The Cooking Mama franchise upped their U.S. releases to four with their new Wii title, “Cooking Mama: World Kitchen.” With Majesco’s upcoming “Gardening Mama” and the startling lack of new features in “World Kitchen,” it’s obvious that the developers are fresh out of new ideas for Mama’s kitchen.

“World Kitchen” is not a bad game, but it’s a pointless purchase if you own the first Wii release, “Cook Off.” The concept shares the same cookie cutter: an adorable cartoon Mama walks you through classic recipes, step by step, using vigorous Wii-mote gestures to chop veggies, grind meats, and stir boiling pots. Each recipe you finish will unlock new recipes for you to try. All Cooking Mama games are charmingly laced with pink, hearts, bells, and encouraging words from a barely-localized Mama. The games even offer a little bit of education, since many recipes have some very granular steps and actually take you through all of the steps a real cook would require.
In “World Kitchen,” you can cook with mama (or practice individual steps) to complete recipes for scores, compete against the computer, or compete against a friend. These options are startlingly similar to “Cook Off” - your AI opponents are the same, many of the recipes are the same, and some of the steps are even the same.

Rating:

Replay Value: Low

Favorite Recipe: Kebab

There are precious few new features; the graphics updates are the most significant change. Mama’s 2D cell-shaded kitchen and characters are replaced with 3D models that remind one of bobblehead dolls. You can create an avatar when you start a new game, and the graphics feature your avatar going through the recipes. Joining Mama in the kitchen is your dog Max, who will eat any any of your mistakes. For some cooking puzzles, Mama and Max will compete to correct or devour (respectively) your flying ingredients.

Mama’s direct involvement makes the cooking experience a little less frustrating. There are clearer instructions on what to do with the Wiimote for each cooking step, though the puzzles are still unresponsive for some motions, and it can be difficult to tell directions apart (for example, an “up” arrow from a “forward” or thrusting arrow). “Cook Off”’s touchy puzzles have been replaced with other similarly unintuitive puzzles, and the ubiquitous bevvy of indecipherable icons and ingredients still exist. “World Kitchen” dumbs down some of the puzzles so that it’s not possible to achieve great technique and execute recipes at lightning speed anymore.

“World Kitchen” contains some product placement, an unnecessary trend everyone hates. What’s next - commercials on loading screens? Great Gaming Gods please save me, and forget I ever mentioned such an atrocity!

I can’t think of any reason why I’d recommend “World Kitchen” over “Cook Off,” but I can’t give you any reason why you shouldn’t play “World Kitchen,” either. The series is very solid, and obviously the ideas and kinks alike have been kneaded out by now. “World Kitchen” reminds me of an unnecessary movie remake. Since the game is so well-done, let’s put it to rest and enjoy the releases we already have.