are different colors, such as red, yellow, or green, and can only be seated at a matching color table.  You have to multi-task a great deal to make sure all the customers are satisfied.  If you keep a customer waiting too long, they will get upset and leave, thus draining your points and keeping you from the next achievement.

The game also offers a really nice Help section.  I was really impressed to see this, as most casual games of this type just throw you in with a small tutorial and don’t spend a lot of time on documentation.

Your kids will enjoy this game, and it offers a great way to expand their mouse and multi-tasking skills.  It also includes some really fun mini-games.  Secretly, you will end up playing the game for hours.  Cooking Dash offers a nice stress relieving activity, after a long day at work or being a mom!

As I explore this game more, I will give you a sneak peak of some game play footage!

For now, give it a try.  You can download the game at Big Fish Games.  Enjoy!

Needless to say, I dove into the game myself. The basic concept for the DS is clear: pick out a recipe and make it. No real story line here, just you and Mama dealing out a feast for the imaginary tasters.

Compared to the Wii version, the DS version is much lighter and made for ‘quick play’. If you only have a few minutes to yourself and want some entertainment, a Cooking Mama recipe can be completed in less than 10 minutes. Also, if you are looking to immerse yourself for an hour in the depths of cooking off-the-wall cuisine, you can. The game’s graphics aren’t much to brag about, but honestly if you are playing a DS game anyways you aren’t worried about extreme video quality. Another slight downside to the game is that it can be a little difficult. Some of the steps in a recipe aren’t really demonstrated very clearly and it can take multiple tries to make Mama happy. The Cooking Mama character doesn’t speak very often, but when she scolds or praises you it is very humorous. Her sayings have transcended into our household’s real world cooking slang.

Overall, this game is worth buying for adults and kids. The amount of playing time you get out of the game is worth the price. It could have some value for children school age or older, but any younger and they may not be able to keep up with Mama.

Game: Cooking Mama
System: Nintendo DS
Rating: Buy