Edamoto Nahomi no Shiawase Kitchen (AKA: Nahomi Edamoto's happy kitchen) JPN DS

[importaku]

Well this is the 3rd cooking game to hit the DS & i have to say so far it looks like its the best.

Only had a hours go on it but im already in love (^_^)

Ok lets get started, for those who have sampled the delights of cooking mama you will know what to expect. There are 2 modes when you start, theres the story mode & the free cooking mode.

The free cooking mode lets you practise certain cooking tecniqies like chopping, mixing, egg frying ect... the story mode is the main meat of the game (excuse pun) The story revolves around a girl called Komugi who for some reason has come in contact with a rabbit who lives in the moon. Yeah go figure. After many scenes later you eventually get introduced to Edamoto san who for some totally bizarre reason lives in your house waiting to instruct you in the ways of touch screen cooking.

There is ****loads of equipment in your kitchen that you will end up using such as the usual stuff like pots & pans, blenders/rice cookers/ovens ect... Now you start you will be shown what you going to cook for today which consists of a starter, a main course then a pudding (but not always) Its all shown laid out in its finished form.

Now before you start you have to wash your hands using the touch screen (hehe no expense spared on getting the full experience) Then you have to goto the fridge to select all the ingredients you will need for the meal your going to cook. Luckily everything is listed so you know what you will need.

Now depending on what your going to cook you will be told by edamoto san what to do next & how to do it. The game points out what equipment you need & how to use it. On another note stuff like frying has been made easier than cooking mama by the controls kept to the basics. Once everything is cooked you have to then set it all out, the choices of table placemats & cutlery colours is quite large leaving you to be creative. Then after setting the table you then can garnish your meal with a few finishing touches like extra veggies or maybe a touch of ketchup (Yum).

When your totally finished your given a rating, now in cooking mama you were rated after every section. In this game your rated after you have totally done & you are rated in 3 catagories. (need to work out what they are) but you can get a max of 4 stars in each one. Also there a minigame you can play where you wash the dishes hehe.

After completing 2 recipies i have appeared on a map where there are locations i can visit, they seem to have difficulty ratings in the way of stars above them. I tried a easier one & it gave me a new recipe to try & some new equipment for my kitchen. Im not sure if you will be guided right throughout the game or just at the start.

The language barrier is pretty easy, a lot more than cooking mama. Its only the story you'll miss out on. But from the tiny bits i can read your not missing much. It's hardly gyakuten saiban (^_^).

So thats it for now, im off to cook some more pretend food \(^_^)/

[importaku]

& heres a couple of manual pics.

[Kaladron]

Great post!

The art work looks almost identical to Cooking Mama. Is it by the same dev?

[r3z]

When your totally finished your given a rating, now in cooking mama you were rated after every section. In this game your rated after you have totally done

That was my main complaint about Cooking Mama so it seems like it could be a big improvement, but how do the sections/transitions compare? With Cooking Mama I thought that it was a bit tiring that it was so stop-start and that some sections were stupidly brief (ie. just cut a carrot in half!) that a lot of them should have been combined into larger sections, or just play through the whole recipe with each section presented without breaks. Is the cooking also against the clock with this game?
The idea of a rabbit on the moon comes from the Japanese (originally Chinese?) story that there is the image of a rabbit pounding sticky rice to make rice cakes on the full moon.. picture

btw - I think her surname is Edamoto

[importaku]

Ok more answers & impressions (^_^)

The developer of this game is MTO which have done a lot of cooking games for the gameboy colour & gameboy advance. The cartoon girl on the front stars in all of them she is called Komugi chan. Cooking mama was made by Taito.

