
Sure, there’s something mildly interesting in seeing the kinds of dishes come together, but it’s hardly worth the vapid journey to get there. Worse yet, it only takes about ten minutes before you’ve seen all the possible tasks you’ll be asked to perform – from that point on, you’ll just be doing the same things over again ad nauseum on different recipes. To say that Cooking Mama: Cookstar is an ‘easy’ game is overstating it this gameplay is so stripped back and simplistic that it’s mindless. That’s it there’s literally nothing else to see here. Each challenge only takes a few seconds to accomplish and the ‘gameplay’ boils down to either executing an easy quick time event or doing a repetitive motion with the sticks or motion controls. The implementation of these challenges, however, proves to be less than satisfying. Conceptually, this multi-step process is a reasonably sound way to have players ‘cook’ all sorts of dishes while still making the whole process engaging. For example, you may have to crack eggs for a step, and the challenge is to get the required number of eggs cracked in the somewhat tight time limit without splattering them on your face.

Each step in a dish is treated as its own timed mini-challenge, and you’re given a rating out of three stars based on the quality of your performance for that particular task.


The gameplay of Cooking Mama: Cookstar is essentially the same as its always been with this series, wherein you have the eponymous Mama guiding you through the many steps involved in making dozens of dishes ranging from ice cream rolls to chili con carne.
