Personal Trainer: Cooking Review for Nintendo DS

System: DS	Review Rating Legend
Dev: Indies Zero	1.0 - 1.9 = Avoid	4.0 - 4.4 = Great
Pub: Nintendo	2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
Release: Nov. 24, 2008	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	5.0 = The Best
Players: 1	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair
ESRB Rating: Everyone	3.5 - 3.9 = Good

Folks with specific food allergies, dietary restriction, and picky palates will also love the ability to track dishes and ingredients they can’t have. It’s important to note you can hand-pick ingredients you do not eat in the options menu. This will mark which dishes contain ingredients you’ve excluded from your diet, when browsing the recipes.

Personal Trainer: Cooking screenshot

Other minor touches like a fully functioning kitchen timer, a shopping list, a built-in calculator, a tracking system that tells you how many times you’ve created a particular meal, and a calendar that tracks what meals you’ve made and on what days you’ve made them. A cooking A-Z section provides a wealth of kitchen knowledge, from ingredient substitution and terminology to cooking tips and homemade ingredients. Also, 20 short video clips provide further instruction.

A vibrant and warm presentation gives Personal Trainer: Cooking a lot of personality for a glorified cookbook. Your personal trainer and narrator, a simple animated line-drawing of a mustachioed chef, has a pleasant voice and a cadence that can be sped up or slowed down to suit your taste. He’s a cheerful, friendly fellow that dishes out good advice and congratulations for every dish you make. During the food prep and cooking process, your chef buddy narrates each step of the instructions in a simple, easy-to-understand way.

Easily the best feature of the entire game, the voice recognition software lets you cook hands-free. In fact, the whole step-by-step food preparation process is excellently executed. The chef trainer narrates each step and then waits for your instruction before proceeding. Though you can navigate through the recipe with the stylus, it’s far better to do so verbally by saying “last step,” “repeat,” and “continue.” At any time in the recipe when additional instruction or clarification is available, another option will pop up. Saying “more details” then brings up the additional information, before returning to the recipe when you’re ready. For safety reasons, each recipe begins with the preparation phase before completing to the cooking phase.

DS owners who haven’t got a clue on how to cook but are willing to give it a shot will find Personal Trainer: Cooking to be a highly rewarding investment. This package surpasses the novelty of having a slew of recipes and a personal backup up chef teaching you the ropes. It can open up a whole realm of possibilities for gamers who wouldn’t step within 10 feet of a cookbook otherwise. At a price of $20, your stomach will thank you.

By Nathan Meunier
CCC Staff Contributor

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

4.0

Graphics
Colorful photos, clean menus, and easy navigation make it a pleasant experience.

4.6

Control
Hands-free voice recognition software works amazingly well, while the stylus works great in a pinch.

3.9

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The pleasant background music changes to match your dish’s nationality. The chef’s voice and dialogue is great.

4.0

Play Value
While it’s definitely not a game, there’s a ton of use to be found in this great program.

4.2

Overall Rating - Great
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

Cooking Guide includes more than 200 recipes from around the world. So no matter what you're in the mood for, you can find something new and tasty to make for dinner. Users can search a map by country to find regional dishes or select options for low-calorie foods, specific ingredients or short cooking times.

Each recipe contains step-by-step directions and photos to make it possible to prepare dishes you've never tried before. Use the stylus or simple voice commands to "turn the page." A tap of the touch screen lets you adjust the serving size automatically, and users can write and save cooking notes, just as they would in a paper recipe book.

The Cooking Guide chef talks you through the entire cooking process. Recipes include photos of the dish as well as instructional videos on how to perform different cooking techniques, such as how to chop an onion or clean a fish. Users can access a handy reference function to explain unfamiliar terms and cooking techniques when they appear.

The software includes a timer and calculator, as well as a search function to help you find what you're looking for. Cooking Guide also includes an ingredient checklist to use as a shopping list ? just put a mark next to the items you need and bring your Nintendo DS to the grocery store.

Learn from the best! You and the Chef will collaborate on a wide variety of recipes, with videos of techniques, explanations of ingredients, and expert advice. With its innovative interface and the interactivity that only the DS can provide, it’s a perfect learning tool for the budding chef.

Shop with the Nintendo DS! As you browse recipes, just tap a box to mark ingredients you need to buy. The DS will automatically store them in your in-game shopping list. Later you can take your DS to the store and check off the ingredients as you put them in your cart.

What do you want to cook today? Search for recipes by ingredients, calorie count, cooking time, difficulty, and more.

Talk back to the Chef. Hands covered in batter? Keep your DS clean using voice commands to continue to the next page, repeat a step, go back, and more.