Summary
In *The Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends*, players use the Nintendo DS touch screen to prepare a variety of dishes, just like in the original *The Cooking Mama*. Guided by the on-screen instructions of the titular "Mama," players use the stylus to carry out cooking tasks such as chopping vegetables or blending ingredients. Each activity is presented as a short minigame, with multiple minigames combined to complete a full recipe from a selection of 80 different dishes.
Once a dish is completed, the player's performance is assessed and given a score out of 100, along with a matching medal. If a player fails to complete a step in *Let's Cook* mode or receives a "fail" rating during a task (depending on the severity), they will earn a "Broken Silver" medal, which resembles a Silver medal but has a crack added to it. Unlike earlier *Cooking Mama* games, bonuses earned during minigames no longer affect the overall score. Instead, they are collected as "bonus stars." For every five bonus stars earned, the player unlocks a new item after completing the recipe.