Holli and I spent a little too long at the stand for Cooking Mama and Gardening Mama today and yesterday, but sadly we were drawn in by the pretty lights and huge TV screen. Being an owner of both Cooking Mama and Cooking Mama 2 I felt I had to go in and check it out.

If you’ve never played any of the Cooking Mama series, the concept is simple you choose a recipe and then Mama guides you though cooking it step by step, on the DS you use your stylus to cut and chop, bake and grill, etc etc. Mama then awards you points for how well you do each task, and in Cooking Mama 2 she even gives you gifts for doing a good job.

We played Cooking Mama 2 on the Wii first. And despite owning both the DS copies I can only play them for a short time before getting bored, a lot of the tasks on the DS are repeated too frequently and the game becomes pretty boring quite fast, saying that my need to finish all games I start keeps on pulling me back, and I find it pretty fun in short bursts. However Cooking Mama 2 for Wii really surprised me, with the addition of the Wii controller the game became so much more fun. The graphics are better, and cuter (whether you like that or not) and there are so many different options with the Wii remote, the game uses it really well to simulate cooking, one round you can be using the remote to kneed dough and throw raisins into a bowl and the next round you have to twist the remote around 90 degrees and use it as a rolling pin.

I’m not really sure what makes this game so great, it’s so pink and covered with flowers, but we still saw plenty of men enjoying the game too, I like the little extras that they put in like when you accidentally throw your food in the air (that always happens when I’m cooking) you have to chance the dog to get it back before he eats it.

The release date for the USA and UK is undecided as yet, which is a little disappointing, I hope it makes it there soon and in the meantime there is always Cooking Mama 1 for Wii.

We also played Gardening Mama, a part of me is not entirely sure why they made this game, I would have though they had fulfilled everyone’s Mama series needs with the 2 Cooking Mama games, however a new one is here. And really the only difference is the name. So you may be planting stuff instead of cooking stuff but the concepts are all the same, instead of tipping up the glass of water to pour into a bowl your tipping up a watering can to pour water on the ground, If you liked the other two games and still didn’t get enough or if you’ve never played any of the Mama series DS games before then it could be the one for you however I feel like I’ve experienced all that Cooking Mama has to offer on the DS and look forward to the release of Cooking Mama 2 on the Wii.