Posted Jun 18th 2008 12:30PM by Phil Larsen
Filed under: News
Since general cooking games aren't obscure enough already, Starfish is placing its development clout right in the middle of the bakery. With no messy Cooking Mama kitchen tomfoolery, Panpaka Panya-San lets you work the oven and bake like a madman. Or, in this case, baking like a cute little girl with pigtails.
The official website is ready for perusal, and it's stylish in a "brown crayon" kind of way. Along with the female hero Roux, the world of Panpaka is populated by a group of smiling pastries and cakes, blissfully unaware of their inevitable demise within the mouths of hungry gamers. Happy music accompanies this disturbing scenario.
Cooking fanatics can pick this pie up when it hits the shelves in Japan on July 3rd.
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.
And the Ubisoft mehware continues. Siliconera just spotted a listing on the site of EB Games for a game version of long-running quiz show The Price is Right. According to the retailer, the title will be released on the DS and the Wii on September 9th, almost 20 years after the game show made its videogame debut on the Commodore 64. Drew Carey's first appearance in a game is rather more recent.
And that's not all, shovelware fans: Ubi has also snapped up the rights to create a game based on Hell's Kitchen, presumably starring mobile belligerence unit and ego-on-legs Gordon Ramsay. Quite how the company plans to include Ramsay's famously foul language and secure an "E" rating for the game is, as yet, unknown.
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.
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.
It looks like we have some good news for Australians who need some help in the kitchen. Shaberu! Cooking Navi, the DS guide to preparing tasty food, is heading down under, according to a recent filing with the Australian Classification Board.
The game will be called Cooking Guide: Can't Decide What to Eat?, and will hopefully be available in the country soon. But, the way Europe is still waiting, we're not sure you should be holding your breath down there.
Finally. After forever (or one year, depending on your calendar), there appears to be some progress toward the promised European release of Cooking Navi. The German USK ratings board database now contains an entry for a Nintendo-published game called Kochkurs: was wollen wir heute kochen? The name, which is (appropriately) quite a mouthful, translates to Cooking Course: What do we want to cook today? We find it quite likely that this is the German name for the game that was known as Shaberu! DS O-Ryouri Navi in Japan.
Now all that needs to happen is for Nintendo to make a for-real announcement, then release the thing. Then release the thing outside Germany, sell a lot, and therefore convince Nintendo of America to release it. That's ... actually a lot of steps.
No. We're serious. Because, really, would you want to make Mama mad? Former GameSpot scribe Alex Navarros apparently couldn't care less, because he slapped a six out of ten on Cooking Mama 2: Dinner with Friends back in February, and got a vitriolic letter from publisher Majesco for his troubles.
It's a delightfully sarcastic retort, with the author of the letter noting that "With the first Cooking Mama reaching 1 million units in Europe and near of 1 million stateside, I began to worry that this might begin to go to our heads. Majesco's parking lot would be flooded with Bentley's, Maybach's and rare hybrid cars that run on pure ego." Hit the break for the petulant tirade in full.
From next Monday, sushi-scoffing Brits will have a chance to play the cooking sim while failing to successfully use chopsticks at two London branches of YO! Sushi (located on Poland Street and Farringdon Road). Shortly thereafter, the other 30-odd UK-based YO! Sushi restaurants will follow suit. This kind of reminds us of the marketing push given to Yume Neko in Tokyo's Cat Cafe Calico, except with a game we're not bothered about and a less interesting venue.
We'll be honest -- as charming as it was, we found ourselves struggling to understand how the Zelda universe was an appropriate choice of subject for a themed, crochet teapot mat. Eventually, we concluded that, hey, Link does occasionally drink potions in his games, right? And you can also drink ... what? Yes! Tea! Ahem.
Anyway, this Triforce-branded cutting board from Etsy user 1337motif ... we're stumped. Totally at a loss. There's just no reasonable connection between Zelda games and cutting boards. Then again, we're yet to find a more awesome way to chop vegetables, so we'll roll with it. Cough up $125 (yes) and it's yours.
We shouldn't have watched this video -- it just made us hungry. Not that you shouldn't watch it. We're sure your kitchens contain more than just ramen and old cereal, so you should be fine to sate any hunger pains that may arise from watching this trailer for Kantan! Tanoshi! Okashi Navi DS.
Cravings aside, we really like the idea of a game that turns our DS into a portable cookbook; especially if said cookbook contains recipes for making sweets and desserts. Unfortunately, this game won't help you at all if you can't speak or read Japanese, so don't even think about importing it unless you have such language skills. We also wouldn't recommend holding your breath for localization, as you'd surely end up dead and we'd feel really bad about the whole thing.
Once nothing more than a completely plausible rumor, the Iron Chef video game has been revealed, giving two competitors one hour to devise four to five dishes featuring the game, made in their signature styles. Oh, no, wait, we're thinking of food. This has been revealed, giving you notice that it'll be out in stores this summer for people to buy.
Iron Chef America: Supreme Cuisine, developed by John Deere: Harvest in the Heartland (and Elf Bowling 1&2) developer Black Lantern Studios, will be based on the Food Network's version of the popular Japanese cooking game show, and not the original. It'll feature the voice and likeness of Double Dragon's Mark Dacascos, with other personalities to be announced later. Could an Alton Brown appearance in a game be far off?
Even if it is the new show, we're all about the idea of an Iron Chef game. At the very least, they've made a funny video.
We've got a small selection of languagegames now, and exercise games are on the way. We're even getting a weight loss game. So why haven't we seen any cooking games in the U.S. yet? They're non-games that we actually want, and Nintendo and other companies are just refusing to release them. Every time we see a new cooking game in Japan, it already feels like another missed opportunity.
The latest is Kou-chan no Shiawase! Kantan! O-Ryouri Recipe, or "Kou-chan's Simple! Fun! Cooking Recipes." "Kou-chan" is Kouji Aida, a restaurant cook who started a recipe blog and then became a celebrity, with hit cookbooks and frequent television appearances. And now he's got a DS game featuring 300 recipes, including the delicious-looking chicken rice gratin seen here.
Kantan! Tanoshii! Okashi Navi DS (Simple! Fun! Sweets Navi DS) is a sort of sequel to Shaberu! Cooking Navi that focuses entirely on desserts. The game will include recipes from Lettuce Club magazine for more than 110 different types of desserts: cookies, cakes, cream puffs, and other pastries. Like the other Cooking Navi games, this will include visual, text, and voice instructions designed to allow you to cook along with the game. It also includes a special "pair mode" for cooking along with children.
This is the third game in the huge-selling Cooking Naviseries for Japan, and we still have yet to see one. Is Nintendo of America ever going to get around to releasing one of these, or letting developer Koei do it? Maybe they don't care as much about that expanded audience as they pretend to.
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.
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.
We've got a small selection of language games now, and exercise games are on the way. We're even getting a weight loss game. So why haven't we seen any cooking games in the U.S. yet? They're non-games that we actually want, and Nintendo and other companies are just refusing to release them. Every time we see a new cooking game in Japan, it already feels like another missed opportunity.
Kantan! Tanoshii! Okashi Navi DS (Simple! Fun! Sweets Navi DS) is a sort of sequel to Shaberu! Cooking Navi that focuses entirely on desserts. The game will include recipes from Lettuce Club magazine for more than 110 different types of desserts: cookies, cakes, cream puffs, and other pastries. Like the other Cooking Navi games, this will include visual, text, and voice instructions designed to allow you to cook along with the game. It also includes a special "pair mode" for cooking along with children.
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