I've never played a Cooking Mama before and, after playing this for several hours and loving it, I now completely understand why this is a well-established franchise. It's cute and colorful and that's all it needs to be, really.

My favorite moment was when a wealthy woman named The Sweets Madam came into my store, ate a cupcake, told me she'd help my store go global, and then gave me a location 100 miles north of Nowosibirsk, Russia.