Cooking Mama

Under the titular character's tuition and advice, Cooking Mama invites players to make use of the full functionality of the Nintendo DS in order to prepare 70+ different dishes. The game's menu includes easy-to-prepare snacks like fried eggs, to full cordon bleu-style masterpieces.

Dishes are created by using the DS stylus as your all-in-one multipurpose kitchen tool. Players can chop, slice, fry, knead, grate, mash, tenderise, mix, peel, carve, roll and much more besides. Once the dish is ready, the stylus can be used to add finishing touches to the presentation at table before the dish is greedily consumed by Mama's demanding customers. In a genius piece of programming, actually blowing on the DS microphone slot will cool a hot dish down.

Cooking Mama's ingredients (we hesitate to use the word 'features') include a variety of gameplay modes, including over 200 mini-games and a practice mode where you decide what to cook, how long to cook it for, and how to present it. Mama is always on hand to offer a word or two of advice if you overcook the omelettes or sizzle the sausages a soupcon too much. The central game in Cooking Mama invites players to earn awards for their culinary skills, and recipes can be traded with up to four other wannabe cooks via Wi-Fi link-up.