New Cooking Mama game launches on Apple Arcade in June

The Cooking Mama franchise has officially returned, with 2022’s Cooking Mama: Cuisine! set to launch for Mac and iOS devices on Apple Arcade in June. The game appears to have arrived out of nowhere, courtesy of original developer Office Create, which has seemingly re-taken the reins of the embattled franchise.

Cooking Mama has been in an odd spot for the last two years due to a complex legal battle between Cooking Mama: Cookstar publisher Planet Digital Partners and Office Create. On the game’s launch, rumours circulated that it was actually a bitcoin miner due to its slow performance and rudimentary nature – but developers at 1st Playable Productions later clarified it performed poorly because the game was unpolished.

According to an anonymous developer speaking to ScreenRant, Office Create wanted to either cancel the game or keep polishing it ahead of launch – but it was released by Planet Digital Partners anyway. The unfortunate situation led to a legal battle which briefly saw Cookstar pulled from shelves – but now, it appears Office Create is moving away from its past troubles.

Cooking Mama: Cuisine! looks to be a true Cooking Mama experience for mobile devices, with glistening new foods and gameplay features available in this upcoming adaption.

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‘Choose ingredients and cooking tools, then find a dish! In Cooking Mama: Cuisine!, find recipes by choosing ingredients and cooking tools. Start cooking when you’ve found a combination that works! Try to find different combinations to see what dishes you can make,’ the game’s official description reads.

Early screenshots have shown off recipes for steak and vegetable dishes, although it’s likely there’ll be a bunch of variety in this title. Every day, there’ll be new recipes to learn, and new ingredients to find – which should make for a very interesting tweak to the Mama formula.

The game’s description promises a real sense of freedom with in-game dishes – from the sounds of things, players will be able to combine their ingredients in unique ways, and record these special recipes in a slowly-filling book. With ingredients and cooking tools changing daily, there should be a number of new dishes to discover every time you play the game.

While screenshots suggest Cuisine! won’t stray too far from the classic formula, these daily gameplay features seem like they’ll inject the game with a much-needed sense of progression. With frequent updates planned for the future, it seems like there’s plenty of goodness waiting in the pantry.

You can get cooking with Cooking Mama: Cuisine! on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV via Apple Arcade from 17 June 2022.