Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Food or cake related video game - (Brenda S.)

This topic required research.  Neither my husband nor I were well versed in such a game.  Until now...

I had heard of the "Cooking Mama" series of games for both Wii and Nintendo DS systems so I decided to start (and end) there.  My first act of serious video game research led me to YouTube where I discovered that there are approximately 63.2 different iterations of these games.  I randomly watched this trailer first:



Octopus, anyone?  And, what's with the dog? 

Anyway, I proceeded to watch video after video after video.  And then it occurred to me: I could watch video games whenever I wanted to!  I could watch games my husband would never ever play (like this one!)  I knew this blogging thing would help me grow. 

Bing!, another light bulb went off.  Maybe he would never play it, but what about me?  I reached for my iPhone and browsed the App Store as my second act of serious video game research.  Yes, indeed there were two Cooking Mama apps.  For the sake of you, my beloved readers, I sprung for the free version cleverly called "Cooking Mama Lite."

The first recipe I made was "hamburger stewed in tomato sauce" though I do not recall using any tomatoes.  My first task was to chop the onion by violently tapping the screen.  I received a "very good" accompanied by the glimmering starry anime eyes of "Mama."  I also proved skilled at moving the butter around to coat the pan.

The third step was to cook the onion, but to be careful not to let it burn.  At this, I failed.  I did not realize I must first tap the onion to put in the pan.  I spent at least 15 seconds earnestly shaking my phone to mimic stir frying an empty pan.  Mama met me with burning eyes (literally she had one small ball of fire flickering in each socket.  It was quite fabulous.  You should check it out.)

Though disheartening, it was this segment of the game that reminded me of a line from my January 1 post.  "Hurry! get the chopped veggies in the pan before the oil gets too hot."  Apparently, I am not as original as I once thought.  Or maybe the video game gods were trying to tell me something.  I kneaded and shaped the hell out of the hamburger and then returned to YouTube.  I found this:



Grocery shopping, speedy challenges, general ridiculousness...I AM a video game!  (An aside - is anyone seeing the alcohol references in these trailers?!?) 

Oh, and I also found this.  Yes, the game comes with the doll.  I will let it speak for itself, but please do not hesitate to let me know what you think. 

5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. thanks for sharing your discovery, Keet.

    Creepy, disturbing, and horribly entertaining, all in one.

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  3. I think we need to get a copy of this for our next game night. I really need to brush up on my octopus beheadings.

    This video came up as a suggestions following one you linked... which I then discovered was a fully playable (fully horrifying and unnecessary) game:

    http://features.peta.org/CookingMama/

    Leave it to Peta... those sick bastards.

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  4. Ahem...

    The cake is a lie.

    Thank you.

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