Even if the concept looks great, Cooking Mama is simply a little game that can entertain you for a while.
The gameplay of Cooking Mama is simple: you just cook things with mini-games. The mini-games look good. You can cut meat, crack eggs, and... set the timer? Yeah I know this is crazy, but, I don't care. Before do your recipes, you can practice. But the problem is that the mini-games are so repetitive and too easy that you don't need this practice. There're also two others game modes: Let's combine and Use skill. But they are useless. I don't care of test my skills or cooking two things at the same time. It's useless.
Cooking Mama doesn't have incredible graphics, but they still do the job. The game is in a good 2D, but in some mini-games and when you have you final score, the food is in a kind a 3D. I mean, it's like they cut a picture of food and they put it in the game. Well, I know that's not a good definition, but it's hard to tell how the 3D is. It's not really 3D, but it's not 2D also.
Did I said that the mini-games are repetitive? Well, it's the same thing for the sound. But, they can be also absolutely annoying. If you try the game, do the Saute! step with the sound at the max. I will understand, it's so annoying to hear this sound «Tchhhhhhhh!». Goodly, the music is good... I mean the music is also repetitive, but it not annoying. After all, you hear the food, not the music.
Finish Cooking Mama is not a big challenge. You just do all recipes, the hidden ones (you do a normal recipe, and sometimes, they ask you if you want to change for another one), and it's end. Well, not for me, I have only 62 cakes, and the game have 76. But the game is easy. So it will never be a challenge to you. But there's another thing, maybe this game is easy...
...the game still have glitches. Well, the game doesn't recognize some actions that you do in specifics mini-games. But don't worry, that's not enough to ruin your cake. Oh yeah, I forget something. On the back of the box, there's something who said «Wireless DS Single-Card Download Play». Don't think that it's a multiplayer, that's not. It's only a demo that others DS owners can download.
In the end, I think that Cooking Mama worth the 20$, but if it cost only 5$ more, it will doesn't. Because this game is an Okay game, even if it look good. So my biggest recommendation is to buy this game and another a better one at the same time. But if you never been interest by this game, you're better looking for something other.