It turns out there IS a subtitle to the game - "Shop & Chop" - but it's not on the cover of the european version (which is what I have). I don't remember if the subtitle appears in-game or not. It would be interesting if it did not, since it would mean that in addition to localization work (translation to different languages) they also changed the identity of the game.
As the subtitle would suggest, the shopping part is new to the series. There's a minigame where you have to navigate different shopping environments (grocery stores) picking up items from your list while avoiding patrons, etc. In this sense it's a completely new type of gameplay (compared to the regular cooking mini-games), harder in many ways (there's no instructions so it took me a bit to understand what I was supposed to do and why I was failing), and results in cosmetic stuff for the game (outfits).
Here's something weird I'm experiencing: I kind of feel bad hunting all these monsters. Especially because you hunt them to farm them for resources...all for purposes of getting better at hunting more monsters!
So, contrary to Pokemon GO (which, to be fair, is similar in that you catch them all, and thousands of them over the duration of play...), here the experience feels a bit more...predatory and senseless? While the monsters that appear are not from this (the real) world (this is the narrative framing of the game), there is similarly no justification for having to go out and hunt them - they're not hurting people, causing damage to the environment, etc. So, why hunt them in the first place? There isn't even an industrial/capitalistic motive! (selling animal pelts or whatever) - their only use is literally to create better weapons and armor to then be more effective at hunting tougher monsters.
Perhaps I'm also just affected by the dramatic increase in scale of the hunting. My sense (I could be wrong) is that the big monsters you hunt in the regular console games are...well, rarer. You don't kill them by the hundreds as part of your regular "campaign" experience. Rather, it's closer to trophy hunting - where you engage on a single trip to get just one. You don't go trophy hunting every day - killing an elephant every day (I hope!)... but in this game you kind of do...
I guess I'm surprised by my increasing feeling of distaste in playing this game - and also my reaction to this distaste (it's been unexpected).
I might end up quitting play sooner than I expected just because of this...
This is neither good nor bad but Cooking Mama 3 is basically Cooking Mama. It sounds stupid to state it like that but I say that in the context of Cooking Mama 2 that added a subtitle ("Dinner with friends").
I'm not sure what is new/old/refreshed for the series as a whole in this title, but I did enjoy playing some of the minigames (and failing at some too, lets be honest). But, playing with headphones on is a real delight - the audio work adds so much to the experience that despite the cartoon graphics and bright colors, you really do feel like you're cooking! Or at least some imaginary flavor of cooking that makes sense - perhaps more like TV cooking than real cooking if I'm being honest.
As I've played more and more DS games recently I'm increasingly convinced that the DS really was the test tube in which all the touchscreen games that would come later with smartphones were built upon. There's a pretty strong legacy here of designers trying out different ways of handling the touchscreen that are both inventive, intuitive and naturalistic. The basic input vocabulary (swipe, tap, circle, etc.) was born here - and then augmented on smartphones with the addition of multitouch (pinch, the opposite of pinch).
My son said I should play this, so I have been. Very intermittently, mostly when I walk home and while I wait for my bus.
I don't think I've spent much significant time with Monster Hunter - so I was curious how this game would work, especially in the "it's not Pokemon Go, so what is it going to be like?" sense.
So far, I'm not convinced it's the right game for me. It seems quite slow and grindy and, there isn't much to do in the game. Combat is definitely more interesting than the "simple" catching from Pokemon GO. I think it's more like the raid fights, but with more stuff going on - you have different weapons, and must tap to attack and swipe to dodge, and timing on the dodges does matter.
You can play with others - but as I've played, I've unlocked tougher/better monsters (more stars) which makes me wonder if the "world" is shared? I don't think so - unlike Pokemon Go where we could all see the same spawns...here the spawns would be limited to me? (I'm the only one who sees a three-star whatever-monster).
As I've levelled up I've unlocked new things - so I wonder if the game will really open up at some point? I miss the special locations with something neat to do - the towers in the Harry Potter game they made, or the raids... so far, it's very solo, very grindy (there are like 10 categories of quality for items, and multiple levels within each category), and..not that compelling. We'll see how much longer I'll play. Perhaps I should just look online to see what the progression is?
