Cooking Mama is back, and she's bringing company! This peppy sequel has all the delicious dishes, crazy cuteness and cooking fun that you loved in the original. Not much has changed since we first came into Mama's kitchen, but we didn't really want it to. With 80 new recipes, some multiplayer mini-games added, and a whole bunch of customizations to unlock, Cooking Mama 2 delivers another serving of everything we loved in Cooking Mama with a few little extras on the side.

If you've played Cooking Mama, you'll know just what to expect. If you're a newcomer to Mama's world, you'll quickly be hooked, whether you're an experienced gamer or just starting out. In "Cook with Mama" mode, you'll follow detailed instructions from Mama as you slice, dice, peel, bake, fry and knead your way to the perfect dish. Use your stylus to cut up ingredients, blow into the microphone to bring simmering pots to the right temperature, and master the delicate art of cracking an egg against the side of a bowl. Mama will squeak her approval when your meal makes her proud, and if you make a mistake she'll fix it up for you. As you prepare more meals and earn a grade for each one, you'll unlock more recipes and earn bonus gifts, and additional dinner guests will show up for you to choose from.

If you're looking for a real challenge or a game that'll make you think, you'll probably want to give this one a miss. It's uber-cute, but a bit of a no-brainer and the recipes can get repetitive to make after the first dozen or so. But if you're just looking for a fun, silly game to entertain you for a while - especially if you loved the first Cooking Mama - you'll find everything you're looking for here. Getting through all the recipes won't take that long, but collecting a gold medal in all of them will take some practice and you'll want to impress Mama with your best work!

For a slightly tougher test, you can try your hand as a solo chef without Mama helping you along. In "Let's Cook" mode, you can cook dinner for Mama or for one of the Friends you unlocked without getting any recipe assistance - and if you make a mistake, your dish will burn or get ruined. Without Mama cleaning up your messes, the going gets tougher, but with some patience and dedication you'll soon be up for it!

Cooking's not all there is to do around here. There are a few other fun little areas you can go to in the game. You can save your best dishes in your cooking diary, where you can file away a snapshot of your favorite creations to look at later or show off to your friends. And now, you can customize Mama's outfits and decorate her kitchen, too! The more recipes you cook, the more cute accessories you'll unlock for Mama to wear.

The biggest new addition to this sequel is the multiplayer mode, which lets you challenge up to three friends in a bunch of cooking mini-games and race to see who can prepare ingredients the fastest. While it's fun to bring a friend or two to the party, it's a bit disappointing that you can't challenge your friends to a full cook-off. We would have liked to see a head-to-head recipe challenge to really heat things up. But hey - something had to be left for Cooking Mama 3!