I think the Wii is more accurately in "quick cash-in" hell right now. Most of the (mostly American) publishers did not expected it to sell big, and now that it has they're shamelessly scurrying to put something, anything on the shelf to get a piece of the pie while they can.

I think that's very accurate. They were probably all developing for 360 and PS3 assuming the Wii wouldn't do well. After E3 they probably put a few people on teams to port over some of their stuff -- assuming because of the interest at E3, it may do better than they expected. Now that's it's selling so well, they're scrambling. Hopefully that means we'll see some good stuff hit the Wii later, but Nintendo will likely have the best stuff for the 1st year. (if of course Mario Galaxy, Metroid, and Brawl make it by November).

I wonder if any major publishers/developers will have a Wii-team. It seems like you'd get much better quality from a game designed for the Wii, instead of designed for 360 and PS3 and then "fixed" to work on the Wii.

I agree. It's just like the DS. People didn't expect either to sell, and when they both did well out of the gate publishers scrambled to get something out to cash in.

With the DS we got a bunch of crappy, essentially tech demo "games" the first year, with the Wii we're getting a bunch of mini-game/party games and a bunch of half assed ports.

Yeah so far reviews are just terrible for this game. Sounds more frustrating than fun.

going to wait for a price drop or sale on this one.

I don't think we can assume it's because they were caught by surprise, but because the development of DS (and now Wii) games are much, much different from developing for any other consoles before it. That's why we get so many tech demos and copycats, until the developers get used to the new system and find out what users like. Even today, a lot of DS games, even really good ones, are games that don't really make much use out of the stylus or touch screen.

They really should start getting different reviewers for certain games.. or at least people that can look at games from different perspectives. Somebody who gives Gears of War a 9.8 (and already preordered Gears 2) isn't the person to be reviewing Cooking Mama in my opinion. I'm not pointing out a specific review/game per se.. I'm just noticing a trend with some of the DS and Wii games trying to break out of the preteen male market.

honestly, i'd give gears a 9.8, im definitely getting the second one, and I actually liked Cooking Mama for the DS, even though it was only good for about 2-4 hours

Not necessarily. Gears of War is bar none one of the greats games I've ever played, easily a 9.5 if not a 10.

But I still love quirky stuff like this. There's no reason to assume that someone that scored Gears high isn't going to "get" Cooking Mama or other quirky games.

Not everyone who likes Gears is some "mainstream" gamer that only likes violent and mature games.

You really need to get over this bias of yours against games like Gears and the "preteen male market" you think is all that loves them.

Many enjoy that type of game and the quirky Japanese games you love so dearly.

Very good points.

And I hope the above is true as I wasn't a fan of the over use of the stylus in early DS games and I'm similarly disenchanted with crap Wii games like Sonic and SSX that are designed just to use the motion control.

I don't mind stylus control or motion controls when they are used in games where it logically makes sense. But they're not logical in things like platformers etc. If I want to play a Yoshi game, I want to move him and press buttons to make him jump. Not have him move his self in and just tap him and draw clouds to guide him. Similarly, if I'm playing Sonic I want full control, not just tilting to steer him etc.

Hopefully by this fall, or early next year we'll see the same shift we saw on the DS, and developers will stop forcing motion controls to everything, and finding better and more subtle uses for them like in Zelda etc.

If you live in NY:

So no real recipes? :(

My wife picked this up today. The Wii is technically her system so even if the game isn't worth full price I am still thrilled that she is interested enough in a game to drop the cash on it. We didn't open it yet but I am sure between the two of us and my buddies we will get some good times out of the game.

I'm renting it. I got it last night from Gamefly. I popped it in for about 10 minutes of play before I had other things to do. From what I played of it, it was fun. Very similar to WarioWare: Smooth Moves. So if you like/dislike that game it may have an impact on how much you like Cooking Mama.

I've never played the DS version, so I can't compare.

As for the "bad controls", I don't think so. I think they're just very specific, and sometimes the on screen instructions aren't great... But considering part of the point of the game is to improve your score on a recipe, playing again until you figure out what you're supposed to do with the remote is part of the fun (or frustration!).

I'll let you know what I think in a few more days.

Keep us posted. :)

After having played this for a little bit last night, I would say that a good 75% of the value of this game is in the 2 player multiplayer mode.

For the most part, the controls are tight. Much better than I would have expected based on reading the reviews.

