Bright colors and sunshine are what await you in Camping Mama: Outdoor Adventures. Those that know the "Mama" series from games like Cooking Mama will recognize the cartoon style and thick outlines on all the characters. You'll also recognize the delicious portrayal of all manner of food from kabobs to fruits to fish.

The soundtrack is equally cheery and happy. It seems like everything bounces around and moves in this game, and that bouncy feeling just goes straight into the music too. Of course, you'll get a variety of sizzling, shaking, and chopping noises to go along with the cooking portions of the game. But if a cute "boing" or "bleep" sound can be inserted anywhere, I mean anywhere, it's gonna be done. And, of course, Mama, Papa, and the kids are voiced by cute, heavily accented voices exclaiming "Good Job!" or "Wow!" Actually, they say a few other things that I can't quite understand, but I consider it all equally adorable (hopefully).

Camping Mama: Outdoor Adventures, besides being ripe for parody as a first-person shooter, is a wholesome game about the wonders of the great outdoors. At least, it's about the theme of the outdoors, loosely. The camping themes here seem a bit more Japanese than American. Here, campers are looking for chestnuts and trying to catch rhinoceros beetles. Well, you do get into more "American" camping activities like roasting s'mores as well, later on. Naturally, the only way to do these things on the DS is with mini-games - loads and loads of mini-games.

So that's pretty much the game. There's no grand story to this whole thing, but apparently doing things as simple as gathering firewood are a huge adventure in themselves. About half your time is spent navigating the map in an overhead view. You'll dodge nefarious monkeys in order to gather things like firewood and bring them back to camp. Apparently you came with no food or supplies either, but luckily there are forest tomatoes (yes, apparently) and other delicious items you can also gather. So you run around, gather things, and get into mini-games, and that's about it.

That makes things sound pretty dull, and honestly, the games in this series were never meant to be intellectually stimulating. Camping Mama: Outdoor Adventures is basically a fun little time waster. You'll do all sorts of things in the mini-games, and they do vary a bit in their small details, but overall it's going to be "chop this" or "collect that". You can get items, but they really just serve as trophies. You're not really building a camp at all here, just playing mini-games (sorry Mama).

Camping Mama: Outdoor Adventures is literally the kind of game you could play with one hand, and shouldn't pose much of a challenge to simply complete it. If you want to create some difficulty for yourself, you can go back to previous challenges and try to get better scores. It's just not a super tough or reflex-intensive game, for the most part. And if you don't like a particular game, chances are it's optional anyway.

There are a few parts that require timing, like the parts where you have to run past monkeys to get to another area in the map. This might be a challenge for very young players to grasp. Some of the mini-games are a little confusing at first, as well. When you're told to "Peel the Apple!" that doesn't really tell you what to do in the game. In game, it's more like, "spin the apple a couple times, then touch the knife when it appears." There is definitely some potential for frustration here.

Camping Mama: Outdoor Adventures's controls are actually where it shines quite a bit. It makes good use of the touchscreen controls, and the way the games are set up are usually fun, and not taxing on your poor hands. There's enough variety in the motions you use so that your hands don't get awfully cramped too early. For example, some games use a slicing motion, often when you're chopping a fruit or vegetable, but some games are simple touch games such as the memory game where you uncover matching things under leaves.

Camping Mama may not be complicated, but it is enjoyable. As with the Cooking Mama series, don't expect to learn anything about camping here, and you'll have a good time with the cute mini-games and happy atmosphere. I'd prefer a game where you can actually build something or have a bit more to show for your accomplishments, but Camping Mama pretty much offers you mini-games, and then offers you the chance to play them again. Give the game any more expectation than that, and you're bound for disappointment.