name | of | the | game - So you think you can cook?

Find out just how good you are without ever touching the oven thanks to Cooking Mama: Cook Off 

In the era of the celebrity chef and the Bouillabaisse Network (coming soon, after receiving a hotly contested cable TV license in a narrow decision over the favoured Consommé Channel) interest in cookery has never been higher. But what to do if you crave the glory, yet feel pulling off a gourmet dinner party is too daunting? The answer can be found — as it so often is — in a videogame.

Presided over by the Japanese-accented, anime-style Mama, Cook Off exploits the unique capabilities of the Wii’s motion-sensitive controller (the Wii-mote) by challenging you to virtually prepare 55 real-world dishes using 300 ingredients. Under Mama’s watchful eye you’ll point the Wii-mote down and stir like a spoon, push it back and forth like a rolling pin, or chop it like a knife. The faster and more accurately you work, the higher your score.

Once you get the hang of the basics, there are advanced gameplay modes where you beat the clock to unlock new recipes, battle a live opponent head-to-head or have computer-controlled "friends" from around the globe challenge you to prepare their local Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Spanish and Japanese dishes.

Rather than going for Xbox 360-type photorealism (the Wii is a less powerful machine, after all) Cook Off's graphics have a cartoonish feel, yet the ingredients behave as they would in the real world. More importantly, working in real time makes you feel like you're actually cooking — when something starts to look a little crispy, you'd better get it off the burner pronto before you set off the smoke alarm or, even worse, get a tongue-lashing from Mama.

But like any culinary exercise, it’s really about the food, and there's definitely no mac and cheese on the menu. Mama will have you slicing tomatoes, cracking eggs, peeling carrots, blending spices, flipping burgers, kneading dough and spreading icing. And you'll want to roll up your sleeves when it's time to run the beef through the meat grinder or clean and gut your convincingly slippery fish. Modern folk who tend to forget where steaks and filets actually come from might even find it a little gruesome, but as Mama would say, "You can't stand heat, you go be vegetarian!"

Monster Madness: Battle for Suburbia PC, Xbox 360

With mom and dad away one Friday night, Zack has high hopes for his "study date" with Goth girl Carrie, at least until his skater pal Andy shows up with that stuck-up cheerleader Jennifer. But before Zack can get his social life sorted out, something almost as upsetting happens — a mob of zombies bash through his front door.

Using a 3-D top-down perspective that enables four-player cooperative combat (for both local and online players), Zack and friends must battle hundreds of werewolves, goblins and vampires that have mysteriously invaded his suburban neighbourhood. With comic book-inspired visuals and sassy protagonists, Monster Madness takes a light-hearted, teen-friendly approach to the Apocalypse.