Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends

From Gaming Target The thing about cooking in large quantities is that the food often turns out to be bland and inedible. That's not so in the case of Cooking Mama, which Majesco announced has surpassed four million copies sold based on the gaming recipe of developer Cooking Mama Limited.

Majesco have confirmed the existance of Cooking Mama 3 and that it will be playable at E3 2009.

411mania gives a rundown on this week's game releases. Highlights include Major Minor's Majestic March, Rhythm Heaven, and Gardening Mama.

Taking place on Thursday April 23rd at The Brewery, Chiswell Street, London, this year's MCV Industry Excellence Awards will be the most hotly-contested ever, with 17 accolades up for grabs, across a diverse range of categories covering the entire industry. Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Sega and Activision will battle it out for the Games Publisher Award, whilst individual titles Guitar Hero World Tour, GTA IV, FIFA 09, Fallout 3, Wii Fit and Call of Duty: World At War compete for Game Campaign.

Kotaku writes: We've been following the PETA Cooking Mama back and forth with bated breath. First PETA created a gruesome, but sort cool take on Cooking Mama, using the doe-eyed chef to highlight some issues the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have with Thanksgiving. Then Majesco responded, pointing out that their games have plenty of vegetarian recipes, and even taking the issue to Cooking Mama herself for some overly cute quotes about animal lovin'. Now PETA, quick to recognize a publicity train when they see when, have responded in an open letter, telling Majesco just how much they love their Cooking Mama games and asking for a vegetarian-only Cooking Mama game in the future. They're even offering to help promote it, if the vege game comes to fruition.

Those who didn't take advantage of certain Nintendo Channel downloadable demos for the Nintendo DS, such as Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword and Cooking Mama 2 are now officially out of luck.

VG247: 505 Games is to get YO! Sushi diners playing Cooking Mama 2 by pre-loading the game onto DSs and rolling them around the little conveyor belts found in the UK restaurants. The campaign will start at the Farringdon Road and Poland Street restaurants in London from Monday 14th April, with many more of the chain's 30 UK restaurants following suit over the coming months.

Publisher Majesco has announced that it has seen first quarter sales rise 29 percent to $18.7 million with profits -- the first the company has reported in some time -- of $2.7 million, still spurred by strong sales of its Cooking Mama franchise. First quarter sales were up from $14.5 million the year prior, primarily from the release of Cooking Mama 2 for the DS. The percentage of sales on handheld systems has risen from 63 percent to 77 percent of the total mix, with the Wii making up 20 percent of total sales.

Kotaku writes: What happens when companies make boatloads yachtloads of money off of relatively simple to program DS games? They make sequels, and sometimes, they pass out free 50's Tupperware, too. Japanese pre-orders of Cooking Mama 2 will include some sweet retro Tupperware that's loaded with plastic fruits and veggies.

505 Games has snagged the rights to serve up a sequel to the "best-selling cooking simulation game," Cooking Mama on the Wii and DS. The sequel is being readied for an early 2008 release in Europe (no word on a US release yet), and promises to pack new recipes and twice as many minigames to stir-fry your way through. A brand-new multiplayer mode is also planned, allowing two players to challenge each other in a so-called "cook-off." Maybe something like cooking a chicken meal as quick as you