Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam Review – Needs More Time in the Oven

[Atariboy]

This week brought Virtual Toys Wiiware title Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam to the PSP. So the big question is how a motion controlled game converts to the PSP’s more traditional controls. Obvious care and attention would be needed to make it work. Unfortunately, cooking Jam needed a little more time in the oven.

On first impressions the game idea seems pretty neat, though from there it just goes downhill. Being in charge of different restaurants ranging from a pizza joint to a taco place are all a little too similar. You run through all the same motions in each of the restaurants all the while hoping for something more. The game could have been so much fun if only they changed a few minor things.

One of those being the pacing of the game and the fact that you are never allowed to speed up the time. There is a four minute time limit which is always enough to complete your goal, but you spend most of the time watching your customers eat their food. The music in the background is bad enough, but being half the length of the time limit you’ll find the game skipping and chugging as it loads the song over again. Aside from that, you hear annoying munching noises as customers chew away at their food.

You’ll be feeding vampires and Vikings as you make your way through the career mode.  Arcade mode allows you to play through the levels you already beat which does add to the replay value if you can manage to stomach this game long enough to care at that point.

The game was clearly made with motion controls in mind and it shows as you will often feel like you’re fighting the controls just as much as you are the kitchen. Once you get into the harder levels dealing with four customers at a time the game has a hard time keeping up and there is a lot of slowdown. Bugs flying onto the screen make it seem even worse and it makes you wonder if the game was rushed onto the PlayStation Store.

The game has a little bit of charm that goes away after you complete the ten levels and realise it’s pretty much the same game all the way to the end. The graphics look good and the colors pop off the screen, but that won’t be enough to keep you from shutting this one off after the first thirty minutes. That is all you need with this game to find it’s not really worth the time or money you spent on it.

Score: 5/10

POSTED BY CHRIS BECKER ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2009 AT 9:45 AM