So, Cooking Mama has quickly made the leap from the very fitting DS platform to the perhaps just-as-fitting Nintendo Wii, much to the delight of the title's fanbase. However, before you go out and put your apron on you should be aware that Cooking Mama: Cook Off is missing a few ingredients but is just as expensive as a full course; while it might look appetizing on the outside, like a good chocolate, you never know what's lurking inside waiting to spoil the taste... like those chocolates with cherries in them. Yuck.

Cooking Mama: Cook Off picks up right where the DS version left us and doesn't go very far from there. You use the Wiimote to create 55 different recipes spanning ten countries, from the old-fashioned hamburger or scrambled eggs to tacos, sushi or lasagna. The gameplay basically consist of an assortment of mini-games for each meal. For example, making a hamburger starts off with a screen telling you how to grind the meat, then proceed to hold the Wii remote sideways and crank it to grind the on-screen machine. Then you cut some bread by simply moving the controller downwards and watching the knife cut. Cooking the meat involves moving the controller forward and backwards to move and flip the patty, as well as holding A and twisting the remote to adjust the heat. Each meal has its own selection of games and corresponding Wiimote movements, with as few as two games or as many as eight per dish. Some meals have mini-games that are rarely seen elsewhere, while others have a game that is featured in almost all of them.

However, it's unfortunate that the controls for Cook Off are not nearly as responsive as they should be - and this isn't the only problem. The game is often a case of performing a required movement and then watching an on-screen knife cut, as opposed to actually feeling like you're in control of the knife. Too many times you'll find the Wiimote simply not registering on-screen, and when it does actually register it's far too sensitive. When cooking a hot-dog, for example, the on-screen bun is floating in the air with ingredients falling from the sky (if you had trouble taking this game seriously as an actual cooking simulation before, you'll have no problems now!) and you're meant to slide the bun left and right to catch them. The way this actually works, however, is that you wave the remote to the right and afterwards the bun slides all the way to the right hand side of the screen - there's no in-between and there's no instant on-screen reaction at the moment you move the remote. This is the same for most mini-games - you have to make the movements and then watch the result. If it doesn't register the movement then you have to do it again and many times you'll find you didn't do it hard or light enough, but you have no way of knowing until it's too late because of the delay. The game simply does not play as you expect it to and hardly delivers the feeling of actually cooking or making any food, thanks to the motion sensing being unresponsive and lacking a feeling of direct control over what you are going.

To make matters worse, the single player is structured so that you'll see everything it has to offer in about an hour. You simply pick a recipe at will and make it, then more are unlocked until there's none left. There is very little that will actually challenge you and the linear order of things within the cooking events really makes the game lose steam fast. When cutting fruit or meat you're not allowed to experiment and cut it how you'd like - instead you just pretend you're slicing where it tells you to, then watch a knife cut it. Every cut looks the same as the last and you can only cut where the game specifies. When grating cheese you have to pound the grater to remove stuck pieces, but you can only do this when the game asks you to and you can't progress until you do. There simply isn't any freedom to the game at all and the last time I checked, the joy of cooking was trying new things and experimenting.

Cook Off at least captures the look it's aiming for; Cooking Mama is cute (though far too young to be a mama) and full of Japanese influence - the whole menu and presentation is bubbly and energetic, and while the cel-shaded graphics are a little bland and hardly push any boundaries, it looks as it is intended; whether you're a fan of that style or not is down to personal taste. The sound isn't really anything special though; it has its share of memorable catch phrases but they get tired quickly and the rest of the sounds don't have as much impact as they should for such a simple game. Nothing here pushes technology in any aspect and it doesn't seem to make an attempt to.

A couple of new modes have been included for Cook Off, but neither one particularly add much. The International Friends mode simply has you competing split screen against a fictional friend from another country; each character has their specialty meals and ingredients, although the gameplay does not change at all from the single player cook offs. It does offer a lot more challenge than the single player cooking, but the split screen is a huge put-off when playing alone... a picture-in-picture view would have been preferred. The second mode is a simple two-player cook off that allows you to compete against friends or family and again doesn't add much to the overall gameplay, but can be fun for two people who really enjoy the game.

Cooking Mama: Cook Off is, for the most part, a disappointing title. It could have been much better if there was more freedom to the art of cooking, a more challenging single player structure and - most importantly - responsive and involving controls that actually give you the feeling of slicing, dicing, mincing and everything else. The multiplayer mode is a good laugh for a while but it's hardly the best multiplayer experience offered on the Wii (though it is one that you won't find anywhere else). Young kids and non-gamers will probably really enjoy Cooking Mama and disregard most of the faults that more experienced gamers will find - and maybe that was the ultimate goal. Still, for the steep price of $50, this is one meal where you won't feel like tipping the waiter after you're finished.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).