November 2006
Holiday Gifts
by Celia Cheng
Cooking Mama for Nintendo
I’m not a gamer, although I do have a weakness for Ms. Pac-Man and DDR (Dance Dance Revolution). But I just might try to pick up Nintendo’s latest game console, Wii, which went on sale in the U.S. last week. The remarkable thing about Wii is that the controller is wireless and works based on motion, so you just have to point towards the screen to control it rather than figure out how to use a million buttons. The Times review of Wii is entitled Getting Everybody Back in the Game and explains why it’s good fun for the entire family from grandparents to tweens.
Besides interest in sword fighting, tennis, and boxing games, the biggest draw for me is actually a game called Cooking Mama: Cook Off. The Nintendo DS version of the game is currently on the market, and the Wii version is scheduled for release early next year, according to the game’s U.S. distributor, Majesco Entertainment.
Cooking Mama teaches you how to cook, from chopping onions, draining pasta to shaping dumplings. And since it’s a video game, you can compete with others so it’s like the video game version of Iron Chef… well, kind of. With the DS version, players use the stylus to control movement, speed, etc. One of my favorite things is that you can blow on the mic to cool food.
It’s a fun game, but it’s also educational. For example, when making a meat sauce for pasta, after prepping the ingredients, the player must cook them in a fry pan and decide what to add in first. If you place the meat in before the garlic, inevitably the meat will burn before the garlic is done and so you lose points. Another example is the multiple steps it takes to dice onions. You will need to halve the whole onion first, then slice the halves before dicing them. Depending on the speed at which you cut, your onion pieces may be larger or smaller. Isn’t this great?!
I imagine that the Wii version will be even more intense since you’ll probably be using the game controller as the knife to chop, tilting it to drain pasta and more. I can see myself becoming very competitive at this game. Anyone up for the challenge?
Nintendo DS Lite (game console): $129.99
Available at Amazon.com
Cooking Mama(Nintendo DS game): $19.99
Available at Amazon.com
Nintendo Wii (game console): $249.99
Currently sold out but best bet is to check with Toys ‘R Us in Times Square.
Cooking Mama: Cook Off(Nintendo Wii game):
To be released early 2007
