Can't decide what to eat? (Cooking Guide (DS))

Member Name: scotlandizdabest

Product:	Cooking Guide (DS)
Date:	19/07/08 (548 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Range of dishes, nutrional content, different

Disadvantages: Playabillity

What Is It?
Cooking Guide is the new DS game from Nintendo to try and get all of us cooking. Unlike Cooking Mama, this isn't actually a game, it is more a Tutorial, containing real recipes, videos and advice on how to make the best dishes. It lets you use your DS in a whole new way, as a recipe book!

Why Would You Buy It?
3 things lead me to buy this product:
*Advertising- I had seen this game advertised on TV and really wanted to try it out. I had a DS for over a year and loved Brain Training, Nintendogs and Harry Potter; so it would be good to play something different. I also saw big stands of the games in Tescos and HMV which encouraged me more.
*Website- As many Ciaoers know I like to do research before I buy a product. I went onto the website (see end of review) where you got an online tutorial of how the game worked. I really enjoyed the guides sexy voice, guiding a women through a recipe. I was very impressed at how easy it looked.
*I Can't Cook- I took Standard Grade Home Economics but I still can't cook much. So I need something that is patient and shows me what to do (some recipe books expect you to know what Julienne Carrot Sticks are!)

Where To Find It/Price
After my little bit of research I decided to buy it. I had seen it in our local Tesco's the week before so decided to buy it there for £27.99. That is around the average price for a DS game, so was happy to pay that price. Cooking Guide can be bought in almost any shop that would sell DS games. Online as well, HMV, Game etc will sell the games. Don't pay over £30 for this game as there is no DS game that would sell for more than that (unless Gold plated.)

Starting Up The Game
So getting home I wanted to try out my game immediately. So finding my DS I put the game in and was raring to go. But I remembered something, I had had tea at my granny's and wasn't wanting to cook anything. So I couldn't do much with the game. However I did decide to set up the games to my needs and get familiar with it.
When you start up you get a picture of your helper chef. A voice then follows saying "Can't Decide What To Eat? Cooking Guide..." and takes you to the main menu. Impressed so far by everything. The game then took me through an online tutorial on how to work the game. I did a voice test (read below) and then was ready to "Start Cooking."

Selection Of Recipes
You can choose recipes by:
*Country of origin
*A-Z (Alphabetically)
*Calorie Content (Lowest to Highest)
*Time Making (Lowest To Highest)
*'Easiest' (Least complex to most)
*Ingredients Used (Chicken, Peppers, Salt etc)
There are over 250 different recipes to choose from ranging from Macaroni Cheese to Sushi to Chocolate Brownie. There is a lot to look through and lots of dishes I had never even heard of before. So after having a look around I favourited some of the dishes that took my fancy to try when I need to make something.

Extras
On the game and idea is that you can take it to the shops with you as it has a virtual shopping list on it. I'm not sure if I would be happy going through Tesco's with my DS but i'm thinking of giving it ago. You can pick a dish you want to make an make a shopping list out of it. Fantastic!
Every dish has an average calorie content which varies from 90 to 800 a dish. This is an average but reliable. So if you are on a diet for example then this can show you what dishes contain. Another brilliant extra.
Voice Recognition, that is a really good extra. When looking at a recipe and you want to go to the next page you don't really want to pick up the DS pen and do it when your cooking. So you simply say "Continue" and it goes to the next page. But my favourite is when you get stuck. If for example you don't know how to finely cut an onion. You say to your DS "Help" and it will show a video of how to do it. Fantastic!

Instructions On How To Make Dish
The first dish I picked to make was Macaroni Cheese. There was many different more exotic dishes but I kept it more simple. I turned the sound up and was ready to cook. It told me all the equipment and ingredients I would need before I started. So I clicked 'Cook' and I was ready to start.
The cook explained every thing from how much salt to add to water. Every instruction had a diagram to go along with it and the Cooks voice was very comforting! Anything I didn't hear I just had to say 'Repeat' and he would read the instructions out again.
After him showing me how to add pasta and leaving it too cook I was able to start on the sauce. So far it had been exceptionally easy. So I started to make the sauce and everything was fine. Add flour add cheese yes I think I can do this now. Thats the sauce made in 8 minutes. Fantastic!!! Add pasta to sauce. Thats it. Seasoned hot and fresh meal in 20 minutes. Cool.

Dish Quality
After making my first 'DS Dish' I was impressed. I let my mum have a taste and she also was very impressed. She did however point out that I could have made Macaroni Cheese without the DS fine but I like to be a bit ahead when it comes to the latest technology. The DS motivates you to make it. I get bored when reading a recipe book it just gets complicated. Thats why I also like cooking shows, but they cook to fast. The Macaroni cheese was very good, and Nintendo did pick a very good simple recipe. The sauce was nice and cheesy and pasta well cooked. Would make it again from DS recipe. I was also able to know it had around 300 calories in it per surving. If/When I make more dishes I will update this section for other dishes.

Graphic
DS games usually good have good graphics but this game has excellent graphics. It uses a lot of photos and videos which are very clear and on the screen. I think this is the best graphics I have ever seen on a DS. When you are wanting to watch a video it is crisp and clear. Exactly what you need when trying to cut up a fish for the first time. Excellent graphics, DS games are just getting better and better in this area.

What's Right
It gets you motivated for cooking.
"Janie, why don't you make some nice brownies for the cake sale."
"Great i'll just get my DS!"
I hope to one day say that (how sad) but it would be great. There is some excellent recipes and if there are certain foods you don't like or are allergic to then the Cooking Guide can offer substitutes. I hate fish for example, I really do. So the DS changed the fish dishes or just 'hid' them so I didn't have to pick them. Great! I really want to have a go at making some of the dishes I had never heard off before, I saw a Beef and Green Pepper stir-fry with rice that sounded and looked exceptionally yummy.
For each dish there is nutrional content which is very helpful so you can pick a lower calorie option. I found this helpful and you can change how much you would like to make from 1 serving to 6 max and still know how many calories.
The price is very good, DS games can be expensive but I found this being a good price to buy new. The front cover is very good as well with a lovely looking chicken skewers on the front, yum. And of course the dish quality. I can't claim that all dishes are brilliant but they look all mouthwatering!

What's Wrong
2 things. The biggest is how often one would use it. When I got I thought I could use it everyday, but busy lives took over and I was only able to dish/es when I had a good half hour. Also I may not have the ingredients nessicary to make the dish I want. The recipe choice is overall a little limiting and there are a lot of dishes that I would never have (Fish Stew?) so I would never make that.
The other thing is the voice recognition can be a bit dodgy. When your cooking and there is water boiling, sauces bubbling etc, it doesn't seem to sometimes register and can get a little frustrating. Because of background noise it doesn't work as efficiently as it could.

Conclusion
The idea of the Cooking Guide is fantastic! Cook with your DS, take it food shopping, don't use it as a games console more a guide. This game seems to be very popular and I am saying to everyone to get this game if you are:
*A bad cook
*A good cook
*Like your DS
*Love your DS
*Like listening to a sexy voice while cooking
*Love making new things (Sushi? Brownies? Stews)
*Someone that needs something patient.

I've had this game for around 3/4 weeks now and have cooked one dish so far. I will be making more, maybe even today actually. It is not the funnest game if you are not cooking but when you are, it is good fun and you get to use every feature of the DS. The price is good, graphics fantastic and recipes good. Give it ago if you have a DS as it is a brilliant idea, and you can make yourself look like a fantastic cook!

Janie x

©scotlandizdabest

Summary: Excellent idea game, but can it really be used in place of recipe book?