As soon as the Cooking Guide was released in English, we here at DS Fanboy understood one thing: it was necessary that we put the software to the test in a bloody, violent, no-holds-barred, steel cage cook-off the likes of which would put Iron Chef (both versions) to shame. Sadly, budget constraints (and, uh, laws) prevented the sort of Thunderdome-esque event we hand in mind, though, so instead, we're just having a normal cook-off.
One hobbyist cook. One bachelor. One shot at three recipes, supported by the Cooking Guide. Will they be able to produce the same meal, with the same results? Will the Guide serve as a workable cookbook for the knowledgeable, and an aid for those who aren't? We put it to the test.
Though you got our live reactions as the Nintendo conference was actually happening, now that we've had a few moments to jump around, fume, and generally compose our thoughts, we present you with the formal reactions of the DS Fanboy staff to today's Nintendo briefing from E3.
Alisha Karabinus: I'm having a really hard time seeing past Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. That could be just beyond awesome... and, of course, it could be crap. I guess we'll find out. It's surprisingly missing from the media round-ups I've seen so far. I think I'm surprised by the lack of a redesign, even though I have been against the possibility of it for so long. By now, I just assumed it was going to happen. Of course, it still could!
I'm excited about the Cooking Guide, even though I just got a copy from the UK (thanks, Chris!), and I don't think it's as good as it could be. Still, it's interesting and novel ... but speaking of novel, I'd have rather seen DS Novel. All I can really say about Guitar Hero is that I'm not surprised at all that we'd see another version already.
This year's Nintendo conference at E3 felt much too short, but was packed with some really great announcements. Did you really expect a DS Grand Theft Auto game? But in case you missed the show, or simply prefer an abridged version, here are the highlights. Read our live reactions here, or check out Joystiq's liveblog if you're feeling adventurous.
Bad cooks, don't worry -- now you can bake your cake and eat it, too.
Nintendo is bringing its delightful-looking recipe game, Cooking Guide (known as Cooking Navi in Japan) to North America this November. Now you don't have to worry about paying a small fortune to import the nongame from Europe!
Cooking Guide mostly caters to those of us that are helpless in the kitchen, like this blogger. We're ready for Nintendo to help our cooking skills this November, and before you know it, we're sure we'll be competing on Top Chef.
Need to put together an impressive meal to wow the girdle off an older lady friend? As demonstrated in the above commercial with Hamish (of Hamish & Andy fame), Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? might have just the recipe you'll need to get your Golden Girl giddy. Older women go wild over yakitori, apparently.
Nintendo has several of these commercials for the cooking training game airing in Europe and Australia, three of which we've embedded past the post break, but none of them are nearly as saucy or entertaining. Do you have a secret, sensual dish that girls (or guys) can't resist? Let us know! We've always prided ourselves in our ability to cook a mean leche flan.
U.S.-based reader Sandy recently contacted us with a quandary: s/he (sorry, Sandy, we weren't sure!) is desperately attempting to track down a new copy of Billiard Action. Unfortunately, there appears to be one major obstacle: the game is only available in the UK and Europe, and Sandy is struggling to find anywhere that will send European games to the States. Ebay is one obvious answer, we suppose, but it has its downsides. Can any of our fantastically wise readers help out?
For the rest of you, where do you import your DS gear and games from? We all know about the likes of Play-Asia and NCSX, and as excellent as they are, are there any smaller sites you feel are just as worth buying from?
For those of us salivating over the upcoming opportunity to import Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? (or, alternately, those of us who are in Europe and planning to just pop over to a shop this week), this trailer is a delicious morsel.
The real game doesn't come with the encouraging Paul, but it does come with the overprocessed, bizarre-sounding narration which offers instructions along each step of the recipe. This video provides a nice overview of the cooking-with-DS process, which features everything from when to add double cream to what double cream is. We'd recommend putting your swanky new red DS in a Ziploc or something if you're going to fry pork next to it.
Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat? continues to look like it will be numerous flavors of awesome. Ahead of the training game's release in Europe this week, Nintendo grabbed its ladle and served up a generous helping of 35 new screens. Handily, these are all in English (as opposed to French, like the last batch), and we've picked up lots of new information as a result.
For a start, it appears that the non-game will cater to the most fastidious of chefs. Everything can be filtered in Cooking Guide, so if you want to find a recipe which can be cooked in under 30 minutes, has meat as its main ingredient, is of average difficulty to prepare, and which comes in at under 300 calories, no problem! You can also choose to exclude certain ingredients that you don't like from your recipes, make your own shopping list, or browse dishes from a particular country.
Best of all, a non-cook (such as this blogger) will find little in these screens that is intimidating, thanks to step-by-step instructions that aren't filled with jargon, and a comprehensive glossary for the overwhelmed. We never thought we'd say this about a training game, but we can't wait for this to find a home in our DSes.
What a fabulous week! We've got breaking, cooking, exploring, invading, and so much more, in all the major regions! If it's all a little painful on the wallet, well ... the last few months have been lighter on releases, and now we're gearing up for summer -- and the DS just went from zero to sixty in nothing flat.
Wow, they're pretty much the same! We were sure that after years of waiting, the new European version of Shaberu! Cooking Navi, or at least its marketing, would be the subject of a significant facelift. But if the boxart is any indication, Nintendo is presenting Cooking Guide in exactly the same way they did Cooking Navi.
The title fonts are similar, the layouts are similar, and even the food photographs are similarly lit and focused. The only differences, really, are that the European box has more food photographs on it, and lacks the playful "Shaberu!" ("Talk!") that bounces out from the title in the Japanese box. Really, it looks even more like a training game. After the break, we've prepared a heartier, lumberjack-style serving of Cooking Navi boxart.
As medical science suggests that a steady regime of Pringles, pizza, and Coca-Cola is not a suitable diet (pfft!), this blogger is looking forward to learning healthier recipes from Cooking Navi (or, as it's known in PAL regions, Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat?). After all, I'd quite like to live beyond forty, and my current repertoire in the kitchen (omelettes, toast, cereal) may prove an obstacle to that aim.
These first nine screens of the localized western version are all in French (which feels appropriate, given that country's culinary reputation), but it's not hard to see that this non-game caters to a range of skill levels -- for example, I actually know what Spaghetti Carbonara is! There'll be 200 recipes in total, with each informing users of the calorie count and preparation time. Hit up our gallery for more delicious screens.
All of you hopeful chefs living in Europe, it looks like we may finally have a date for when Cooking Navi is to release in your region. According to a German gaming site, Nintendo-Online, the title is due to hit on June 20th. Some other poking around the net shows that GAME also has a listing for that day.
We'd like to check more on this, but, in all honesty, there's just not much retail competition for GAME. So we can't exactly go looking up other listings for the game. Even Nintendo of Europe's site has nothing on the title, so we're really up the creek without a paddle here. For the time being, we're considering this a rumor, but just wanted to let you all know that you should be taking this "news item" with a grain of salt.
As soon as the Cooking Guide was released in English, we here at DS Fanboy understood one thing: it was necessary that we put the software to the test in a bloody, violent, no-holds-barred, steel cage cook-off the likes of which would put Iron Chef (both versions) to shame. Sadly, budget constraints (and, uh, laws) prevented the sort of Thunderdome-esque event we hand in mind, though, so instead, we're just having a normal cook-off.
U.S.-based reader Sandy recently contacted us with a quandary: s/he (sorry, Sandy, we weren't sure!) is desperately attempting to track down a new copy of Billiard Action. Unfortunately, there appears to be one major obstacle: the game is only available in the UK and Europe, and Sandy is struggling to find anywhere that will send European games to the States. Ebay is one obvious answer, we suppose, but it has its downsides. Can any of our fantastically wise readers help out?
As medical science suggests that a steady regime of Pringles, pizza, and Coca-Cola is not a suitable diet (pfft!), this blogger is looking forward to learning healthier recipes from 
_thumbnail.png "Defenders of Law, Inc: Crime in Willburg (PC Screens)")
