Tag: Nintendo DS

Cooking Guide (DS) – In Retrospect

On By YunaNoireIn In Retrospect, Nintendo DSLeave a comment

There are so many reasons why I love to cook, besides the entire process itself just being so fun. It’s a hobby I can just slip into very naturally and I love making food for other people, specifically my family, my friends or my partner. There’s also just a unique joy to browsing cookbooks, trying a new recipe that sparks my imagination and exploring other cultures through food. Despite some of the more stressful moments, cooking will always be something very important and special to me.

This is a big reason why I was so drawn to Cooking Guide: Can’t Decide What To Eat? for the Nintendo DS. Released in 2008 and developed by indieszero (who would go on to later develop the Theatrhythm series), Cooking Guide (also known as Personal Trainer: Cooking in the USA) isn’t really a game, rather it’s an application, a piece of alternative software, specifically a digital recipe book. With over 200 recipes available, each with origins from across the globe, Cooking Guide’s goal is to expand your culinary horizons and treat your taste buds to some truly delightful meals. And perhaps, you might just learn a thing or two about cooking along the way!

My first experience with the game was back during its initial release. I didn’t buy the game back then, but I remember seeing a review in the Official Nintendo Magazine, and individual recipes distributed through the Wii’s Nintendo Channel as a demo. Despite never actually using Cooking Guide until 2023, the memory of it stuck in my mind for a long time, the very concept of a DS cookbook poking away at my curiosity. Since finally giving it a shot, i’ve never looked back; Cooking Guide may not be a game but it is certainly a delightful piece of software that more people should pay attention to!

Obviously I can’t talk about Cooking Guide the same way I would talk about say, Sonic Advance or even Hotel Dusk. Instead I want to walk you through the entire Cooking Guide experience and that way we can talk a little more about what it does right and where it occasionally falters. So to start with, we of course need to choose a recipe and this is a place where Cooking Guide definitely excels. While writing this piece, my partner said that she was in the mood for a curry, which was a very good lead to get us started. Searching with the keyword ‘curry’ netted me 9 different recipes to choose from and from there, I personally picked out the ‘Keema Curry’.

Even if my partner hadn’t mentioned wanting curry, it’s exceptionally easy to browse Cooking Guide until you spot something that catches your eye, which is how I typically prefer to do it myself (I usually do just, enjoy browsing recipe books for fun anyway). You can view all the recipes alphabetically, by country, by specific ingredients or any number of specific requirements like how long it would take to make or even its calorie count. Of course, if you end up liking a recipe, you can always mark it as a favorite for later, so you can build up your own little repertoire of recipes for future reference! Cooking Guide’s selection really is quite varied too; certain countries and regions certainly do get a bit more love than others, but the options on offer serve as a great introduction to a whole new world of cuisine.

Now it’s time to take a look at our list of ingredients. You can adjust the serving size if you need to, and that will in turn adjust the amounts and weights on the list, which is a super helpful feature if you want to cook for yourself or if you’re cooking for your whole family or friend group. The ingredients list lets you check off what you already have, like a shopping list, which means that if you wanted to, you could take your DS with you to the shops, like I do, giving you a fool proof reference for what you’ll need for the recipe. For the curry, I luckily had most of the ingredients already, I just needed to go shopping for the spice, the meat and some ginger.

Certain items on the ingredients list, like a stock, or rice, link to other recipes if you’re unsure how to make them from scratch, an excellent addition if you’re a beginner, although it is a bit cumbersome to juggle two sets of recipes. Of course, there’s a full list of utensils that you’ll need for the dish as well, each of them labeled as ‘Essential’ or ‘Recommended’. Each ingredient or utensil listing has a description alongside it, which is helpful for some of the recipes that contain ingredients that aren’t widely available. For certain dishes, they do offer up potential substitutes as well; take the time I made Almond Tofu, where rather than using Agar Agar powder, they recommend using gelatin as a substitute which worked just fine.

