After a lengthy and dramatic saga surrounding its release, Cooking Mama: Cookstar has finally found its way into players' hands. Consequently, it's time to settle the rumors and get to the bottom of what this game really is. Unity asset flip? Bitcoin miner? Mobile port? Plenty of accusations have been levied at this game, making it one of the more salacious releases in recent memory.
But Cookstar itself is nothing salacious - far from it, in fact. It's actually a charming passion project from a dev team that clearly cares about the franchise. Not only that, but it's the best entry in the Cooking Mama series since the franchise's heyday, and a better game than it has any right to be.
Cooking By The Book
If you have even a cursory knowledge of Cooking Mama, you know what this game's all about. Players take the role of a fledgling cook under the tutelage of the titular Mama, who guides you through an increasingly difficult series of recipes. Through different collections of mini-games, players will bake cakes, grill meats, and stir-fry vegetables - among many, many other things.
Cookstar boasts over eighty recipes, which is a blessing for hungry fans. Because while nonbelievers might balk at the idea of eighty-plus mini-games, diehards will have a blast tearing through everything on display here. I say this because the included mini-games are varied, fun, and actually require a degree of practice and skill to get good at. In that sense, it's very similar to real cooking - the more you practice each little nuance, the better you get at it. This trajectory has always been one that Cooking Mama excels at conveying, and Cookstar is arguably the best one yet in that sense.
It helps that the game has two main control schemes to master - motion controls and plain Jane button prompts. Personally, I love the immersion of the motion controls, and they feel pretty responsive for the most part. For small kids and casual players, they'll probably offer the biggest fun. However, if you're like me and a serious diehard who wants to three-star every dish, then you'll want the more precise touch of the face buttons. It's really nice, nevertheless, that 1st Playable gives you two viable ways to play.
Flexing For The Gram
There are two big additions to Cookstar that really elevate the whole package. Firstly, there's a PETA-approved Vegetarian Mode. This mostly just takes the main dishes and mini-games, but re-contextualizes them for vegetarian friends. So, for instance, you'll be frying up seitan and mixing up black beans instead of chicken and ground beef. It might seem like a small thing to some, but it's a cute touch that's a pretty thoughtful way to ensure vegetarian players don't get grossed out by seeing meat.
Secondly, there's the picture-taking aspect. As a cook and wannabe photographer, one of my favorite things to do is plate food and share it with the world. I take a certain degree of pride in showing off the fruits of my labor, and for me, it's part of the process. Cookstar understands this, and gives players a chance to show their food off to the world.
You can add different garnishes and custom sauce design before you pose the food, add a filter, and slap stickers on it. Your score is then graded by how many people on social media like your dish, which probably says something about society. There's even integrated Twitter integration, which lets you share pics without using the Switch's share functionality. The game successfully recreates the satisfaction of making a tasty dish and taking a good picture, which is a tough thing to pull off.
A Modern Mama
But despite every other good thing about Cookstar, there's one thing in particular that really elevates the whole package: Mama herself.
Yoko Nishino makes a charming return to the role, with a whole spate of new voice lines in tow. Her performance is as genuine, inspired, and campy as it ever was, and it's a huge nostalgic comfort to hear her voice again. This is a huge win for the game, considering that Office Create has notoriously reused recordings from as far back as 2005 for their more recent output. But it's not just the fact that Nishino is back in the saddle... erm, apron, that is. It's the fact that the things Cookstar makes her say and do bring nothing but pure joy to my cold, bitter heart.
"Pics or it didn't happen." "Flex for the gram." "Shaking my head." These are just a small smattering of the things Mama says in this game. Sure, on the surface, it seems like a weird and out-of-touch way to modernize Mama. But for me, it achieved the opposite effect - it made her even cuter. See, Mama absolutely is the kind of young professional mother who would try to endear herself to her kids by learning memes and repeating them for a laugh. Mama paraphrasing internet lingo is endearing and feels very sincere to me, as opposed to bigger titles doing it in a way that makes me instinctively flinch.
Ditto goes for Mama's absolutely insane dances. You never knew you wanted to watch Cooking Mama do Gangnam Style or the Macarena, but trust me - you very much do. Once again, this seems like something that would make the game feel dated, but it doesn't. It makes Mama feel like a tangible, adorable dork of a mother, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Chef's Choice
As somebody who suffered through the middling Sweet Shop, who grew irate at the cynical cash-grab of a mobile game, and who wanted fresh blood in this series again, Cookstar delivers - and then some. I haven't been able to put this thing down, and it's taken valuable hours away from Animal Crossing, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and quite a few others. That's how deep its hooks are in me - so much so that the "bigger" games of 2020 have fallen to the wayside. The core loop is so satisfying, its mechanics so easy to pick up and play, and its presentation so charming that I just can't seem to put it down.
With Cooking Mama: Cookstar, 1st Playable has whipped up a quality dish that I'll probably be indulging in for some time to come.
A Switch copy of Cooking Mama: Cookstar was purchased by TheGamer for this review. Cooking Mama: Cookstar is available now for Nintendo Switch.
Cooking Mama: Cookstar
Cooking Mama: Cookstar is the first time the popular Nintendo DS series is available on the Switch. It suffered a troubled launch, from cryptocurrency rumours to legal disputes, before being pulled from sale in late 2022.