This game deserves special mention, just because it happens to be the first game I’ve taken the time to play in the past 3 months of working on www.badgercomics.com.

The game is called Cooking Mama and it is only available for the Nintendo DS handheld game system. As the name implies, you cook. You cook potato salad, miso soup, fried chicken, boiled rice, rice patties… actually 76 total items. You accomplish the preparation and cooking using the stylus and the touch screen. Slice across the screen for cutting, tap on it for chopping, stir, blow into the microphone to cool things down, etc. Scoring on the game comes down to how fast you can perform the task correctly. For the entire item you are given a score of 1-100.

What makes the game fun is that you actually feel like you are cooking. You are cutting vegetables, mixing ingredients, setting the stove, and all of the other tasks you perform while cooking. So it is diversionary fluff just meant to entertain, but yet gives you a sense of accomplishment while playing. I don’t see the game holding my interest after mastering all 76 itmes you can prepare, but at only a mere $20 (and that is NEW) I am certainly not going to worry that the game won’t have a ton of replay value.

On a related note, the Nintendo Wii has also been announced for release. The system is coming out to America on November 19th at a price of $250. This price is higher than what many people were hearing (some places saying as low as $169), however it must be pointed out that the system pack includes a game (Wii Sports), as well as an excellent value as a systme (view pictures, instant message, and surf the web all with that outstanding wii remote). I preordered mine at Amazon, but they actually sold out of pre-orders in less than an hour. Nintendo plans on shipping 4 million units worldwide by the end of the year, and even taking into account that probably won’t be enough units, it should mean that youshould still be able to find one with hopefully only a little looking around.

Anyway, Cooking Mama. If you have a DS, buy it. If not, you really have to ask yourself why you don’t have a DS. It’s the video game system for people who aren’t interested in playing video games.