Cooking Mama: Cookstar Cryptocurrency Saga Takes Yet Another Turn As Publisher Blames Coronavirus

Wut?! 🤪
Wut happened?! 😟

Probably that terrible voice acting!

This might be like NBA Elite 11 where it was quietly canceled but some copies still ended up being sold.

@HammerKirby
Except that game never OFFICIALLY came out. Cooking Mama was officially available for a while

I hope it releases soon! I’ve been waiting!

I never even saw it and I check the eshop pretty regularly. Odd.. hopefully it gets settled soon.

Bought it on amazon just now for 40 bucks (Just in case) Not difficult to find.. yet?

@HammerKirby That could possibly happen, the difference is that no one barely gives a loss about Elite 11 besides the fact that it's rare

They found nudes in the code.

@TheBigK Wait what!? How!? Why!!??

@mist
I love the voice acting since Cooking Mama 3 NDS.

Oh weird. I saw it on the Target (USA) website so I grabbed it cause it was 10 bucks more everywhere else. it delivered today. I like it so much I was going to get another copy to gift to the kids but now it doesn't exist, even if I pull it up from my Target order history it won't load.

Another case of disgusting censorship practices from the industry. Honestly, true gamers are the only bastions of free speech left in the world. We live in a society.

@Chlocean Same, but the shipping is kinda odd "you get it when you get it" kinda thing, 8'th to 20'th despite Prime shipping.

@nessisonett ...I can't tell if that's satire or not.

US Walmart has it for $39.99. I was looking forward to it, but completely forgotten it was out on the 31st. Then read that it's not very good ( reddit and some other site/forum ) So I either hold off for now or if it ever release again in target for their $29.99 price range or less, I might get it.

@Anti-Matter : You bought them all, didn't you?

@nessisonett Praise Geraldo.

@Silly_G
Not yet. 😫
I hope the physical release still can be found.
Btw, there are a lot of games like Cooking Mama either on NDS or 3DS or Switch.
I think i will get the easiest to be bought first.

I am guessing it got released early accidentally... Should be there Tuesday

Maybe it has the fire temple music in it and they only realized it now.

Don't worry, Mama will fix it!

probably.

I've got a physical copy here in Singapore. It loses its pixel art charm, and feels poorly made but hopefully it's recipe is good.

I like Cooking Mama games, but this one feels like a cheap ass Wii/mobile games slapped on the Switch.

A friend got the physical copy, at least he can now get a nice price for it...

@TheBigK Your profile pic fits this comment so well.

@link3710 Well, he's a NintendoLife commenter, so sadly the odds are strongly in favor of that being a serious statement.

I got updated information from playasia about Cooking Mama Cookstar.
The game will be released on 28 April 2020 on both Switch and PS4 version.
That's CRAZY to imagine Cooking Mama on PS4 !
How do i play it on PS4 ?
Tilt control + Touch pad or PS4 Move ?

eBay $40 boom done ✅

I guessing it's because of the super weird blockchain feature.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/08/cooking_mama_for_switch_will_feature_a_vegetarian_mode_and_blockchain_tech

@dsparil This is also my guess. Like, a hacked Switch could do dastardly stuff with it or something.

@Luminous117
Read my post above you.
It got delayed.

These games have a history and their own dedicated following so it seems very odd that this got bungled up. Like, this thing was going to sell pretty dang well I'd imagine.

Found a physicial copy..

@Mamabear Yeah, same here. I also have never heard that a new Cooking Mama was coming out and I frequent NL, IGN, Gematasu, and a few others...

Strange thing is, i say fysical copy at the mediamarkt a week before launch in the netherlands.
But before i wanted to buy it, i wanted to check reviews on the internet sinces i brought not my smartphone with me.

At home i could not find any data about it, only a release date april the 1th!!??

@TheDanslator Hes also a frequent NintendoLife commentor that has made satirical/sarcastic comments in the past

@JayJ Makes sense, is that happening with a lot of objects due to the whole pandemic thing? Just curious

I had it preordered through EB but all the stores shut down after the Doom and Animal Crossing release. It just appeared online for sale on the 2nd so I ordered it and it just shipped yesterday! Unfortunately EB still has my money hostage for both Animal Crossing and Cookstar as I’ve had to buy both for a second time

I just purchased one on Walmart? Figured I’d better snag one if this thing does disappear

I believe it was released early on Eshop accidentally, and that was why they pulled it. I managed to get 1 of 2 physical copies that Target had gotten in for the intended release day of 03/31. Haven’t heard much else about it honestly. I only found out about it even coming out because of Amazon, when I was searching switch stuff!

I grabbed one from Target for $30, but didn’t open it. Waiting for reviews to see whether I want to keep it.

My local target has had a total of 5 copies so far. I was able to snag one. I've played about an hourish so far and it's just like the other cooking mamas but with up to date recipes. I'm living for the nostalgia

Darn Corona Virus. You can't even visit a virtual kitchen to get virtual food.

The Target store I work at has this on the shelf and completely sellable. Weird.

After reading this article, I became curious, so I checked some online retailers here in the US. Target has NO LISTING; Best Buy has NO LISTING; Amazon only has 2 or 3 third party sellers with the game; GameStop does have the listing, but it's unavailable for purchase. I got lucky with Walmart, however! It's on their site and is available for delivery or (at least in my case) in store pick up. I ordered a copy, since this game is proving awfully elusive.

It was a great sales tactic to make it seem like this would be hard to find, when it actually isn't hard to find.

There will be some disappointed people that purchased this just because they thought it would be hard to find.

This is why:
https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/fvior6/warning_cooking_mama_cookstar_uses_your_switch_to/

The game is a tool for mining bitcoin, and thus has been removed from every storefront because it'll destroy your console. If any of you have this game please do not play it. NL, might wanna read this info over and make a new article.

@JR150 This has already been debunked. Apparently people don't know the difference between blockchain and cryptomining, which caused the misinformation.

https://twitter.com/itssimontime/status/1246876716124913664

@8itmap_k1d Praise Geraldo del Riviero!

Been hearing that the game was pulled due to data mining malware found in the game. Right now it's just word of mouth, but I'm trying to find evidence of this being the case.

@DrkBndr
Gotcha. Still major sketch, though

I hate buying into potential scarcity, but I pulled the trigger by the off-chance something does come of this.

It could very well be something innocuous, but if it's so bad that it results in a "first edition" or a permanent pull, then we're looking at the next rare game Youtubers will be talking about a few years from now.

So, claims denied by the developers and based on nothing but hearsay and alleged retrospective traces. I strongly doubt Nintendo's bouncer team even do reverse engineering, so if there's no factually faulty code in the submitted build, it likely can't be the reason for removal either.

From the quote in NL's previous article:
"We are using blockchain to add new innovative gameplay that investors can now have equity in. Putting aspects of Cooking Mama on-chain will take the user experience to a whole new level, reinvigorate a popular game franchise that many grew up with and give investors an opportunity to make handsome returns, through a digital preferred share offering."

...okay, so if the players don't notice any obvious Blockchain feature like shared results, profiles, or recipes, or, seemingly, invest in the company from their Switch and recorded through Blockchain... then...?

"The Blockchain features were removed."
Cool. Sure. But why not explain what it was going to be in plain language? "Gameplay that investors can now have equity in" and "putting aspects of Cooking Mama on-chain" and "handsome returns, through a digital preferred share offering" doesn't explain a thing. I'm assuming it was being rewarded with stock for giving the series word-of-mouth advertisement?

I'm all for increasing my retirement fund by chopping digital onions but this is making me cry regardless.

Daaaaaang, mining crypto? Why even say ‘we removed it’ when the code shouldn’t have been anywhere near bloody Cooking Mama of all games 😂😂

Even if it has been removed, I understand Nintendo’s decision to not allow a developer’s game on their platform if at one time they planned to do something shady with it.

Is this game even that good??

@Chibi_Manny
Yes.
Have you ever tried Cooking Mama NDS or 3DS ?

2020 just got even more crazy, and that's saying something...

I have a physical copy and have had no issues. I am disappointed it is not touch screen as that what made the other games so fun! You can use the joy cons but they are very clunky and inaccurate. I just use the buttons for now and maybe a future update would allow for touch screens use if that is possible? I acquired the Brain game from UK and it uses the touch screen flawlessly! So I believe this was a big let down not incorporating the same functionality as ty other games in this series? JMO

@HollyGoGeeky28
Wait, NO touch screen?! 😫

This whole situation is just bizarre...

I just want to make rainbow grilled cheese .. -.-

This is all very interesting. I grabbed a copy a few days ago based on the reputation of the series. I haven’t opened it, and probably won’t now that reviews are saying it isn’t good. I have a long return window, so I’ll just see how this shakes out to find out if it will be rare or not.

To the best of my knowledge, that these games were actually to be used to mine anything.

Hahahahaha this is such an awesome story

Even if there's no cryptocurrency mining in the final game, there's a LOT of shady stuff going on - it's really interesting, and I'm sure it'll make for some good YouTube videos once the dust is settled and we know what's going on for sure.

So "cryptocurrency mining" got downgraded to "rips music off of Youtube"?

@nessisonett relax bud.

Rip cooking mama.

@RupeeClock Oh god, imagine if they actually did accidentally put Snow Halation or Grand Dad in the game. That would've been amazing.

That aside, I'm still getting shady vibes from this game, even if it isn't a cryptofarm - the shady business with ownership of the IP, the game basically being disowned by most companies, the fact blockchain was even mentioned...

I don’t see why the developers ripping their own music from an earlier game would get their game pulled. They still own the rights to their own music.

It says on the file names that it’s from Cooking Mama 5 which was on the 3DS.

This just keeps getting worse and I hope this doesn’t end Cooking Mama games forever I love them a lot!!

@gloom
Don't worry.
We still have Waku Waku Sweets.
A Cooking Mama clones with Bishoujo girls like Aikatsu.

@Anti-Matter I haven’t tried it yet! Waiting on a sale, but I’m interested

@RupeeClock oh I see, I didn’t realise it had switched publishers. In that case I’m surprised they didn’t just patch out the offending songs but maybe they don’t have something ready to replace the tracks with.

Soooo...how's the game? Worth keeping an eye on or no? I haven't played any of the previous entries, so this would be the first.

does it matter that the music was ripped from youtube? was the music from previous cooking mama games? wouldn't they still have rights to it?
Nintendo had a bad history flagging people using their IP, music and gameplay in monetized content.

I feel we are still no closer to answers, this is all just detainers clutching at straws. Its probably a frivolous lawsuit somewhere

I hope Netflix makes a seven part mini-series on this topic someday, lol

@nessisonett Nintendo life removed a naughty post of mine yet didn't remove an equally naughty post of mine.

I'm guessing there will be a patch so any physical copies already made would have music replacement? A similar thing happened to a version of Little Big Planet which had some background music that some Muslims found offensive. There was a patch in that case.

Who would've thought all this ruckus was for a mom that can cook?

rest easy queen

I also saw a gangnam style dance that was directly ripped from a free animations website, poorly rigged onto mama. Its astounding how little effort went into some areas

Man, every new bit of info makes it hard to believe this game is gonna find its way back on store shelves.

This is definitely gonna be a situation where the mystery and drama is probably more interesting than the game itself. :V

The wii version of Cooking mama is a lot better than switch version. Is easy see why the detentor of the rights wanted cancel it.

I almost want to track this down for my collection. This game could become a rather valuable turd someday.

Collectors keep an eye open for this game!

When I recently ported a Unity game from PC to Switch, PS4, and XB1, it took a lot of time to find and fix some performance issues, but none of the work was actually very difficult. Given the high number of Unity games on Switch and other platforms that do not (or no longer) cause overheating or have a lot of crashes, I think the developer would be more credible to simply say: "As for the crashes/ overheating. That would be because the game is made by many people working on their first game... it's not the best product." It's not fair to blame the development platform for developers' mistakes.

Now the publisher is blaming the delay on the coronavirus, despite it already being finished and released on cartridge along with it previously being briefly on the Nintendo EShop.
SOURCE:
https://nintendoeverything.com/cooking-mama-cookstar-publisher-on-eshop-unavailability-the-whole-world-is-upside-down-with-delays-right-now/

@Glitchling78 The problem is that Cooking Mama 5 was developed by Office Create, so I think that the developers of this one can't use it

I think that Office Create did nothing worng by taking it down, if it doesn't meet their expectations. ( It would have been much better if they developed the game from the beginning, instead of just updating that stupid Cooking Mama phone game)

“Crypto currency” “block chain” Planet Entertainment sounds crooked and run by shysters.

@mattesdude Yeah this is probably one of the only times I bought a game entirely for the collecting purpose. I probably won't even open it, just hold onto it since it'll probably be so obscure.

@Toy_Link That certainly complicates things even more. I would not be surprised if they were just trying to cover up what was going on. After the block chain claims, it certainly looks like it wouldn't be below them.

I feel sorry for the devs just trying to do their jobs in this scenario.

@BuckeyeNerd Yeah somebody is really getting screwed on this deal.

I'm glad that I snagged a copy of this on ebay a few days ago, as the price has skyrocketed to more than double of what I paid for it ($39.99 plus tax).

If this is true this could become a VERY rare gem for collectors.

This just keeps getting worse and worse If anything, now this will be a super interesting YouTube video in a couple months made by those people that break down internet history.

Cooking Mama? More like Cooking Godmother!

Who knew cooking mama had such drama?

@gloom “ Cooking Mama Cookstar - Wha Happun?”

When I first saw this game, I was like "is this a bad joke?" But people were legitimately excited for it, but now it has literally become a bad joke and I laugh every time I see an update on the situation lol

To be fair, they didn't blame coronavirus explicitly. It was more, "We know there's a delay. There are lots of delays right now. We hope to bring this to you soon!"

They wrote it in a way that would make everyone ASSUME it's Coronavirus...

lmao now they are crying and blaming corona for this x'D their pathetic!! the company itself is shady as heck. it's just sad how they wanna use this card.

@gloom you wanna sit there and hope for this game to release even though there is a lot of proof that this game isn't what it is marketing itself to be as -the developers are already called out for being extremely shady, they most likely stole a game title to make profit -y..what?

@Mamabear it's not worth wasting money on it when the company itself isn't even the creators(the actual developers for this game is cooking mama limited not 1st Playable Productions nor the publisher for this game is Planet Digital Partners -seriously who are these people??) for this game at all. they've already been called out for being shady as heck, already done some illegal crap -i just no.

@Chlocean you just wasted money on a game that wasn't made by the creators, the game's graphics are poor((and i play 8bit games, i don't mind 3ds or ds graphics at all), fake mama is gonna constantly nag you -...you fell for it.

@blueluna4 so you like a game that never came from the actual creators, the company itself that made this is extremely shady -been called out for doing illegal acts, trying to hide all the proof of the game being just a scam and not a real game, graphics are poorly made -it looks lackluster -this isn't even a game and you believe it's a good game......i okay.

@UnknownReader i highly advise you to not support this game at all, nor buy it -it's a cash grab made by a shady company that has been called out already by a small youtuber on youtube.

this is all i'm gonna respond to because it is to much and i already made my point across here. edit; to further add on it's a major red flag when the creators for this game don't get involved with this game publishment -and it took cooking mama official twitter account to respond back with positivity all extremely late -really think about it. also if you want to know who the original publisher, and devs are for this game; cooking mama limited (dev), Taito (dev), Majesco Entertainment (publisher), Taito(publisher), 505 Games(publisher), even Square Enix has published this franchise before.

@MidnightLaces ...Are you okay? You just spent a lot of time replying to trivial comments.

@Chlocean okay zombie, boomer ;D

@MidnightLaces That's not how any of this works. Where is the anger coming from?

@Chlocean okay boomer :3 and i'm not angry at all...-just because a person states out the obvious doesn't mean their upset.

@MidnightLaces Do you know what a boomer is?

@Chlocean insulting me :') cute, but i'm not the one that got this upset over what i stated lol

@MidnightLaces I'm legitimately wondering if you think you're using the term correctly or just because it's a popular phrase.

@g_ruz someone got triggered just like the other one x'D lmao and you're stalking my profile, you're just sad. -but thank you <3 i didn't know they were sjw on here but what can i expect from the last article about that hentai game -smh -it's disturbing how you went this far to make a false accusation about how i handle my conversations/debates with others -to feed your gross narrative about a person you do not know at all.

@Chlocean my gosh i know you can understand simple english but i ddin't know you couldn't understand basic easy words that were re -used to make up a new definition for it -if you have this much trouble understanding my words here;

https://www.merriam-webster.com/ you may need this more then i do <3

This Dev just blamed Unity for their game overheating issues?!

Hah, this is hilarious! I imagine using crypto on platforms like this but not on Nintendo console. Interesting, what they would do next?