Will Play for Food

In Games, as in Life, There’s No Free Lunch

BY THOMAS L. McDONALD

March 1-7, 2009 Issue | Posted 2/23/09 at 8:00 PM

We live in a weird and wild world when food preparation (something our ancestors did for survival) becomes not just the subject of books, magazines and televisions shows, but also a subject of play.

At least a dozen mainstream cooking and food-related games have been released in the past two years, with decidedly mixed results.

Like many of the good things we remember from childhood, this trend began in Mama’s kitchen.

The folks at Nintendo got the melon ball rolling when designers tried to figure out new ways to use motion controls for their DS and Wii systems.

Cooking was a natural fit. People already knew the basic motions of chopping, slicing, flipping, shaking and stirring. All someone needed to do was wed those motions to some tasks, and the games practically designed themselves.

I Remember Mama

Thus was born Majesco’s “Cooking Mama” series. “Mama” began life on the DS system, where it made good use of the stylus/touchpad controls before migrating to the Wii, where it found a more natural environment. So far, she’s dished up the exotic entrées in several games, including her latest, “Cooking Mama: World Kitchen” (Wii).

It’s hard not to fall for Mama as she coaches you through an extensive menu of global cuisine in “World Kitchen.” Her gigantic head sits on a tiny body while she shouts either encouragement or scorn in an almost impenetrable Japanese accent that’s just this side of caricature.

“World Kitchen” has more natural controls than the inaugural Wii effort, “Cooking Mama: Cook Off,” but would benefit from a tutorial.

Chefs are tossed right into the kitchen with a complicated recipe featuring a series of steps, each of them requiring a different kind of control or input.

Once you find those motions, things improve rapidly, and you’ll soon be facing countless kitchen challenges, such as slicing an onion, grating cheese, flipping burgers and filleting an entire fish.

This is classic Wii wiggle-ware, and although it’s aimed squarely at the casual market, Mama’s strange charms and huge menu of 51 recipes should appeal to anyone.

Baker’s Secret

Even though Mama is the doyenne of kitchen twitchin’, she wasn’t the first to lead us into the challenges of running a restaurant.

That honor goes to “Diner Dash” (Playfirst/Gamelab, PC/DS/PSP/Mobile), a casual game in which you run a diner by seating and serving patrons in a timely fashion, and then using your earnings to upgrade your establishment with better help, décor and food.

The format has proven remarkably robust and even spawned a couple of “SpongeBob SquarePants Diner Dash” games for those with an urge to run the Krusty Krabb. (And we hope if such an urge does strike you, you’ll strike it back, firmly, on the nose.)

Think of the “Cake Mania” series from Majesco as “Diner Dash” meets the Food Network show “Ace of Cakes.” Though the first “Cake Mania” debuted only two years ago, there have been multiple versions and sequels released for PC, Sony PSP, DS and now Wii, and more are planned.

The most recent entry is “Cake Mania: In the Mix” for Wii, and it’s definitely a mixed bag. Although Sandlot Games have had several iterations to work out the kinks for PC and DS, its first trip to the Wii is undercooked.

Like “Diner Dash,” the game focuses more on the business end of the equation, with an element of frenzied rushing to speed up the pace.

Cake baker Jill has to get customers a menu, wait for them to decide on what they want, take their order, bake their cake, ice it, decorate it (if necessary), give it to them, and collect their money. The game falls into a repetitive pattern right away, and everything after that is merely a variation on these themes, coupled with an ever-increasing pace that the Wii controls are ill-equipped to handle.

Cookbook Back Talk

“Personal Trainer: Cooking” (Nintendo, DS) is so unique that it’s hard to find an accurate measure of its qualities. This is no more or less than an interactive cookbook for the DS. Period.

There’s no game here; just 245 recipes from a wide array of different ethnic cuisines. Recipes can be sorted in myriad ways: by name, country, ingredient, or any number of other features. Helpful information tells you the cooking time, calories, difficulty level, and all necessary ingredients and equipment.

The program guides you through every step of each recipe with helpful tips. Voice support even enables you to move to the next recipe stage without having to touch the DS with messy hands. It includes a large database that explains dozens of ingredients, techniques and equipment — and includes slick video demonstrations for tasks such as mincing garlic, deveining shrimp or gutting a fish.

The program even works as a timer and can convert recipes for different portion sizes! It’s a fairly remarkable achievement in a small and inexpensive ($20) package.

Celebrity “Naked Chef” Jamie Oliver doesn’t fare quite as well in his own DS food game-cum-cookbook, “What’s Cooking? Jamie Oliver.” “What’s Cooking” (Atari, DS) attempts to do two things at once — and does neither well. Adding one-half bad cooking game to one-half mediocre cookbook does not yield a tasty whole.

And the foodie games roll on, with mediocre tie-ins for the TV shows “Top Chef” and “Hell’s Kitchen.” If free foodie flash games are all you need, you can get your fill of them at various online link sites like CookingGames247.com, CookingGames.biz and ECookingGames.com.

These tend to be product-based and homemade Java games, but they can be entertaining in small portions, although you can count on a fair amount of advertising to go with your meal.

Thomas L. McDonald is

editor-at-large of Games magazine and a catechist in the Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey.

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