“Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop”

Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop was released for the Nintendo DS this week and I’m pretty disappointed that they stopped making the Cooking Mama games for the Wii.  I feel like this game was popular enough for them to make two sequels so it’s lame that Wii players don’t have the option of playing it.

Anyway, as you would expect, Cooking Mama is all about food preparation and she’s back with all new recipes.  In this game, you will have to shop for ingredients, combine dishes and engage in optional multiplayer challenges. 

There are six gameplay modes to choose from:

• Let’s Cook: Try to prepare the dishes but don’t worry if you mess up – Mama will help you!
• Let’s Eat:  Mama doesn’t help you in this mode!  Your hard-to-please friends will be judging the food oyu create based on how it tastes (mistakes made during preparation affect the taste).
• Combine and Create: Take steps and ingredients from different recipes and create your very own concoctions.
• Let’s Shop: Head to the store to pick up the things you’ll need to prepare so many delicious dishes.
• Time Challenge: Play against up to 3 friends and faceoff in timed cooking challenges!
• Picture Diary: Keep a scrapbook of your favorite dishes in this digital picture diary.

Players will use the stylus to chop, grate, slice, stir, spread, sprinkle, roll, and much more in over 200 different mini-games.  You’ll also get to try to make 80 new recipes including chili con carne and  Eggs Benedict (that’s going to be a disaster!).

Depending on the quality of the cooking, players can earn bronze, silver, and gold medals.