So after buying all of the ingredients, it was now time to cook the actual meal. Cooking Guide smartly has both written instructions to follow, but also the helpful mascot ‘Chef’ will read the instructions out to you, so you don’t always have to look away while you’re, perhaps, chopping vegetables or stirring a sauce. The game also has voice control options as well, which allow you to move on to the next step without touching your DS. Although if you’re like me and enjoy having youtube videos playing in the background while you cook, then you might be better off switching the voice control option off, because it can be a little too responsive. That really is mostly a me problem.

During the cooking process, certain techniques are highlighted in red and allow you to ask for more info if you’re unsure about something. Meanwhile there’s a Cooking A-Z glossary as well that has pretty much all the info you’d ever need. This even includes a small selection of example videos that demonstrate technical cooking techniques, such as deveining prawns (something i’ve not had to do myself yet, so that may come in handy), finely chopping onions or kneading pizza dough. Cooking Guide really is stuffed to the brim with information and utilities that should hopefully aid anyone who is trying to learn how to cook, or even teach a new skill to someone with a little more experience. They even include a built-in kitchen timer, which allows you to play the Game & Watch title ‘Chef’ during the countdown, which is a fun little novelty.

There are a few minor issues however that could perhaps affect your experience with Cooking Guide. Sometimes I feel like the suggested cooking temperatures are a little too low. If the instructions say ‘low heat’ I often feel like I have to push it up to a ‘moderate heat’ instead. This might be down to a difference between the ovens or hobs though, which I could certainly understand. Also, whenever water is used as an ingredient in a dish, the suggested amount is always way too much in my opinion. I remember cooking the Chilli Con Carne recipe and the amount of water they suggested just seemed so excessive, it would basically be drowning the dish and you’d be waiting hours for the liquid to actually simmer off. With my Keema Curry I had a similar situation and made sure to reduce the water just a touch and it worked out alright.

Perhaps this is all down to personal bias though; the way I learned to cook simply conflicts with the instructions within Cooking Guide. And it’s easy enough to just alter things in the moment if I feel like something won’t work. I’m not saying I know better than Cooking Guide, but sometimes I do. Of course a newcomer is going to have a different experience, be that negative or positive. Honestly, outside of baking, recipes are meant to be flexible in nature anyway so its understandable that you have to meet it halfway at times.

I still think Cooking Guide is easy to work with and despite my fleeting issues, it succeeds in being a very user-friendly way to learn how to cook, thanks to the plethora of resources and easy to navigate UI. For someone with more experience Cooking Guide offers plenty of room to shift the rules around at your own discretion, plus offers you a huge variety of dishes to test your culinary skills on.

So I cooked my Keema Curry, along with some Tumeric Rice at Cooking Guide’s recommendation. The verdict? It was absolutely delicious, a wonderful, comforting dish with some wonderful flavor and aroma to it. Moreover I learned the best way to prepare rice is by frying it with butter for about a minute before cooking it in a stock. Seriously, that shit is magic, you should try it out if you get the opportunity. My partner loved it too, so mission accomplished in my eyes, Cooking Guide scores another win! Immediately afterwards, i’m browsing the recipes again, looking for what dish I might like to make next time. Hachis Parmentier is looking pretty good actually…

Cooking Guide was released at a time when Nintendo was really making a push to appeal to a broader audience with both the DS and the Wii. Games like Brain Training and Nintendogs were at the forefront of their marketing at the time, standing alongside Nintendo staples like Mario and Zelda in terms of relevance. Many of these games were even branded with the special Touch! Generations logo, to help them stand out even more to non-gamers. Regardless of how you feel about these games (i’m personally quite intrigued by all of them), or the marketing surrounding them, it was a hugely successful move for Nintendo at the time, helping the DS outsell the PSP by tapping into a market that Sony really wasn’t.

