Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop Critic Reviews

Anyone with a fondness for old-school RPGs would be remiss to pass it by.

Cooking Mama 3 really extends the Cooking Mama series in a fantastic way, and this game is perfect for any fans of the series or for anyone who thinks they might be interested in what Mama has to serve up.

Lots of new recipes and activities are beefed up by the widest set of modes and features yet. A lot of re-hash material but it's a pretty big sampling of stuff to do.

Cooking Mama 3 follows its predecessors. If you liked one of the other Cooking Mamas, you also will love this one.

While the lackluster shop mode doesn't deliver anything fun or engaging, the rest of the game is still just as enjoyable as its predecessors.

Leave it to Mama to make cooking fun again on the Nintendo DS and Cooking Mama 3 definitely has its share of really fun moments, but there is still much room for improvement.

Cooking Mama 3 delivers the same gameplay as the previous two titles, and while the addition of Let’s Shop is welcome, it’s too short to improve the game as a whole.

Obsess over all the game’s hidden trinkets if you want, but the main course of Shop & Chop is for people that value good cooking. For us folk that cannot cook but appreciate the craft, this is a treat.

In this hectic video game world of killing aliens, zombies and enemy troops, sometimes it's nice to just cook a lasagna instead.

It's a fun, quirky little game, but it's the same fun and quirky little game we've been playing for a while now.

While it maintains its easily accessible, casual gameplay, obsessive players (like myself) can still work hard towards getting 100% on all dishes. This blend is exactly what makes me love Cooking Mama in general, and Cooking Mama 3 is a great, if occasionally exasperating, addition to the series.

If Cooking Mama 3 were a steak, it'd be a medium-cooked one. It's satisfying enough, but it's certainly not rare and it's not exactly well done.

Cooking Mama serves up another stew of culinary-themed, touch-controlled minigames in its third course on the DS, but the recipe needs more spice.

Cooking Mama 3 doesn't offer anything really new in content, although it's true it has some more game options in comparison with the preview games, and a good number of new recipes, which fans series would appreciate.

Cooking Mama 3 is a nice progression for the culinary mini-game series that has become a roaring success around the world.

Cooking Mama 3 is the classic "more of the same". There's really no good reason for getting this last installment, even of you are a big fun of the genre.

You're basically doing the same thing.

Just don't expect any plot to further motivate you through the game, and don't assume that lots of money was spent on localization (clearly a Japanese woman attempted to voice the part of Mama, and clearly she did not earn her paycheck). That being said, where else are you going to find a game that times how fast you can rip the heads off of shrimp?

The same formula as in the former parts in the serie. Chop, boil and rinse in different mini games to make a meal. Gets too repetitive before the dinner is ready.

At last, Mama gets out of the kitchen and... into a perversely unenjoyable shopping simulator.