Cooking Mama: Let's cook!

Cooking Mama has always been its own quirky brand of cooking simulation, but this installment is unfocused with the amount of overcomplicated menus, shops and in-app purchases. The game is jam packed with ads and popups at every corner to an overstimulating degree. The recipe shop claims you can disable ads after purchasing a pack, however they will still be promoted in the corner or banners at the top of the screen on menus. Credit where it’s due there are new minigame types via Happy Village but I wish once you reach a certain level your crops and animals could grow when you are away since it gets dull quickly. Full 3d models rather than flat textures (crops, animals, fish, dishes served to customers) would make these side tasks a more enjoyable experience. I also miss having a cooking mode in the full titles that let you cook uninterrupted (no need to click a button to advance to the next step). I thought dojo mode would include this but it’s just Mama banging on a gong between each and every step, lol. Worst of all was learning the hard way that backup data is stored for only 24 hours—this is ridiculous for an app with full social media support and game center connectivity. That’s a lot of progress to lose if you take a break.

I’m an adult and don’t believe in “too old” bc that’s a man’s rule not based on a firm foundation of knowledge that I’ve seen so I disregard those silly “rules” society tries to place on us. I enjoy trying to learn new techniques in cooking games. Creating one is a goal of mine but my coding is still on a basic level but playing games I’ve done a long time and this game has too many ads that I can’t seem to buy out, can’t remove them. I won’t keep this game long if I can’t get rid of ads permanently. Not going to rent this type of game - ever. I won’t rent items either. Meaning I’ll never make a purchase unless I can accomplish those things. In my opinion, cute, fun if you can endure lots of ads with no end. Love the combination of things you can do. They cover fishing (kinda weird technique but cute), gardening, selling, making. Wonderful opportunity here has fallen into their greed. It could’ve been perfect for everyone. Kids should be able to have this as an ad-free game that has recipes for a ONE TIME purchase. It’s a (ad cow) cash cow right now.

I was looking for some nostalgia and was happy to find that they made an app of this bc I had the game back when I had my ds (who knows where the game or my ds is at this point oof) but I was quickly left feeling underwhelmed. It was not what I had expected at all and in this case it just wasn’t as enjoyable. It’s a cute game on its own but it doesn’t compare to the ds version... there’s too many new characters, the fact that you have all these extra was to get the food on the side, and the fact that’s it’s like a waiting game thing too. The ads I can understand although they’re not that fun to have around every corner and the animation I can understand bc making it into an app requires things like that to change (it does look v v similar to what I remember a lot of the animations to look tho with a lot of the things) but I don’t like how much more stuff there is. It’s also way way too easy to win. Idk I made a dish and even if I was only half caring the more I played and I still got 3 stars every time... I don’t like giving bad reviews but I was just so sad it’s so much more... what you’d find in the App Store today. It’s not as fun. :/ Needs to be more simple. And not have absolutely everything need to be unlocked. I cold only make like 5 recipes when I started out??