Thanks to the surprise success of Cooking Mama on the Nintendo DS, the chef genre was born. Majesco followed Mama up with a DS sequel and a Wii edition that sold quite well to a casual-hungry audience, but other publishers have also put on their aprons for a shot in the kitchen. Destineer joins the culinary parade with Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine, based on the Food Network interpretation of the Japanese hit Iron Chef.
Starring many familiar faces from the television show, such as chefs Cat Cora and Mario Batali, Iron Chef America aims for an even more casual segment with a game that does not try to directly mimic the movements of a chef operating under a crazy time limit. Instead, the game's motion controls are designed to loosely capture the essence of chopping and flipping. At times, it almost feels a touch like "busy work" instead of real interactivity, but then again, there are likely many elements in preparing a master dish that are indeed less than thrilling to perform.
A look at the world's most popular cooking sims. Which ones will actually teach you something about cooking, and make you a better cook? Which ones were designed purely as entertainment? Which are good and which are bad? The article serves as a side-by-side analysis of all the top cooking games to figure out the above.
PopMatters.com writes:
"It seems that the Wii is a machine particularly dedicated to a very particular simulatory experience. Beginning with launch games like Wii Sports, the system's unique controller has allowed for an unprecedented number of games that are not simply the traditional style of video game simulation but more specifically a series of simulations of a kind of "literalized" physical activity. "
WorthPlaying writes: "The Cooking Mama franchise has proven that gamers love to prepare and cook virtual food. Whether it's hamburgers, egg rolls or calamari, people love to slice, dice and fry anything given to them. The success of the Cooking Mama games has spawned several other titles, all competing to be the first choice for virtual cooking fun. The latest offering, Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine for the Wii, tries to change up the formula by adding a competitive element to the core of the cooking aspect. While it doesn't outright trump the last two Cooking Mama titles, Iron Chef provides some fun for fans of the genre."
