Of all the DS games coming out this past summer, Majesco's Cooking Mama was the most anticipated. Developers had come up with some innovative ideas for Nintendo's DS, but slicing and dicing food took the cake, so to speak. As tedious as it may sound, I just couldn't wait to chop onions and slice meat with the stylus. And the game is actually pretty good! It just has one nagging issue, and it almost ruins the entire experience.

Rule number one of touch screen-enabled games: you must get the screen to actually work. This is where Taito screwed up. For whatever reason, Cooking Mama sometimes fails to read commands, and in a game that times the player, that's just not kosher. Basically, Cooking Mama is a cooking simulator that tasks you with creating over 70 delectable dishes including pizza, fried chicken, and Salisbury steak. Each dish is comprised of a series of mini games that represent an integral piece to the culinary puzzle, so one might involve grating cheese, another slicing pepperoni, and another frying all of the contents in a pan, all the while paying attention to whatever orders the game barks at you. And to make things extra special challenging, there's usually a timer ticking down, and how well you perform determines what medal you receive. Bronze totally sucks (as it always does), so you'll want to go for silver and gold, Yukon Cornelius style.

For the most part, the game's immensely enjoyable. I absolutely love making dishes, especially when I combine them, which is one of the game's options. But as I previously mentioned, the touch screen control isn't especially polished. I've failed to properly finish a dish because the screen didn't recognize whatever I was doing with the stylus and that's just not cool. Thankfully, it doesn't happen all of the time.

Despite the occasional glitch, Cooking Mama is a fantastic DS game that's worth purchasing, especially since it's a measly $19.99. Kudos to Majesco for bringing it to the U.S.! Hopefully, its upcoming Wii sequel also makes the trip.