So, imagine my disposition when I heard that Office Create were bringing a new Cooking Mama title to the Nintendo Wii. Rapturous would probably be an understatement.

Cooking Mama is a quaint title based upon the housewives favourite past time – cooking. While the series will not turn you into Jamie Oliver, the concept see's you preparing, cooking and presenting a number of mouth watering dishes that even Ainsley Harriot could shake his stuff to.

This iteration of the game is very similar to the version we saw on the Nintendo DS last year, although there are a couple of new treats on offer to keep things fresh.

To kick off with there are fifty-five brand new recipes for you to dish up, each including a set of objectives for you to complete before your meal is served. As Cooking Mama is a Wii game you will be using the consoles innovative remote in order to chop, slice, stir and peel adding a new dimension to the playability of the game. While I loved the DS original, the stylus didn’t always feel 100% relevant to the action you were doing (grating felt a bit random for example) and so the use of the Wii remote will hopefully make up for that lack of realism.

In addition to the standard recipe making mode there is also a new competition element added into the game whereby you must compete against other chefs from around the world. This creates an international feel to the title and can be quite a cultural lesson as you learn about other countries cuisine.

The competition mode judges you on time and accuracy, so, while making a sausage roll in a couple of minutes might have you feeling like Loyd Grossman, if it doesn’t taste the business then you might end up with egg on your face. It is here that the learning curve in Cook Off lies as you try to balance speed with accuracy.

Taking the competition element further, another new addition is the multiplayer mode. Here you will be battling it out against a friend in search of who can cook the best paella in the least amount of time.

In terms of presentation, the cutesy anime graphics along with the honking synthesized melodies return creating the perfect atmosphere for a days cooking. Everything is shaping up nicely in the graphics department and the game looks like it could surpass the DS versions beautiful artwork thanks to the superior power of the Wii console.

In terms of new stuff on offer there doesn’t seem to be much on paper but the inclusion of multiplayer and the Wii Remote controls should give this title more than enough differentiation from the DS counterpart to warrant a purchase.

Stay tuned for our verdict.