Cooking Mama and Harvest Moon

Games that involve domestic chores have never appealed to me, since those duties and errands aren’t fun in real life, what would make me want to do them while I’m relaxing and playing video games, right? Give me a good RPG for FPS anytime. However, when my sister ranted and raved about the addiction she had to games like Cooking Mama and Harvest Moon, I decided to give them a chance and have since then, found such an uncanny joy in making dinner and producing crops when my DS used to see Mario Bros. and Final Fantasy action instead.

Cooking Mama - Don’t Fail at Mama’s Gyro!

I think the partial enjoyment I receive from a game where the only goal is to produce all of Mama’s recipes without any faults, is because I’m not a terribly good cook and when the game tells me I can perfectly make seafood salad and Korean pancakes, I’m so pleased with myself!

While the first Cooking Mama has a limited number of dishes, the second has 80 and also a multi-player option in which players can have cook offs and ‘Let’s Cook’ allows for you to try and prepare recipes without the aid or advice of Mama.

Harvest Moon - Chicken and Sheep and Cows Galore!

While it seems like there are millions of Harvest Moon games, the 2005 release for the DS is one of the first to branch off in different styles of farming, allowing your character to plant crops in any of the available plots of land throughout the town. While trying to balance the difficulty of planting various crops throughout different seasons and raising money to purchase cows and chickens, the playable character still has to visit the townsfolk and rescue harvest sprites.

How could getting up early in the morning, watering corn and then milking cows be fun? The game eggs the player on to continue, making you want to build your house bigger and better for added features, make your farm impressive enough to find a wife/husband and in order to rescue the Harvest Goddess of the land, you must crack the puzzles of the harvest sprites. Frankly, game play is endless.

Certainly don’t go into playing these portable chores expecting an advanced storyline, because there is none. It’s just good and fun in a way that cooking and farming never has been in real life. Since the replay value is pretty big on these games, they’re also ideal for commutes or long car rides.