There are some strange mini games, like rearranging the contents of your fridge to make room for pudding (invoking nightmares of Wii memory management), balancing a bowl in your arms by either tapping your arms or using the 3DS’ gyro controls and even tapping the screen at the correct time to use your feet to stomp on some dough. Some examples of recurring mini games are cracking eggs by sliding the stylus towards the side of a bowl and another where you must mix the contents of a bowl by moving the stylus in a circle pattern while stopping to add more ingredients periodically.

There is an option to do a practice run before diving into the real thing, but each game is simple enough that you’ll easily be able to go in blind and figure out exactly what to do. Before each mini game begins, you’ll be given a rundown of what to expect, and upon starting, there will be visual cues on exactly what is asked of you. Each recipe is broken down into a varying number of different mini games, many of which feel like micro games. So how do you complete recipes? Well, it’s as simple as following the step by step instructions presented to you. Most times it’s a brand new recipe, but sometimes it’s a riff on the one you just completed for example, making an Éclair rewards you with the recipe for Éclair Fruit Sandwiches. Completing recipes will reward you with a score and medal depending on how you did as well as unlocking more recipes for you to explore. By successfully making each recipe, that sweet becomes available to sell in your shop. This is where you’ll learn to make different baked goods. There are a few different modes you can tinker with, but the main campaign is the Let’s Make Sweets mode. Sadly, as you progress through the different recipes, you’ll start to see repeated mini games, and while not always a bad thing, almost all tend to be easy and rather shallow games to begin with.

Doing so will unlock recipes and expand your shop to accommodate over 60 different snacks and goodies. In Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop, you’ll focus on honing your baking and treat making skills by tapping, sliding and drawing your way through a range of different touch-based mini games. Cooking Mama is back at it again for her third kitchen-based adventure on the 3DS, and this time, she’s got her eyes set on the sweets.

3ds games cooking mama