I was assigned to review Cooking Mama: Cookstar (or is it Cooking Mama: Coming Home To Mama?) way back in February. But as the March release date drew closer, it became clear that we weren't getting a code. Naturally, I resolved to put my money where my mouth was and pay for it out of pocket upon release.
But the promised release dates of both March 13 and March 31 came and went, and no dice. No word from the publisher, no word from any PR firm - nothing. Now, the story has taken an even stranger twist. It turns out that Cooking Mama: Cookstar did come out on the Nintendo Switch eShop for a handful of hours, only to be unceremoniously yanked with no explanation.
It gets better. The game's official Twitter account says that the game is "out now," despite literally nobody being able to buy it. Or can they? Copies of the game have allegedly surfaced at select Target stores around the country. I have yet to check my local stores, personally, but I'll be taking a trek out into the pandemic wasteland today to take a look-see.
Meanwhile, the official Cooking Mama Twitter account has literally no mention of the game at all. The URL hotlink for the eShop on the game's official website leads to a 404 page on Nintendo's website. There's no reference of Cookstar on publisher Planet Entertainment's official website, and their "news" section is blank. Curiously, one of the other games put out by Planet is being promoted for the Switch with a picture that very distinctly is not the official Nintendo-sanctioned logo. So that's weird!
Speaking of weird, some people have gotten their hands on the game. There are a few bits of YouTube footage out in the wild, and some Redditors have been sharing their experiences with the game. The game is, apparently, real. That said, some threads have indicated that the game is misleading in its marketing, as some advertised features are allegedly not in the game. We, of course, can't verify that quite yet.
And on the topic of things that we can't verify, IGN seems to have run into a dead end when it comes to a very crucial aspect of Cookstar: who actually made the game. Planet Entertainment aren't actually developers themselves, and are apparently based out of a house in the middle-of-nowhere Connecticut. They've also actively scrubbed old posts about the game from their site, and their Twitter has been quiet for over a year.
Meanwhile, Cooking Mama Ltd. has absolutely no mention on any of the game's marketing materials, which is strange considering they're the literal rights holder (as far as we know.) Also of note is that GameStop lists the publisher as COKeM International Ltd., which itself is a distributor based out of Minnesota.
Another alleged developer, 1st Playable Productions, was listed at one point on an Australian ratings board website, but has since been removed. There's no mention of Cooking Mama on their official website.
So, where are we left? With more questions than answers, unfortunately. Despite IGN's report and my own independent digging, we're left with only a handful of facts.
- A new Cooking Mama was released, then pulled.
- It's hard to get your mitts on a physical copy.
- The publisher scrubbed all mentions of the game from their site.
- Nobody knows who made it.
If you were a developer or distributor on Cooking Mama: Cookstar, please - contact us and let us know about your experience. In the meantime, I'll be on the hunt for a copy and will report my findings.