joe randel's art dump

So what makes people hardcore gamers?  Being up on all the latest game news?  Playing all the latest releases?  Having a game collection that you could retire on?  Maybe some of those things but I think that one that is usually over looked is that a good gamer should not be afraid to play games out side of their comfort zone.  They should play all sorts of games because it will round them out as a great game player and they will expand more in the world of games.

Why am I bringing this up?  Well because when I was on “vacation” I stumbled across Cooking Mama 2 for DS and I quickly snatched it up.  See, when the first Cooking Mama came out I was so excited about the theme of the game that I was totally going to import this game.  But it got picked by a publisher and the later got picked up by me ^_^  I loved it.  I thought the game was fun although a bit easy, but still fun.  Just nice to pick up and play for a quick round or two and totally unlike anything that I owned at all.

So what do I think of the second one?  It’s pretty much the same as the first but to me that works.  They’ve expanded the recipes so they cover the globe more and not just Japanese delights.  They’ve tweaked the things that you had to do in the first one so they’re more fun to do or just to mix it up a bit for players from the first one.  New additions are the ability to cook your recipes for Mama or one of several other characters and then they grade you on your cooking ability.  It’s fun but does seemed to be similar to the regular cooking aspect of the game.  You can also unlock new outfits for Mama stickers for the pictures of your meals and even choose the colours for the kitchen and utensils you’ll be using.  Which doesn’t effect game play but it’s fun to do and my daughter loves it.  Although I think they could have toned down all the rainbows, flowers and hearts in the title. ^_^

Cooking Mama 2 is just too much fun for me.  Even though it might seem as an expansion for the first one, I really like it.  The game just screams cute and is full of colour.  I really want to try the multiplayer too, I bet it’s fun.  It’s probably the closest to an Iron Chef game that I’ll get.