Cooking Mama

Overview

Recall questions on the original platform and year, how the game is played and why a touch screen suited it, how Mama is presented and what player the game constructs, both readings of its gender politics, the art style and the handling of failure, the 2008 campaigning spoof, and the contrast with an action-led franchise.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Identify the simulation game Cooking Mama and give its original platform and year.

   Model answer

   Cooking Mama is a cooking simulation game first released in 2006 for the Nintendo DS handheld console.

2. 2

   How is Cooking Mama played?

   Model answer

   The player follows a recipe through a sequence of short touch-screen minigames, chopping, stirring, frying and plating by drawing on the screen with a stylus.

3. 3

   Why did the touch screen suit this subject?

   Model answer

   The gestures of cooking are physical and small in scale, so tracing a cut or stirring in circles with a stylus imitates the real action far better than a button could.

4. 4

   Who is Mama and how is she presented?

   Model answer

   Mama is the game's animated instructor, a smiling maternal figure who praises success and reacts with comic annoyance to mistakes, which keeps the tone light and forgiving.

5. 5

   What kind of player does the game construct?

   Model answer

   It constructs a casual player, often young and often female, who wants short pleasant sessions, immediate feedback and no punishment for failing.

6. 6

   Give one argument that the game reinforces gender stereotypes.

   Model answer

   It packages domestic cookery as a feminine pastime supervised by a maternal figure, which associates girls with the kitchen exactly as older media did.

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