Ratatouille - Food Frenzy
Ages: Everyone

This is what I was hoping for in the original Ratatouille. Finally, I thought I was really going to do some cooking – a little butter, a little sugar, a few eggs and Voila! But no. The instruction manual advertises that Story Mode is the cooking up of ten different dishes. But it is not a story – it is 10 mini-games.

The mini games have some clever topics but our favorite characters, Linguini, Remy and Colette are just background for the games. Some of the tasks/games will involve, slicing and dicing, prepping the plates, shooing snails, skimming soup, cooking fish, catching falling fruit, and cooking with Remy - the last one is very like the scene in the original Ratatouille – managing three pots on three burners. Many require close timing. In Flip the Fish, where you fry and when done flip it with a stroke of the stylus onto the passing waiter's plate, if you flip too soon – fish is raw, if the fish is done but no waiter in sight - fish burns.

Some games would have been more satisfying with more direction. The instructions in the game and in the instruction booklet are insufficient. One game seems to go on too long. Food Fling can last a half an hour, with you still needing more than a score of 14,540, and let me tell you – that's a lot of flinging. Hard to tell if you are being judged on speed or perfection. Girls want to know.

The game makes nice use of the Touch Screen. Some games use it exclusively, a few add the Control Pad. Meanwhile, I am still waiting for a real cooking game.

Fun Factor: No story – just mini-games.
Player Friendly: Why go through Story Mode when there is no story?

Reviewed by: Editor - 11/07