Cooking Mama cooking tips and infomercial

by Alexander Sliwinski { Apr 25th 2007 at 1:00AM }

It's no secret that many players found the Cooking Mama: Cook Off controls just a little frustrating. Instead of being a game that could highlight the further potential of the Wiimote, what we ended up getting at a whopping $50 price tag (for what really should have been a budget title) was a game which highlighted Wiimote issues. Some who don't fear the Nintendo Defense Force might even have defined these issues as "problems." This made Mama angry and you wouldn't like Mama when she's angry. So, Majesco came out with some tips on how to improve your Cooking Mama: Cook Off experience:

For rolling truffles, place the Wii Remote flat in the palm of your hand, as if it's the truffle. Once in your hand, roll the Wii Remote in your hand as if it's the truffle.
For egg cracking, hold the Wii Remote up in the air vertically and bring it down as if there is an invisible bowl in front of you.
To grind meat, hold the Wii Remote horizontally in your hand and make the crank motion as if there is a meat grinder in front of you.
For stirring, hold the Wii Remote upside down and stir as if it's a spoon.
To flip items in the frying pan, flick your wrist as you would with a real pan. Three flips consecutively will earn you bonus points.
Cracking 3 eggs with only one initial attempt will earn you bonus points.
In certain recipes, you can turn the heat up or down on the stove before the direction reaches the line.

After the break we have an "infomercial" perfect for late-night viewing. We don't even feel the need to say anything about it, but the simple fact that we put it after the break probably tells you something ... watch if you dare.

Tags: bad controls, cook off, cooking mama, CookingMama, infomercial, psycho, wii

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Kiwi @ Apr 25th 2007 1:12AM

Great...Now I want cake...

Untamed @ Apr 25th 2007 1:38AM

Hmmm...

I think he's kind of hot.

Squeek @ Apr 25th 2007 1:48AM

WarioWare had similar issues, but nobody complained about that.

You can't crank the shredder with huge arm circles. They have to be really short.

You can't straighten the stack of papers with continuous taps. They have to be distinctly separate.

There are a bunch of others, like not telling people that "Chauffer" would eventually lead to rotating the whole controller past 360 degrees and then some, and the issues with the "Discard" motion all together. The reason? They use motions that felt natural to them and those are what get fed into the code generator on the devkit. We simply mis-interpret the directions. Whose fault is this? Hard to say. Maybe they should have accounted for this, but maybe they didn't as it made gameplay too simple or something.

Anyway, the only reason I don't own Cooking Mama yet is just as you said. The DS version is $10. The Wii version should not have cost any more than $30, and I probably won't buy it until it's even lower than that.

Rubang B @ Apr 25th 2007 2:11AM

Hey I'm not a member of the Nintendo Defense Force. They are weak and expendable. But I am a member of the Nintendo Special Ops. We choose our battles carefully. You can have your petty Cooking Mama, but this war is far from over.

MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! ::programs Wii to kill::

Frankie23 @ Apr 25th 2007 2:29AM

Why the hell is Hillary Duff playing at me?

Oh, and Wii Cooking Mama is way to expensive. I'll get it when it's cheaper. Presuming it ever drops, because I'm in Canada, and sometimes certain games never get cheaper.

Demaar @ Apr 25th 2007 3:53AM

I'd buy Cooking Mama for maybe 30 bucks. Even that's pushing it for something that lacks the quirky humour of Warioware.

Jack of No Trades @ Apr 25th 2007 7:56AM

What are games comming to? Say goodbye to playing FF and Halo. Say hello to playing cooking & exercising games.

Jane @ Apr 25th 2007 8:07AM

Great blog, enjoyed reading it, keep it up.

Jason B @ Apr 25th 2007 8:43AM

Who plays this type of game and why? I mean does it allow you to have head to cook-offs or something? If so, I guess I could kinda see the appeal of the competition. Does it actually teach you how to cook? Is there a yard work sim coming next? Is House Working Mama in development? I just don't understand the appeal. Help me out here guys.