But nowadays, many of the games that were released during this era have mostly been forgotten about, or at least, it doesn’t seem like people are all that interested in talking about them, even Nintendo. Cooking Guide itself has largely lost its relevance or novelty, given how prevalent smart devices are now; countless recipes are literally at your fingertips at all times, as are countless tutorials and lifehacks that’ll help you improve your skills in the kitchen. I think that is a net positive ultimately, since great recipes should be accessible to anyone who wants them and the distribution of knowledge like that is a big reason why the internet is so wonderful. Even back when it was released, Cooking Guide was honestly a pretty expensive prospect when you could buy a regular cookbook for way less, so i’m not actually sure how many actually gave it a fair shot or even still use it today.

But at the same time, Cooking Guide doesn’t deserve to be forgotten, since it really is peak DS era Nintendo, a digital cookbook that you can pop in moments after a few hours of Metroid Prime Hunters. I often enjoy cooking from books more than I enjoy cooking from the internet, it is just very engaging to me in a way online recipes cannot match, and I get that same feeling of engagement when I use Cooking Guide. Not only is it such a novel little piece of software, one that charms with its animated menus, fitting musical accompaniments and its charismatic mascot,  the vibes are just so wholesome and comfortable.

Perhaps it’s simply down to nostalgia, for a bygone era of gaming, one that I grew up in. Maybe it is just the novelty of it all that entertains me and keeps me coming back, time and time again. The permanence, the physicality of Cooking Guide could also be a factor; like a traditional cookbook, Cooking Guide is something detached from the online world, each of the recipes were curated and chosen for a reason and there’s something reliable and reassuring about that. Whatever the reason is, it brings me such a feeling of pure joy and satisfaction to follow the recipes held within that little DS cart. It’s your passport to a culinary journey across the continents and it’s small enough to sit in the palm of your hand.

This wasn’t even the only time a recipe book was made for the DS; Cooking Guide is actually a sequel to a japanese only release called Shaberu! DS Oryōri Navi. Along with Cooking Guide, there was the American-only follow-up America’s Test Kitchen: Let’s Get Cooking, and three Japan-only sequels, Kenkou Ouen Recipe 1000: DS Kondate Zenshuu, Shaberu! DS Oryōri Navi: Marugoto Teikoku Hotel and Kantan! Tanoshii! Okashi Navi DS. Europe also got 1000 Cooking Recipes from ELLE à table, from a different developer. And lastly, there is What’s Cooking? with Jamie Oliver, but I earnestly wouldn’t be surprised if there were other, more obscure cookbook releases hidden somewhere within the vast DS library.

Regardless, I think Cooking Guide is something that everyone should try at least once, especially if you have a vested interest in DS era Nintendo titles. Unsurprisingly, it is rather inexpensive, you can pick it up for less than a fiver here in the UK, even then there are many other ways i’m sure you could acquire it if you look hard enough. Whether you’re a more seasoned chef, or if you’re just starting out, it genuinely has something for you. Even if you do just try it out for the novelty of it all, I think even that would convey just a little bit of why I am so fond of it.

Dishes Made Using The Aid Of Cooking Guide

Thank you for reading! In Retrospect is where I talk about games that I find interesting, for one reason or another. It means a lot that you took the time to check out what I have to say. If you’re interested in supporting my work, then i’d appreciate a follow on my Bluesky.

I also have a Kofi, so if you also want to support me, you can do so that way also!

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 – In Retrospect

On By YunaNoireIn In Retrospect, Nintendo DS, UncategorizedLeave a comment

A Gloomy Dusk Gives Way To A Hopeful Dawn

During my teenage years, I was fortunate enough to have a subscription to the monthly Official Nintendo Magazine (commonly known as ONM for short). It was always an exciting time to have an issue slide through my door, because despite my love for the PS1 and the PS2, for me the late 2000’s were all about Nintendo. The Nintendo DS especially was a system I spent many intimate hours with: I played my first ever visual novel thanks to Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney; I delved into the world of EV training with Pokemon Diamond; I saved the world with music in Elite Beat Agents. So many of my cherished gaming memories were forged upon Nintendo’s dual screened wonder.

