Cooking Mama has served up 500,000 units for the Nintendo DS version since its release 11 months ago. Rightfully enough, Majesco Games has recently announced the development of Cooking Mama 2.

Aside from getting half a million in sales, Cooking Mama has won "Most Innovative DS Design of E3 2006" from IGN and the "Nod Award" from GameDaily, saying that Cooking Mama is "a fun DS game that uses the stylus to near perfection"

Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends promises to be just as fun but with much more challenge as budding chefs out there will be serving up their treats to nine friends who will be judging their works. A Wii version has also been announced to be in the works.

Majesco Entertainment has already hit it big with Cooking Mama for the Nintendo DS, but Nollenberger Capital Partners analyst Tom Greenwald thinks that this is just the start of something big. Greenwald also stated that Majesco securing Cooking Mama 2: Dinner With Friends is a "big win" for the company.

"Cooking Mama 2 was likely a competitive bid, and it is impressive that Majesco secured it as it was probably going up against much larger players," said Greenwald. "It shows the value of the strong relationships Majesco has with numerous Japanese developers and publishers like Office Create and Taito."

Greenwald also suggested that the Cooking Mama games are just the tip of the iceberg. "We believe there is a wealth of casual game content that is not being fully exploited on all platforms, which represents an opportunity for Majesco on the DS and Wii over the next 12-18 months," said Greenwald.

Greenwald noted further that Majesco may also be in negotiations with Sandlot Games for the DS rights to Cake Mania 2.

Majesco Entertainment has rolled out an official announcement for Cooking Mama 2: Dinner With Friends for the Nintendo DS handheld gaming system. This Cooking Mama sequel will include more recipes as well as a couple of new features.

Players will still use the DS stylus to cook in this game, but the twist here is that players will now actually have to feed nine friends who will be tasting and judging the food they make. Cooking Mama 2: Dinner With Friends will also have 80 new recipes that range from cultural delicacies like shark fin soup to apple pie.

On the multiplayer front, a new Challenge Mode will let up to four friends compete in a wireless cook off with only one game card. Players can also customize their kitchen - and even Mama! - in the new Decoration Mode.

The announcement also mentioned that a new version of Cooking Mama for the Nintendo Wii video game console is also being prepped. More details on the Wii version will reportedly be announced at a later date.

The cult hit that took the gaming community by a silent storm will be serving seconds. 505 Games, in a collaboration with Cooking Mama Ltd., has announced a sequel to Cooking Mama for both the Nintendo DS and the Wii, slated for a release early next year.

The game will be published for Europe and will (and must!) contain new recipes and challenges. The game will have twice as many mini games and will now feature a multiplayer mode for the DS. The multiplayer mode will pit players' cooking skills against each other in a cook off. It sounds like an Iron Chef version for Cooking Mama (Iron Mama?).

Ian Howe, Managing Director of 505 games says: "Following on from the phenomenal success of Cooking Mama, we're thrilled to be bringing Cooking Mama 2 to Europe. Cooking Mama delivered a truly original IP and Cooking Mama 2 promises to build on its success."