Science Papa review

If Mama’s place is in the kitchen, Papa’s is in the laboratory, blowing things up, creating deadly viruses and putting lipstick on beagles. Alas, in gaming land, the laboratory is a boring place where your duties as Papa’s assistant mostly involve watching a timer slowly tick along then tapping the touch screen at the right moment. Where are the exploding test tubes?

Science Papa, despite the name, has nothing to do with Cooking Mama. But however tired we may be of Mama’s one-trick slicing and frying, her culinary antics seem like high-octane stunts next to the unbearably dull screen-prodding here. The stylus controls are unresponsive, the graphics are uninspiring, the story is inconsequential, the tasks are repetitive and the music’s appalling. It’s worrying to think that parents might buy this thinking it will spark their children’s interest in the scientific arts. On the contrary, it’ll turn them all into celebrity chefs as they realize that Cooking Mama is more fun.

Sep 14, 2009