Joystiq impressions: Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked

Cook or Be Cooked -- quite an ominous subtitle to a Food Network game for Wii, no? Fortunately, the only thing potentially dangerous we spotted in our hands-off demo of Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked was a scolding by silly-looking caricatures of the network's personalities.

To be honest, it wasn't the thought of learning to prepare food properly via a video game that intrigued us. We just had to check out a cooking game by Red Fly, developer of Mushroom Men and the upcoming Wii version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game. That and the title is slated to utilize Wii MotionPlus -- but it wasn't doing so at the event.

The brief demo we watched took place inside a nicely realized virtual kitchen, with the demoer following steps on a recipe card to make steak and mashed potatoes. The former required the proper oven temperature (turn the Wiimote to twist the knob, naturally) and frying pan handling. The steak was left in the oven too long, causing the kitchen to fill with smoke. Potatoes had to be cut with small chopping motions and, later, pulverized by holding the Wiimote vertically and mashing away.

More of a simulation than the arcade fun of Cooking Mama, Food Network: Cook or Be Cooked could easily be renamed "Learning to Cook Without Ruining Real Ingredients." Now, if you'll excuse us, we have some bacon to waggle.