The actual game mechanics are a bit lacking. The Wiimote actions are a bit too loosely connected to what is happening on screen. Something that would appear to be easy in real life, like peeling a potato, requires more concentration to perform in game than a cooking action that would require much more difficulty in real life. Ultimately, the game doesn't offer enough incentive to keep playing in single player, beyond unlocking new recipes. Getting a gold medal doesn't feel particulary satisfying versus getting a bronze. For what its worth, I played many Trauma Center (Wii) levels multiple times to achieve S or XS rank.

The 2 player mode is as fun as any 2 player Wii I have played thus far.

I think the best Wii game comparison to Cooking Mama is Rayman Raving Rabbids. Like Rayman, the single player experience can be fun. But with no real storyline and quite a bit of repitition, it is not a deep single player experience. Just like Rayman, at some point, you will playing the single player game just to unlock everything for use when playing multiplayer.

Whereas Rayman lends itself more to pick up and play "party atmosphere" multiplayer, I think Cooking Mama multiplayer is best when played among those who are more familiar with the game in a competitive "rivalry". Not unlike the difference between multiplayer Smash Brothers and multiplayer Street Fighter.

If you are a person who is only going to play the game in single player, I don't think the game is worth buying, even after some price drop.

If you regularly have another person to play multiplayer against, the game might be worth the full price right now.

Thanks for the opinions.

Well, I took the plunge yesterday. I bought my Wii a couple of months ago and hadn't bought any new games yet. So I decided to buy Wii Play and Cooking Mama. Not sure why exactly I chose Cooking Mama, having never played the DS version or owned a DS.

Anyway, I haven't played anything from the single-player modes, but I had a couple of friends over last night and we played some multiplayer. We all had a really fun time playing, although it could be kinda frustrating.

I completely agree with DodgingCars. I think the controls were actually pretty good, though very exact. So if you are trying to use the rolling pin and just aren't in the right rhythm, it won't work so well. In that way, it reminds me of Wii Sports boxing: you can punch and punch but if you don't time it right, it won't work as planned. I also agree that the instructions before each minigame can often be bafflingly vague, but none of us knew what we were doing so it was all fun trying to figure it out together.

I hadn't read any reviews on this game before buying it. Again, not sure why exactly I chose this one over some of the others. Probably because it's new and I'm a fan of games like Parappa. Overall, I enjoyed it for its multiplayer modes but am not sure if it was worth the $50 that I spent on it.

But the whole time we were playing, I couldn't help thinking of that Simpsons episode. It starts with Marge trying to get Lisa and Bart to work on the yard, which they are fighting against. Then there's a carnival or something in town, the family goes, and the first thing the kids want to do is play the lawn simulator and kids are around the game wearing virtual reality helmets and pretending to do basic lawn maintenance tasks.

I played some more over the weekend and after playing it for awhile, I think it's much better as a multi-player.

The recipe mode (where you aren't competing) is good to learn how to play the game, but gets old really fast. Way too repetitve, as many recipes use the same ingredients (or similar ones).

The single player challenge mode is much better (Like Iron Chef). It's much more fun to compete and try to beat the other person. It's like the difference between playing a racing game with no opponents and a racing game with. Yeah... you can race around a track and try to beat your old time, but it's not as fun as trying to come in first against other racers.

I'd say it's definately not worth $50. After playing it, I agree with most of the scores. About a 6.5/10. Better than average, but not enough there to warrant $50.

What's up with the wife thing... My wife is a great cook (i cook too, so don't get into the boy/girl stereotyping thing), but i don't think she's interested in Cooking Mama. The only game she ever touched is Wii Sport - Bowling.

For $50, it's alot, my wife will beat me with the frying pan seeing me cooking with the Wiimote... If the game somehow "teaches" the kids to cook, i.e. not timed or precise control (like that of the surgery game), i think it's a good investment for fun. By that i mean, introduction to various herbs and marinates, methods of cooking (steam, fry, boil, bake, etc..) and various ways to prepare your ingredients (chop, dice, pound, mix, etc...) I strongly believe this type of games should be made so that the kids won't make a real mess in the ketchen (that's the reason i got them the Wii with Cooking Mama in mind, but i think it's not gonna be like what i initially imagined)... If not, then i'll skip this game totally.

See, at first i thought the kids will enjoy Raving Rabbit b/c it's cartoony and all, but boy i was wrong! I paid $20 for it, but even that's too much (hey, nobody is playing it, so even if it's free, it still taking up space).

For the me, the wife thing is:

My wife like simpler games. Not shoot-em-ups. She also expressed interest in Cooking Mama.

Fry's has Cooking Mama Cook-Off for $34.99 in todays ad (I believe it runs from 4/20 to 4/24). I brought the ad into Circuit City and walked out with the game for only $33.49 (+tax). Fry's also has Bust-a-Move Bash for the same price.