Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop is the very first game I have ever played in the series. For those of you, like me, who are new to this, the Cooking Mama franchise has been around since the early 00s and is extremely popular. As you can imagine from the title, you’ll be cooking up some treats to please your customers. Want to learn more? Then read our Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop review!

 

The game has a few modes on offer including a shop where you can sell your sweets to the general public. There isn’t a story per se since the game is more about doing its best at being a fun cooking simulator. The main mode has you cooking all kinds of sweets like truffles, crepes, cakes and more. After each recipe is followed to perfection, you can place the treat anywhere in your shop for public purchase. More recipes are unlocked after each new creation is made, so the more you cook, the more you’ll be able to sell! You are ranked for your work with bronze, silver and gold awards depending on how well you did during the cooking part. Of course, you are going to make mistakes, accidentally burn your sweets, make a big mess with the flour and more.

Each recipe has several steps. For example, you need to crack open six eggs for a crepe, and this is done your stylus pen as you swipe the egg against the bowl to crack it open. This makes each step a bit of a mini-game. After I had made the crepe, I went into another mini-game to put cream on it and then one to fold the whole thing so it would look like an ice cream. And then there were toppings to select and where to place the table on which the crepe will be sold.

As long as you can manage to get the timing right, you’ll be able to cook many recipes perfectly. If you go too fast during the mixing mini-game, you will make a big mess that will hurt your final grade. The product was cooked in the end, but my grades would suffer when I didn’t do it just right. I would have certainly liked to see me fail in the end or at least have the game show an uglier version of the product I was making.

Once you start selling your products, you will see around five to six different customer types coming into your shop every few minutes to look around, pick something up and then pay for it. You use the stylus to box up the product a customer has selected and make him/her happy. I noticed that some customers wanted the same product type every time they walked through the door, which I’m sure is intentional.

With the money you earn from selling your products, you’ll be able to decorate the shop to make it look more appealing. You can also dress-up mama with the many clothes you can purchase, not to mention you can also decorate her kitchen, replace her work surfaces or change the floor layout. There is a good amount of customization available, so that will certainly keep you busy for a while.

There is also a multiplayer mode where you compete to create the best the best dish using the mini-games you play in the single player campaign. The nice thing about this World Challenge multiplayer mode is that it offers download play so that you only need one copy of the game to have some fun with a friend.

As someone who had never played a Cooking Mama game before, I have to say I really enjoyed my time playing this one on 3DS for my Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop review. The cute art style is certainly charming, and the gameplay is fun and paced just right. If you’re a fan of the series, then you’re going to love this one. And if you’re new to the franchise like me, this is certainly a great place to start!

Disclaimer
This Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop review is based on a 3DS copy provided by Rising Star Games.