Here at AppSmile HQ we’re constantly amazed at the variety of simulation games being released for the iPhone. We’ve seen flight simulators, pet simulators, and city simulators. Today we’re reviewing Cooking Mama -- a cooking simulation game developed by Taito Corporation. The game was originally released for the Nintendo DS in 2006. Like that version, Cooking Mama for the iPhone relies on the touch screen for controls. In the Let’s Cook game mode, the main character Mama, teaches you to make various dishes using the proper ingredients. You’ll learn to peel and chop vegetables, slice meat, stir soups, sauté ingredients, and even remove the shells off of sea food. Mama leads you through each step and then grades you on your accuracy and speed. The accelerometer is engaged when stirring and shaking, a feature new to the iPhone version of the game. When you have finished a dish a new one is made available according to your final score.

Once you have mastered the Let’s Cook mode, enter the Cooking Contest. Here you will be challenged to complete different aspects of the Let’s Cook mode as short mini games. The difference is that you’re not preparing a dish, just seeing how good you are at stirring, chopping, etc. A timer is displayed in the upper left and a progress meter is shown above your work area. Fill up the progress meter before the timer runs out to score points.

Taito supplies Cooking Mama with good, if not cartoonish 2D graphics. Accompanying these is a fun soundtrack that plays seamlessly throughout the stages. The AppSmile team enjoyed the anime style artwork, but Cooking Mama lacks in the excitement category as it often is very repetitive. We doubt the game has much replay ability either. Overall we found the game to be cute and probably appealing to younger gamers (ages 5-10).

Cooking Mama gets our AppSmile 3-Dimple rating: