Majesco Games just announced that the Cooking Mama franchise has sold 1.6 million units. The original Cooking Mama for the Nintendo DS, joined by its sequels Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends and Cooking Mama: Cook Off for the Nintendo Wii proved that a unique concept coupled with innovative controls do wonders. More details at the full article.

After crunching some numbers, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has predicted good profitability for Majesco Entertainment in its coming fiscal year. Much of its previous success was owed to its popular series Cooking Mama for both the DS and Wii platforms and is expected to push the company into a good financial state this 2008.

Read more about what Pachter had to say in the full article!

Who would've thought that Office Create's Cooking Mama would be such a smashing success in the video game market in Europe. Already, the cooking sim has had over 1 million satisfied customers and is ranked as the most successful title 505 Games has released to date.

For more information, check out the full article after the jump!

According to HMV, the Wii is still practically flying off store shelves as consumer demand for the console stays at an all-time high. If this trend continues, supply for the holiday season will surely run out.

But on the upside, game sales have been rising as well, and not just Nintendo's first-party titles. Tim Ellis says that third-party games are now racking up sales numbers.

The cult hit that took the gaming community by a silent storm will be serving seconds. 505 Games, in a collaboration with Cooking Mama Ltd., has announced a sequel to Cooking Mama for both the Nintendo DS and the Wii, slated for a release early next year.

The game will be published for Europe and will (and must!) contain new recipes and challenges. The game will have twice as many mini games and will now feature a multiplayer mode for the DS. The multiplayer mode will pit players' cooking skills against each other in a cook off. It sounds like an Iron Chef version for Cooking Mama (Iron Mama?).

Ian Howe, Managing Director of 505 games says: "Following on from the phenomenal success of Cooking Mama, we're thrilled to be bringing Cooking Mama 2 to Europe. Cooking Mama delivered a truly original IP and Cooking Mama 2 promises to build on its success."

Nintendo's Wii video game console is no stranger to being used in events that haven't usually been associated with gaming, such as exercise. Now it looks like it will be invading university kitchens.

According to the Centre Daily, the Wii console will be making an appearance at a cooking camp at Penn State. Of course, when it comes to cooking, the first Wii title that comes to mind is Cooking Mama. The game contains 55 different recipes with ethnic flavors that range from Minestrone Soup to Okonomiyaki.

Judging from the Centre Daily piece by Anne Quinn Corr, a teacher at Penn State's nutrition department, the Wii will probably be used to help teach the 24 middle-school-aged children who have signed up for the cooking camp.

Nintendo fans from Australia are getting some Ninty-brand loving for both of the company's platforms today. Both the Nintendo DS handheld system and the Nintendo Wii video game console are getting two titles each.

The DS gets Wario: Master of Disguise, which sees the popular anti-hero returning to his wicked ways in this action/theft game. Joining Wario on the DS is Chicken Little: Ace in Action featuring Chicken Little's superhero alter-ego Ace.

The Wii, meanwhile, gets Cooking Mama and Bust-a-Move. Both make use of the Wii's motion-sensing remote. Players can use it to simulate various kitchen utensils in Cooking Mama. In the puzzle game Bust-a-Move, the Wiimote can be used as either a gun or baton to blast bubbles to oblivion and beyond.

 

505 Games is proud to announce that its two video games for the Nintendo Wii, Cooking Mama and Bust-A-Move, have been released in Europe today. Priced at UK£ 39.99 (about US$ 80), both games guarantee to give you a spankin' good time with your Wii.

Cooking Mama is developed by Office Create and is originally a Nintendo DS title. Here, you'll have to show your cooking skills to please Mama. What's fun with the Wii version is that the Wiimote is used to grate, chop, roll, grind, fry, and much more kitchen kinetics to your delight. Apart from that, there are also multiple modes to choose from, from single play to a two-player mode for an all-out kitchen frenzy.

Meanwhile, Bust-A-Move Bash! is developed by Happy Happening under the wing of Taito, and is a fun and wholesome bubble-popping puzzle game. The Wii version offers gamers a revolutionary control method via the Wiimote, apart from the exclusive eight player versus game.

So if you want some good ol' fun for your Nintendo Wii, you might as well grab these games now.

 At the New York">New York">Nintendo World store in the city where the food is as diverse as its people, Nintendo hosted a Cooking Mama "Cook Off Challenge" for virtual chefs over at Rockefeller Plaza, Manhattan. Promoting Cooking Mama: Cook Off for the Wii, the event brought avid Cooking Mama fans over to try out the game and even compete with each other through different in-game challenges on provided Wii demonstration stations.

And while they were sprucing something appetizing, a real chef was also there to provide something to munch on while the public were on their way to win a copy of Cooking Mama: Cook Off, and get to walk home with a limited edition, collectible apron. It's funny that one of the winners was an actual culinary student who came down to test his mettle. Now how about that?

Majesco Entertainment and the Nintendo World store sponsored this fun-filled event to promote the public release of Cooking Mama: Cook Off for the Wii. It was held on March 31 in New York City. Picture courtesy of Alex. Head on over to his photo collection to view other photos of the contest via our Read link below.

505 Games today announced that the highly-anticipated Wii version of Cooking Mama has "risen perfectly in the oven" and is "cooling on the cake stand ready for its final decoration."

Bad puns, huh? Blame the guys who wrote the press release. Still, bad puns are not enough to deter European gamers from partaking in the Cooking Mama madness as the game is all set to hit Europe on May 11. The suggested retail price for this Origin Create-developed title is UK£ 39.99.

Some of the new gameplay features in the Wii version of Cooking Mama include stylized 3D visuals and whole new ways to interact with and play the game through the Wii's Wiimote and Nunchuck controls. There's also a new Challenge mode where players must prepare a dish in its entirety from start to finish and be graded at the end instead of at each stage of preparation.

Check out the UK packshot as well as some new screenshots below.