It might seem peculiar at first then, that two of the games I associate most with the DS are ones that i’ve only gotten around to playing in the last year or so. I think my long standing love for the Official Nintendo Magazine helped with this natural association, as these games came frequently recommended by their writers. I particularly, and somewhat mournfully, remember their post-mortem of the developer’s 2010 closure. Said developer was known as Cing and the games i’m talking about are the intriguing duo of Another Code: Two Memories and Hotel Dusk: Room 215. Both games are among the finest on the Nintendo DS and have certainly become cult classics in recent years, finally getting some of the attention they deserve. But back in their time, they were relatively sleepy releases.

2024 saw me delve into both of these games, finally taking them off of my bucket list for good. Rather than try and talk about both games in one article, I’m going to hone in on Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and what makes it so special, and why it resonated with me so much. One day I’ll circle around to discuss Another Code, especially as its recent remake for the Switch serves as an interesting point of comparison and contrast. The adventures of Cing’s hard-boiled protagonist, Kyle Hyde, are at the forefront of my mind however and perhaps even more so than Another Code, Hotel Dusk feels like a game that I absolutely should have delved into sooner, but i’m glad I played it at the time that I did.

The story follows Kyle Hyde, a gruff, world-worn salesman with a gloomy past. What seems like a routine job finds him at the run-down Hotel Dusk, where every guest seems to have a secret stowed away in their bedside table. When Kyle learns that someone with the same name as his own stayed at The Dusk six months earlier, it isn’t long before he starts chasing ghosts from his past, looking for answers wherever he can.

At first, Hotel Dusk moves along at a leisurely pace, introducing all the major players one by one, and getting you intimately familiar with the general layout of the titular hotel. But despite this somewhat relaxed pacing, I found myself immediately immersed, thanks to the atmosphere and charisma of the game. A large part of this also comes down to dialogue; Hotel Dusk definitely leans into having a more cinematic writing style, but it all seems so natural and grounded. Even if the conversations aren’t completely plot relevant, there’s a compelling quality to how the characters interact with one another and each conversation reveals something new about them, without it feeling too expository.

Another aspect that makes the character writing so compelling can be demonstrated by examining the character Helen Parker, who you meet early on. A frail, grandmotherly woman, who inexplicably has a Big Boss-esque eye-patch, the contrasts in her design immediately bring to mind some questions and sparks your curiosity. She approaches the front desk of the Dusk not long after Kyle has checked in himself. She asks the owner of the hotel if Room 215 is available; earlier in the same scene, we learn from the owner that there is a rumor surrounding that room, which states that whoever stays in it will have their wish granted. Immediately, this brief moment generates more curiosity surrounding Helen, but does so in a way that still tells us very little. As an audience, our mind is left to wander about her motivations and subsequent conversations with her peel the intrigue back, layer by layer. Kyle Hyde quite rightly questions what would bring someone to such a ramshackle hotel and we in turn as the audience can’t help but wonder as well.

Just about every character in the game is similar, Kyle Hyde included; although we discover much about his backstory early on, smaller details about his personality, his interests are shown off sparingly and wisely. It’s almost an inverse of what we get with the other characters, and the little things are what make Kyle Hyde one of the highlights of the entire game. He is shown to be very grumpy and sardonic; his weary, exhausted view of the world doesn’t immediately endear him to most people and he is often downright rude. But rather than coming across as a completely unlikable jerk, it’s shown that he is actually pretty patient; his dismissive nature belies a caring heart, one that goes to great lengths to help others. The more time you spend with him, the more endearing he becomes; as weird as it may sound, the moment I found out that he enjoyed bowling, I had to stop and just smile to myself because the notion was just so adorable and charming.

The overarching plot of Hotel Dusk lines up with this layered and gradual approach; at its core there sits one large mystery with Kyle Hyde, his mysterious ex-partner Bradley, and a girl named Mila standing in the spotlight and the keys to this mystery are excellently woven into other mysteries. As one character’s story concludes it opens up additional doors for Kyle’s own story, so the plot always feels as if it has some sort of momentum. Dramatic stories intermingle so effortlessly with more grounded ones; stories of organized crime, art theft and betrayal, dance with tales of broken families, tarnished personal promises and our aspirations.

