Cooking Academy 2

Pros

• Graphics are pretty good, and have seen improvement over those of the first game.
• Some of the tedious, hard to complete tasks from the first game were changed in Cooking Academy 2, making them less tedious.
• Every recipe in the game is presented with interesting background information.

Cons

• There's not much originality in Cooking Academy 2. It feels almost exactly like Cooking Academy 1, with more recipes, in many ways. It's also obvious that both games in the series were heavily inspired by the Cooking Mama series.

Cooking Academy 2: World Cuisine is essentially a compilation of cooking and food-themed tasks. It's an unoriginal idea, but that doesn't make Cooking Academy any less fun to play, and the wide array of recipes in the game may even inspire some real life creativity in the kitchen.

The story begins where the last game left off, though it's not necessary to play the first game in order to enjoy Cooking Academy 2. Having played the original Cooking Academy, or even a similar cooking-themed game such as Cooking Mama, you'll already be familiar with how the basic controls of Cooking Academy 2 are going to work. If not, then don't worry - it is fun and easy to pick up. To give you an idea of what the game is like, you'll be using the mouse a lot - for everything from chopping and peeling to folding to stirring as you create and cook.

The game begins with you as an up-and-coming student chef, given the privilege of competing in the Annual World Culinary Workshop. The goal of the game is to cook well, obviously. There is a final exam at the end of the workshop, and the student who scores the highest on the final exams will receive one million dollars from the World Culinary Board to put toward starting their own restaurant.

In order to get entrance to exams in the first place, you have to earn your way into them by completing recipes and various special tasks from the recipes. The good news is that recipes can be practiced and levels replayed as often as you want, trying for higher and higher scores.

Recipes are organized by country, with tons of variety. Some are mundane and most likely things you've eaten before in real life, and others are exotic recipes that you may not have even heard of. Every recipe comes with a bit of background information though, including its origins and how it's traditionally served, which is a pretty interesting feature.

There are tons of Mini games in Cooking Academy 2. All of them are food related, of course. One involves a hidden object game, searching out ingredients needed for recipes from an ice box. Another puts you in charge of a juicer, following circular arrows over the juicer to squeeze juice out of citrus fruits.

Pros

• Graphics are pretty good, and have seen improvement over those of the first game.
• Some of the tedious, hard to complete tasks from the first game were changed in Cooking Academy 2, making them less tedious.
• Every recipe in the game is presented with interesting background information.

Cons

• There's not much originality in Cooking Academy 2. It feels almost exactly like Cooking Academy 1, with more recipes, in many ways. It's also obvious that both games in the series were heavily inspired by the Cooking Mama series.