America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking
10
10
3
3
Fun & Delicious
I love love love LOVE this game! It has 300 recipes. All of the ones I made were really good. The directions are easy to follow. I like that you can mark certain recipes you want to try. You also have a calendar where you can put the exact day you want to make recipes. The sound commands aren't the greatest. You have to get really close for it to work so you might as well just touch the screen. Also if you like to play music or talk to someone while your cooking it picks up random words and repeats, goes back to, or goes to the next step. It can get annoying. If you don't know what a certain ingredient is, you can touch it and it will show you a picture and tell you about it. If you don't know how to do something for example chop an onion, it has really cool video tutorials showing you how to do it. Each recipe says the amount of time it takes to make, how many servings it makes, and how many calories each serving has. Overall, I love this game and I recommend it to anyone who loves to cook!
6/5/11
This is NOT a test...this is the REAL DEAL!
It's been (literally) two years since i've used my Nintendo DS for anything more than an alarm clock, but when I had heard that this cart was coming to the DS, it breathed new life into the system. I'm 30 years old and I can't cook worth anything, so it was time to see what something of this nature could do on a "children's" gaming system. I wasn't the least bit disappointed. Right out the gate, the game welcomes you (depending on time of day) "Good evening! It's time to get cooking!". The voices are tinny, but nothing less than I would expect from a handheld gaming system, the music is subtle and "backgroundy" while the soundFX are decent and not overbearing. The game is considered multiplayer since you can assign multiple chefs (If you're cooking with friends or a family) to be assigned to certain tasks, if any of your chefs should be too young, or inexperienced, you can restrict that chef to assignments which DO NOT require the use of heat or knives. So with all of that out of the way, how does this actually compare to something to the effect of a cookbook? There are 300 recipes of all types that you can choose to make, each recipe comes with not only a fully detailed explanation of how to prepare, AND cook the food in step-by-step based instructions, but also a breakdown of what utensils are needed. It gets better, in addition, most everything is voice guided! It will allow you to announce "More Details" which will prompt the game to begin an explanation of whatever required you to request greater detail of something or "Continue" if you've finished a step and want to continue without getting your food-laced fingers on your DS, a "Repeat" option, "Go back" option, "Start Timer" option (for timed steps) and more! The game creators definitely were hard at work when they made this game, they've also included VIDEO TUTORIALS of more difficult tasks and some educational clips, such as how to properly hold/use a knife, how to chop various vegetables and more. If you're a picky eater like myself, then you will appreciate the ability to filter out ingredients. Once you've removed an ingredient, the cookbook will still reflect a dish that has the ingredient you chose to avoid, but there will be a small "X" indicating that an ingredient that you do not wish to consume is present in that particular dish. If you like to schedule dishes, you may do so with this cart as well! Another very thoughtful aspect within includes the ability to select a dish or dessert (or whatever) and select a day of the month to make it, the game will actively remind you (as long as it's turned on) that you have a dish that you wanted to make on that date and will allow you to select it. What can be better than that? The game actually has preloaded dishes for special days such as Mother's Day and Christmas! The dishes you select and make can be assigned a 1-5 star rating so that you can remember how much you liked it! All in all, if you're looking for a fun way to learn how to cook, or if you're looking to involve other people in a "cook night" at your place, then this cart is DEFINITELY FOR YOU! If you want a cart that will serve as an interactive cookbook which will help hone your skills or even teach you slowly how to cook and impress people with what you've learned, then this is DEFINITELY FOR YOU! Pick up this cart and you WILL NOT be unhappy you bought it, it's worth every penny!
4/7/10
Nice multiuser experience for foodies
I just picked up America's Test Kitchen from GameStop today, and found it to be quite nice. My son and I are used to doing cooking projects on the weekends, but the Nintendo DSi has been a recent distraction. This game was the answer I had been looking for - he can play his DSi and help me in the kitchen at the same time. He can navigate the recipe instructions (with sounds, so that I can hear them), I can do the cooking, and I just have to tell him to move to the next screen and get the next ingredient ready. When he can separate himself from the DSi, I can use the console to look at short, informative cooking videos on everything from dicing techniques to cleaning leeks. There are two ways in which I would improve the "game": 1) The game gives you 300 ATK-approved recipes - going forward, I would like to be able to add more recipes - hopefully, there will one day be a way to do this. 2) The shopping list is a nice idea, but he would have to bring his DSi into the grocery store for me to be able to make use of it - it would be great if there was a way to send it to a PC tablet or cell phone so that I can access it more easily. The graphics and videos are stellar - not a "must buy," but I am certainly not suffering from buyer's remorse. It is a good way to make gaming an interactive family experience rather than an individualized escape.
3/28/10