Cooking Mama 3: Chop & Shop (Nintendo DS)

Cooking Mama's gameplay suits the Nintendo DS particularly well. There's plenty to do and a ton of extra material to unlock – players can decorate a digital diary with stickers, dress up Mama in new outfits, and change in-game colors and backgrounds. For the first time, players can import food they've grown in the sister title Gardening Mama to use in recipes. The game also boasts a local multiplayer mode where friends can face off in 20 timed challenges.

The one downside is that instructions aren't always clear the first time around, but it's a small complaint since the mini-games are easily and quickly replayed. Like its predecessors, Cooking Mama 3 is full of cute visual touches, like batter that is stirred too quickly slopping out of the pan and then has to be rubbed off the screen with the stylus. Cooking Mama 3 not only challenges kids and adults alike with clever, surprisingly detailed cooking minigames, but payers might actually learn a thing or two about food prep.