Game name: Cooking Mama: Friends’ Café
Platform: PC (Facebook)
Developer(s): Majesco, Arkadium
Publisher(s): Majesco
Release date: Out now
ESEB Rating: E
Price: Free
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Cooking Mama has taken the world by storm giving a new generation of children and adults alike chance to learn to cook in a fun and entertaining manner.

With the game released on the Nintendo DS and Wii, as well as the iPhone/iPad,  it didn’t take long for it to follow the latest revolution on Facebook. Already attracting a large fan base, Cooking Mama is becoming a favourite, rivaling the much loved ‘Ville’ series.

Developed by Majesco, Cooking Mama: Friends’ Café gives players the ability to stir, cut, mix, pour and bake anything into their imagination. Adding to its charm is the easy, user friendly controls and bright colours. It will appeal to little girls who have watched their mother cook and want to be a part of it.

When you first begin to play Cooking Mama, you are instructed to cook your first meal- Butter on toast. Amid a timer, the player spreads butter along the bread and earns experience points every time you complete a meal.

Mama then tells you that there are some patrons eagerly waiting for the meal you just made.  You are then instructed to open your restaurant and pick how long you wish to be open for business. As you are learning and earning money at the beginning, you are required to open for a minimum of 30 minutes. As you continue, you earn small kitchen appliances such as a dishwasher.

Starting out in Cooking Mama: Friends’ Café, you have $5000 in your account. As you continue and cook dishes for your clients, you are required to buy items in the store. Each item has a price and only available to buy if you have the money in your wallet.

As you play, you must keep tabs on the current goals for Cooking Mama. Similar to any other video game, you have a current objective. It will show you what you have learned and what is outstanding. There is no time limit on how many goals you must complete or how many you are allowed to have. The player has a full advantage in finishing the goals whenever they please. You also have the option to jump in between feeding customers, making your meals and buying items for your kitchen.

With every meal you complete, Cooking Mama rewards you with either a gold, silver and bronze medal, depending on the speed of your cooking skills. She also gives you experience points that the player can share with their friends.

Another fun aspect of Cooking Mama Friends’ Café is the ability to customize your kitchen. When you first begin, you earn a cupboard where you can place anywhere you wish in your kitchen. As you continue to make culinary delights and impress Mama, she will reward you with more expensive gifts, such as appliances, wallpaper, decorations and even floorboards.

As your skills improve, the challenges become more difficult, requiring the player to cook and make tougher meals. As well as the challenge of the timer, the player has to administer skills to maintain a fast pace to keep a plethora of customers happy as they wait for their orders.

Cooking Mama Friends’ Café is a delightful game to play to will those long lunch hours away or to keep the kids entertained on a Friday night. You can pretty much do no wrong with this title, as it always rewards the player regardless of their performance.

Even though it isn’t that challenging and made for the casual gamers out there, Cooking Mama is incredibly fun and keeps one’s culinary skills at use.