Jason B @ Apr 25th 2007 8:44AM

head-to-head

Jhwk @ Apr 28th 2007 10:44AM

For playing a game, remove Cooking Mama from your Wii, as if it's a game. Once put away, put Zelda back in and play as if it's a real game.

billychaos @ Apr 25th 2007 9:00AM

I dont think the controls are as bad as people say. What I do find horribly bad is the translation!!! The descriptions for how to use the wii mote have nothing to do with what they tell you to do on the screen. So you kind of guess what to do and it's usually wrong. What I should do is write up a properly translated description for each motion and send it to gamefaqs to post.

For example, the egg cracking can be done consistantly with no mistakes by just flicking your wrist in the direction of the bowl. It works every time! However the text in game does not tell you that. it says some BS like move the wii mote towards the bowl. What kind of description is that!!! So you have players guessing what to do and bitching that the wiimote does not detect motion. I fuond the same issue with monkeyball wii. The directions on screen have nothing to do with what your actually doing. I'm guessing it's lost in translation.

AirIntake @ Apr 25th 2007 9:16AM

Majesco - "Our game doesn't suck ass, you're just playing it wrong!"

hoagie @ Sep 7th 2007 11:55PM

I guess I'm in the minority in that I really like this game. One of my favorites on the Wii. I never once thought the controls were frustrating at all. Super Monkey Ball is a frustrating Wii game. That ring toss is damn impossible.

Almack64 @ Apr 25th 2007 10:23AM

@11
I agree with Billy Chaos the controls are really not bad once you figure out how to do each action. Unfortantly the instruction given to do each action actually isn't how you're supposed to do it. So yeah Billy I support you in in your FAQ writing.

Regarding the price I bought the game for my wife and she really enjoys it so it was worth it for me. However if I would have got it simply for myself I wouldn't have paid more than $35 for it. It's a fun game though.

jeffx @ Apr 25th 2007 10:42AM

God damn! That video is hilarious.

Vegan @ Apr 25th 2007 4:08PM

So.... the techniques are to make motions with the wiimote as if you're actually performing the task? Those don't sound like "problems" to me, that sounds like the very concept of Wii as a system.

Rubang B @ Apr 25th 2007 4:48PM

@hoagie, if you thought the ring toss was hard, try the impossible Monkey Ball Golf minigame. That will kill you.

I thought Cooking Mama was fun, especially for the cook-offs, but the controls in the game are 100 times better than almost all of the minigames in Monkey Ball. You just pretend you're cooking, and follow the icon in the corner of the screen, and if you dream hard enough, it works. I wish Monkey Ball had an icon in the corner. Monkey Ball gives you a quick glimpse at the awkward controls and then throws you into chaos. Here, try to golf, but... you're inside the golf ball, and you're hitting yourself?

Cuja @ Apr 26th 2007 2:32AM

The Wii is not a Gamecube. It cost $150 more. The games are $50 compared to $20 for similar Gamecube titles. The games are almost unplayable using the Wii and its Wiimote controller as compared to Gamecube and Wavebird. It has WiFi High Speed Internet but no online games. Basically it ripoffs and scams people. As for the Gamecube. Better results and better deal. An even better deal with the PS2 along with support for new game releases. What puts the two apart? The Gamecube is honest while the Wii is a lousy marketing ploy that has the industry fooled.

Almack64 @ Apr 26th 2007 11:31AM

@ Cuja
Just some advice for you, before you make comments like "The games are almost unplayable using the Wii and its Wiimote controller as compared to Gamecube and Wavebird." You should play some of the games for a reasonable amount of time and not base your opinion on blog comments. It will make your opinions a little more believable and you will sound less foolish. Anways have a good day.

Teh_Damien @ Apr 26th 2007 3:34PM

Well the video sucked... and @anyone who doesn't know why this is fun, It's because NO ONE DOES... It's just like the Sims... YOu play it without knowing why it entertains you...