Personal Trainer: Cooking for Nintendo DS
Personal Trainer: Cooking was a Christmas stocking stuffer from my husband. I love trying out new recipes and new ways of cooking, so it was very exciting for me to try cooking along with my Nintendo DS.
There are hundreds of recipes to choose from, searchable by ingredients, keywords, dietary requirements and country of origin. There are also cooking lessons and a shopping list.
The cooking lessons are amazing. Personal Trainer: Cooking accomplishes what books and television cannot: each ingredient and each utensil catalogued with photos and descriptions, cooking preparation methods photographed and described step by step, helpful tips, substitute ingredients, how to make homemade ingredients such as dumpling wrappers, and how-to videos.
The shopping list is based only on the recipes programmed into the game. There is a convenient checkbox next to the list of ingredients in every recipe. A checked box throws the ingredient into the shopping list. However, since I don't exclusively eat off the Personal Trainer: Cooking menu, this shopping list is very limiting. I don't see myself taking my DS out at the grocery store, then taking another list out for the items not included. One list is all I need, thank you.
The most emphasized feature of the Personal Trainer: Cooking is the cook-along-with-the-DS function: step by step photographs, text and audio instructions that are voice activated with the words "Continue," "Last Step," "Repeat," and "More Details." It's like cooking along with a TV show that one can pause and play at will. Amazing! In theory.
After cooking a few of the recipes along with my DS, I found the voice command function annoying. I happen to like playing music while I cook, which as you can guess, disrupts the voice command function. I also like it best when cooking is a social event in my home, whether it's the whole family, or just me and my 4-year-old daughter. When I do speak the commands, I have to yell it out clearly enunciated or the computer would ask me to "Come again?" or else do something I did not command it to do. It is impossible to cook along with the DS unless I am completely alone, with no music playing in the background. I choose music and loved ones to keep me company while I cook.
I could completely disable the voice commands and use the stylus or the buttons to navigate through the steps, but something about my hands covered in food just doesn't make touching my DS appealing in any way.
There are also some recipes I would rearrange the steps to. I can see taking the recipes I like from it and re-writing them on my own recipe cards. Now that's a novel idea! Recipe cards!!! They're classic, unobtrusive, timeless.
Personal Trainer: Cooking is really just an instructional tool on how to cook. It's a step up from reading books and watching videos, but it is not something I would cook along with.
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Read another review of Personal Trainer: Cooking at EscapistMagazine.com
Labels: kitchen