Tuesday 15 January, 2008

Second Session

Game Play
Like many Wii games, cooking mama also provide two different game modes. The game mode that differ this version from the NDS version is the Friends and Food mode. It allows two player to play the game at the same time using the two differnt split screeen. This causes a lot more excitment and allows friends to compete and connect with each other through cooking the same recipe. I had a great time trying to win over my housemate during the processes of making the same dish. It is much more fun than playing by myself during the first hour. It is also ironic from time to time because a player with actual cooking experience can lose to a player without any cooking experience.

It also gets frustrated whenever the remote fail to preform as well as the i wish. It is hard to adjust how fast we spin or shake the remote in different task in order to complete the minitest within the given amount of time. It is difficult to gain a gold metal and it require no necessary brain power, but how well you can control the remote.

After playing it for a while, I feel that i have enough cooking experiences with using cooking mama and I also feel the snore in my arms. Overall, it is a fun game to play with friends especially if you are interested in cooking. Different processes allow players to have a general idea in the making of various world famous dish. It also makes you feel like a great chief with the encouragement a player receive from the game after each success.

Design

This game give the player a very cartoon and fantasy feeling by using pink or baby blue as the background color. However, it is also very surprising to notice how similar each step and the tools that are used in each processes compare to real life cooking experience. The sound effect are also very similar to the real world such as the chopping board sound when you are cutting vegetables, the boiling sound of water when you are cooking pasta, or even the sound of breaking an egg. The graphic they have with the food items are also very realistic. The game offers a similar visual cooking experience as real life cooking with cartoon looking kitchen and background music.

One of this game's good element is that you can stop after each recipe, but players who are looking for a more realistic story will be disappointed. Also, the one player mode is very upsetting because players are often competing with different computer players who are expert in their specific recipe. It is diffcult to achieve the perfection that the computer player have. Due to the lack of events happen throughout the game, the players can get bored from making different recipes after a long period of time. Also, the name "cooking mama" discourages male players and causes the impression that the game of cooking is a game for females only. Overall it is a fun game for everyone to play because it doesn't require any actual cooking skills and it allows peopel to explore the fun in cooking.

Nice work. This is exactly the sort of commentary we're looking for.

I would have liked to see more discussion in the first entry to your gamelog, especially about your initial impressions of gameplay.

Do you think this game helped with your real life cooking skills? Could you make the recipes in real life and get delicious food as a result? (You don't have to answer these, they're just food for thought).

-Gillian Smith (TA)