I had a look and found that there doesn't seem to be a first play for this. It's one of the most popular/promoted games over here at the moment so I thought I'd give you some impressions.
Now, I don't generally have much inclination to 'cook' myself (nothing more than an omelette or a fry-up usually if that counts!) but I've recently moved over here and although it's pretty cheap and convenient to get decent food/bento I thought it might be nice to learn to make a few Japanese style dishes. I've had a play with it and it seems as if it could do the job, and it's given me the idea to try out a few of the simpler dishes.
There are 200 recipes to browse through, but also loads of options which allow you to select a dish according to the occasion/ingredients/preparation time/calories/difficulty/etc, and you can even piece together a set menu for preparing a full meal. Obviously there's a bias towards Japanese tastes, so there's a lot of fish on the menu!
Once you've decided what to cook you have the options to first review the ingredients (and adjust measurements for the required number of servings) and tools needed, and then an overview of all of the stages before you begin. If you want you can skip these, and can even jump into the recipe at whatever stage you prefer. If you need to you can return to these screens while cooking.
When you are cooking the instructions are spoken to you, with more details (and pictures) displayed on the top screen if you need extra guidance. The touchscreen has the navigation controls to allow you to progress through the stages, or have the chef character repeat, speak louder or explain certain processes in more detail. Obviously while cooking you'll likely have your hands dirty, so they've included a bit of voice recognition to allow you to do these simple navigations. However maybe it's just me, but it seems you need to speak pretty loudly and clearly and it wouldn't work well in a loud environment or if there were multiple people around (there is an option to turn it off though). The speech of the game itself is also quite robotic (with unnatural overpronunciation imho) so especially as a foreigner with a modest level of Japanese it can be hard to follow - you can change the voice speed and pitch but for me it didn't make much difference (infact slower speeds sounded even more unnatural). Fortunately you can always use the written instructions (if you can read them!). The items you have attempted are recorded in a calendar, and you can add notes to each recipe for review if/when you attempt it again.
The software also includes a concise dictionary section with information about ingredients, cooking tools/utensils, food/tool preparation, food preservation and cooking terminology with pictures (ie. it shows you how much a pinch would be, or how different styles of chopping should look - including a few video examples). You can look up the dictionary from the main menu, or refer to it at any stage during the cooking process.
Finally, there are options included to mark off ingredients which are no good (ie. for allergies or dislikes) and filter them out completely from all searches.. and if you're in Japan you will also be able to download new recipes from DS download stations.
Overall, although the speech and voice recognition could do with improvement (although that's speaking as a foreigner so not hugely valid) it's a very well implemented idea. If Nintendo want to win over the 'oldies' with the DS in the West they would do well to release it outside of Japan. My friend's Dad just got transferred to Hokkaido so she's even thinking about buying this and a DS Lite for him as he's never lived alone before!
Now, I don't generally have much inclination to 'cook' myself (nothing more than an omelette or a fry-up usually if that counts!) but I've recently moved over here and although it's pretty cheap and convenient to get decent food/bento I thought it might be nice to learn to make a few Japanese style dishes. I've had a play with it and it seems as if it could do the job, and it's given me the idea to try out a few of the simpler dishes.
There are 200 recipes to browse through, but also loads of options which allow you to select a dish according to the occasion/ingredients/preparation time/calories/difficulty/etc, and you can even piece together a set menu for preparing a full meal. Obviously there's a bias towards Japanese tastes, so there's a lot of fish on the menu!
Once you've decided what to cook you have the options to first review the ingredients (and adjust measurements for the required number of servings) and tools needed, and then an overview of all of the stages before you begin. If you want you can skip these, and can even jump into the recipe at whatever stage you prefer. If you need to you can return to these screens while cooking.
When you are cooking the instructions are spoken to you, with more details (and pictures) displayed on the top screen if you need extra guidance. The touchscreen has the navigation controls to allow you to progress through the stages, or have the chef character repeat, speak louder or explain certain processes in more detail. Obviously while cooking you'll likely have your hands dirty, so they've included a bit of voice recognition to allow you to do these simple navigations. However maybe it's just me, but it seems you need to speak pretty loudly and clearly and it wouldn't work well in a loud environment or if there were multiple people around (there is an option to turn it off though). The speech of the game itself is also quite robotic (with unnatural overpronunciation imho) so especially as a foreigner with a modest level of Japanese it can be hard to follow - you can change the voice speed and pitch but for me it didn't make much difference (infact slower speeds sounded even more unnatural). Fortunately you can always use the written instructions (if you can read them!). The items you have attempted are recorded in a calendar, and you can add notes to each recipe for review if/when you attempt it again.
The software also includes a concise dictionary section with information about ingredients, cooking tools/utensils, food/tool preparation, food preservation and cooking terminology with pictures (ie. it shows you how much a pinch would be, or how different styles of chopping should look - including a few video examples). You can look up the dictionary from the main menu, or refer to it at any stage during the cooking process.
Finally, there are options included to mark off ingredients which are no good (ie. for allergies or dislikes) and filter them out completely from all searches.. and if you're in Japan you will also be able to download new recipes from DS download stations.
Overall, although the speech and voice recognition could do with improvement (although that's speaking as a foreigner so not hugely valid) it's a very well implemented idea. If Nintendo want to win over the 'oldies' with the DS in the West they would do well to release it outside of Japan. My friend's Dad just got transferred to Hokkaido so she's even thinking about buying this and a DS Lite for him as he's never lived alone before!