Food Network has jumped aboard the Wii train with both feet, having quickly licensed out games based on a number of their top rated shows. Despite relatively good sales of a few of their games (mostly Iron Chef), most have been mediocre at best. Unfortunately, Cook or be Cooked is inferior to most of Food Network’s other offerings.

Cook or be Cooked tasks you with creating food using real recipes and judges you based on how well you mimic the specific movements required by each step and on your timing. You’ll also get bonus points for finishing multiple foods around the same time.

The controls are both too specific and too vague at the same time. If you try to do the specific movements requested by each step, you’ll likely fail to get full points. However, if you just waggle your Wii remote, you’ll almost always get the best score for each step.

The graphics quality is on par with most other games from Food Network, which is to say poor. The sound effects are good, with everything sounding as if you are truly in the kitchen. The voice acting needs work, but that may be more a result of a horrible script than bad voice acting, as the actors are actual Food Network hosts.

Additionally, Cook or be Cooked claims to have thirty recipes in it, but, in reality, it has a mere fourteen meals. It seems to be counting each individual food item in each meal as a separate recipe for that count.

If you enjoy any of the other Food Network cooking games, you’ll enjoy this one. However, it still doesn’t measure up to Cooking Mama in terms of actual gameplay.

ESRB:  E for alcohol references

Plays Like:  Cooking Mama, Iron Chef 

Pros: Recipes are good

Cons: Controls are iffy-waggling counts as just about every movement required; Graphics are low quality; Claims to have 30 recipes, but really has just 14 meals