Joystiq impressions: Personal Trainer: Cooking

by Zack Stern { Oct 7th 2008 at 4:30AM }

Out already in Europe and Japan, Personal Trainer: Cooking launches in North America on November 24. Like other upcoming Personal Trainer titles (Math! Walking!), Cooking is more tutor than game. After sampling its recipes, we developed a taste for the concept. The cookbook of 245 dishes gives step-by-step instructions, meeting chefs with a range of skill levels.

Gallery: Personal Trainer: Cooking

We browsed through recipes by nationality, ingredients used, keywords, and a full list. This versatility earns Personal Trainer: Cooking a point over typical cookbooks. If you're out of something, you can tap the name of an ingredient to add it to the built-in shopping list. Then you can face the scorn of jocks everywhere while using the DS in a grocery store.

Back safely at home, recipes include spoken instructions for each step. And if your hands are full, the DS responds to a few voice commands to repeat, pause, or move forward or back. These methods also beat a typical cookbook, although we're most interested in the deeper instructions and video that accompany some steps. For example, we watched a video about cleaning a rainbow trout and sealing dumplings, which were clearer than written instructions.

While you could probably get Personal Trainer: Cooking for your cooking mama, it might better serve to expand your Doritos-eating horizons. We'll check it out again in our own kitchens next month, but we're not bringing it to the grocery store.

Tags: joystiqfeatures, nfms08-hands-on, nintendo, nintendo-fall-media-summit-08, nintendo-fms-08, personal-trainer, personal-trainer-cooking, recipe

Related From Joystiq

DIY: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Prestige Edition for $110.40
154 days ago
Cooking Mama recipe yields 4 million portions
231 days ago

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

JoeTheBlow @ Oct 7th 2008 4:48AM

This kind of thing just baffles me when there is millions of free recipes here on tha interwebs.
http://allrecipes.com/
Hit print, job done, no money spent.

Next up, WikipediaDS.

ill trooper @ Oct 7th 2008 5:28AM

There's more than one way to do things... I definitely agree that internet sites like epicurious.com have waaaaay more than 245 recipes but If you're into cooking, owning multiple cookbooks is common, and as I'm into cooking and a bit of a nerd, I will probably check this out on the "Yes, this was a recipe off the DS" bragging rights aspect, as well as continue going to sites like epicurious. Having a DS with voice commands like 'last step' and 'next' sounds sort of fun, and maybe easier than having a laptop in the kitchen. You could check this out in locations you don't have your internet access, and get ideas from it to try later. Plus, this could get a kid interested in cooking, always a good idea.

I don't think it's a baffling mystery that multiple solutions can co-exist. For instance, on your 'Wikipedia DS' joke: There are sites that specialize in particular topics also covered on Wikipedia, and those sites still thrive. Not everyone gets enough info from an all-in-one Walmart of websites.

Haggard (Mr.ESC resurrected on a... thursday?!) @ Oct 7th 2008 11:52AM

There's bragging rights in being conned into buying an overexpensive and under-content-ful piece of cynical moneymaking crap?

pedasn @ Oct 7th 2008 6:57AM

@ Joe the Blow: Wikipedia DS (offline) has allready come true as a homebrew application. And as a pretty good one indeed.

I'm from Europe and had a chance to test this game. It's pretty good, and i say that from the standpoint of a semi-professional cook. Joe the Blow is right when he says that 245 is not enough for the long run. But it's quite impressing. There are a lot of hints and it's designed very usefull. The kitchen-clock pops up when you need it, there are a lot of hints for beginners available, it makes shopping easier, you can choose what to cook by the ingredients you have at home, and so on. So, if someone likes cooking, this is a serious cooking guide (especially for beginners), and nothing like cooking mama. Presentation is overall great.

pedasn @ Oct 7th 2008 7:00AM

@ Joe the Blow: Wikipedia DS (offline) has allready come true as a
homebrew application. And as a pretty good one indeed.

I'm from Europe and had a chance to test this game. It's pretty good,
and i say that from the standpoint of a semi-professional cook. Joe
the Blow is right when he says that 245 is not enough for the long
run. But it's quite impressing. There are a lot of hints and it's
designed very usefull. The kitchen-clock pops up when you need it,
there are a lot of hints for beginners available, it makes shopping
easier, you can choose what to cook by the ingredients you have at
home, and so on. So, if someone likes cooking, this is a serious
cooking guide (especially for beginners), and nothing like cooking
mama. Presentation is overall great.

sldtrap @ Oct 7th 2008 9:09AM

What wasn't mentioned is the convenience aspect to this program (it doesn't really sound like a game).

I have had times when I had my laptop open on my kitchen counter as I was trying a new recipe that I saw on television, providing me with both ingredients, instructions and a video on how to do things. Add to that the ability timer, and shopping list, and you've got a great little program.

In a couple of posts it was mentioned that 245 recipes is not enough. I agree. The DSi may solve that problem. With the DSi, the publisher/developer could feasibly release DLC in the form of "cookbooks" of varying flavors (pun intended). This would be a continued income source for this Personal Trainer iteration, and keep the application fresh.