The sushi restaurant sampling campaign, a games industry first, will see free DS consoles preloaded with Cooking Mama 2 being offered to YO! Sushi customers for the duration of their meal in 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.

Cooking Mama 2 is the recently released sequel to the best-selling cooking simulation game Cooking Mama, and promises more culinary fun and even tastier gameplay as players chop, slice, dice, fry, grate, mash, mix, peel and roll ingredients using the DS stylus. Multiplayer gameplay ensures budding sushi chefs can challenge each other wirelessly over the restaurant floor and blowing on the in-built DS microphone will even cool a hot dish down!

“We’re overwhelmed with YO! Sushi’s enthusiasm and support for our Cooking Mama 2 campaign,” commented Ian Howe, Managing Director, 505 Games. “The YO! Sushi brand is colourful, cool, fun and essentially Japanese, which are all values shared with our Tokyo-developed Cooking Mama series. This is going to be an exciting and creative campaign and we’re looking forward to getting some great feedback from family sushi diners across the UK.”

Furthermore, My Ly, Marketing Manager for YO! Sushi adds “As well as offering delicious and healthy Japanese inspired dishes, we are always looking to provide something extra for our customers - and this is a perfect way in adding value to their dining experience. We are delighted to be working with Cooking Mama on this exciting and innovative promotion.”

Cooking Mama is an original and fun title that boasts immediate ‘pick up and play’ kitchen action, to ensure that players of any age or skill level are able to enjoy its wholesome wholemeal gameplay. Over one million Nintendo DS and Wii copies of the original game have shipped to-date, making it the biggest selling third party DS title ever released, and Cooking Mama 2 looks all set to break that record over 2008.

As part of the campaign, 505 Games will also be offering YO! Sushi customers the opportunity to win DS and Wii consoles and copies of Cooking Mama 2.

Features:

• Use the stylus as your ultimate cooking utensil to chop, grate, slice, stir, spread, sprinkle, roll, and much more in 150 different mini-games
• Create 80 new recipes including: macaroons, lobster, chili dogs, escargot, California rolls, seafood salad, shark fin soup, meatloaf, ice cream, bananas foster and many more!
• Four gameplay modes including new additions to the series!
  • Cook with Mama: Even if you make mistakes Mama will help you complete the recipe so you can continue cooking.
  • Let’s Cook: You’re on your own without Mama’s help. Now it’s just you, the food and your nine hard-to-satisfy friends who will try out your creations and judge you based on how they taste. Mistakes made during preparation will affect the final taste so use caution in the kitchen!
  • Cooking Contest: Play against up to 3 friends with only one game card using wireless download play. All players complete various mini-games to determine who’s the better cook!
  • Change Design: Customize your kitchen décor or change up the background with various designs you earn through gameplay. You can even change Mama’s outfits and accessories!
• Improved graphics and real-time effects make you feel like you’re actually cooking. Adjust your timing and make decisions about your next course of action based on what you see on screen (i.e. if food is starting to look burned, quickly remove it from the burner, etc.)
• Recipes progress from simple to complex, from small to large dishes, so do your best to meet Mama’s expectations and impress your friends. If your friends think your dish is delicious, you’ll unlock another new friend!
• Earn bronze, silver, and gold medals from Mama based on the quality of your cooking.
• Keep a diary of your best creations and add earned seals to dress it up and share with friends

Already released in North America, Cooking Mama 2 is available to play for free in the Poland Street and Farringdon Road YO! Sushi restaurants from Monday 14th April.