That was my main complaint about Cooking Mama so it seems like it could be a big improvement, but how do the sections/transitions compare? With Cooking Mama I thought that it was a bit tiring that it was so stop-start and that some sections were stupidly brief (ie. just cut a carrot in half!) that a lot of them should have been combined into larger sections, or just play through the whole recipe with each section presented without breaks. Is the cooking also against the clock with this game?
The idea of a rabbit on the moon comes from the Japanese (originally Chinese?) story that there is the image of a rabbit pounding sticky rice to make rice cakes on the full moon.. picture

btw - I think her surname is Edamoto

Yeah i originally wrote her name as Edamoto but though it was somthing else, lol go figure. I have changed it now (^_^) cheers

Anyway the different stages of cooking are more linked together this time but there are still pauses as you goto the next cooking process but its nothing like cooking mama where you had to goto a menu & select the next bit then go back in. There is no clock this time but dont think you can just take your time as im pretty sure one of the catagories when your ranked is speed & accuracy.

After more playing a lot more stuff has unlocked, firstly the plate washing minigame is just one of several minigames that have unlocked. So far i have done a cooking quiz, match pairs, plate washing, throwing darts.

I have noticed as i play that lots of different designs of kitchen equipment have started to unlock in the menu, theres a kitchen customization option that unlocks & lets you choose the colour of all the stuff in your kitchen which is a nice touch. Theres lots too as i counted over a hundred so far.

Still not seen the proper precise recipies yet that i could cook from. But edamoto tells you what to do & what amounts to add on the top screen, im guessing they are in there but i havent seen them yet. In the free cooking mode another mode has unlocked that lets me select 3 dishes to cook in any combo i want. Its usually a starter then a main followed by a desert.

The stars on the map still confuse me though as i though they were difficulty levels but it appears they are not, i have filled one of them in but i dont know how i did it hehe. More exploration is needed i think. So far there seems to be tons still to do which for me is a total treat as im loving every bit of it.

[r3z]

Cheers, it sounds pretty good so I might have to give it a try too.

[importaku]

More impressions.

Well i managed to finish this today & when you complete it, all the proper recipes you can use to cook with unlock along with a few nice cooking related extras.

I'd say its about the same length as cooking mama.

You can continue your save from the beginning of the game again to get the extra bits of kitchen equipment so theres still more for me to unlock but its still lots of fun. I easily rank it above cooking mama now.

Its probably closer to Motoko chan's wonder kitchen on the super famicom if you had to compare it.

[importaku]

Today i solved the riddle of the stars on the map.

Once you finish the main game the story ends, however after you save you can continue & the story starts from the beginning again.

However when you get to the map any levels you have previously done are still saved so a star fills in the bar above the location. Each time you do a new level you will get a new design of equipment to go into your kitchen.

Also during the game edamoto will challenge you to a free cooking challenge where you can win a new "real" recipe to try out. & you can have a go at the new recipe in the free cooking mode too.

been playing ages now & stuffs still unlocking (^_^)

god i love this game, wish it would come out in english but the chances are slim seeing as the other 9 they released for gbc & gba never came out over here.

hehe looks like im the only one here having fun in here, come on people get cooking

[wakka]

I enjoyed reading your impressions Importaku, and they persuaded me to buy the game. But if I may say so, I think you may have been a little misleading, though I'm sure it was unintentional.

From what I've played (5 levels in story mode, which trust me takes a while after clicking through the reams of chat between the various mad characters), it's a cute and enjoyable piece of software...but I don't really think it's a game per se. For a start, it doesn't seem to require any skill. To chop stuff, you just touch an approximation of where it should cut and it does for you. Same with pouring stuff into a bowl, or whatever. At no point yet have I actually been challenged to do something on my own, you're always told what to do by Ms Edamoto, and it just feels a little odd.

Perhaps I'm wrong though, does the game develop to become more challenging? As it is, it's a cute way to learn recipes, something I'm actually liking a lot as I know nothing about cooking, but feels like an interactive teaching cookbook rather than an out-and-out game.

[Mofoman]

Yep bought it too, and gave it away for free to my mate with a newly opened game store in Edinburgh, it's just utter pish if you ask me, no skill required, or anything, not a game at all.

With stuff like Magical Vacation to spend your ds money on or M vs DK2 , put it there, this is just a waste of money, in my honest opinnion of course.

EDIT: I was drunk when I wrote this, it's not that bad, but it's not my cup of tea. VEry cute and very Japanese, but not reallly a game, more a cooking lesson guide with japanese and DS flavour.