I dare not spoil the whole game for you (if it wasn’t clear already, I highly encourage you to give this game a shot), but Hotel Dusk concludes in a way that leaves a lot of threads hanging and untied. But I still left feeling fulfilled; Kyle Hyde’s goal is not to solve all of these problems and emerge triumphant as a hero. He is merely bringing these truths to light, giving them air to breathe so that the keepers of these secrets can push on towards their goal, with their heads held a little higher than before. It pairs and contrasts well with the rather gloomy, melancholic air that hangs around the game, that while life can be complicated and hard to handle, sometimes making it to another day can be enough.

Life is full of meetings and partings, we don’t always get to learn about what happens to the people we meet in our day to day lives. Will the guests of Hotel Dusk find what they’re looking for in the end? We don’t know, we’ll likely never know and that actually might be fine. This ties into the titular setting; hotels are a transient space, a pit stop or place of rest en route to a destination. As Kyle, we grow very familiar with the location and despite it being very run down, it becomes comfortable, disarming almost. The characters are all out of their element, in a place meant to be a retreat. When faced with their own pasts and their secrets, they open up and let those walls down. As a new day dawns, the characters continue on their respective journeys, refreshed and with a clearer perspective on what they need to do.

The fact that The Dusk feels like a very realistic location helps considerably to make it one of the best settings in video game history; it’s full of little details to help it feel lived in and not every room requires close examination. You’ll want to stop and examine things though when you can, as Kyle always has something weird to say about the most mundane of objects. Some objects are just interactable for the sake of it as well, or as mediums for game concepts that are usually tied to menus; the jukebox in the bar serves as the sound test for the game, for example. The fact that one of the few optional quests in the game sends you on a scavenger hunt for stars hidden around the hotel, is almost certainly the dev saying “Pay attention to your surroundings! Take it all in!”.

In terms of puzzle design, Hotel Dusk excels as well; each puzzle is simple, but they’re also logical and grounded in their solutions, giving them a real sense of place within the narrative. There’s an absence of the logical leaps you need to make in some other adventure games (although those games aren’t necessarily lesser for those design quirks) and while no puzzle is particularly challenging, it lends an authentic and immersive feeling to Hotel Dusk. Couple that with some truly ingenious usage of the Nintendo DS hardware and you have puzzles that are brief, but incredibly memorable.

In turn, the visual style is another aspect that makes Hotel Dusk stand out in your mind, even if you’ve never actually played it. Each character is drawn in a sketchy, penciled style, akin to chiaroscuro. Rather than being static, each character has animated portraits, with the movements being captured using rotoscoping techniques. It lends a lot of personality to each character, Kyle Hyde included, as detailed expressions are captured with each portrait, further aiding the already exceptional dialogue.

To wrap this ramble up somewhat, it’s apt, and almost certainly intentional, that the game takes place in close proximity to New Years.  The guests staying at The Dusk are all facing the new year ahead of them with trepidation, with a sense of unease and uncertainty. There’s very few of them whose lives are on the track that they were hoping for and their goals, their dreams, are hanging in a precarious place. But as mentioned previously, the game concludes with them having newfound optimism for their own lives and goals.

It’s this energy that I want to walk into 2025 with, honestly. I didn’t intend for Hotel Dusk to be the first game I completed this year, it was sort of a happy accident that has instilled within me a hope for the year ahead. There may be aspects of my life that are bleak and my a lot of my desires rest beyond the horizon, out of sight. I’m under no illusions that things will always go smoothly and I understand that roadblocks are inevitable.

But that’s fine, that’s ok; it’s important to keep living, to keep moving onward despite it all. Hotel Dusk is a gritty, realistic, sombre detective story, with a protagonist that often doesn’t pull his punches. But it’s also about learning to cope, to live with our burdens, our regrets, our secrets and to live with the hope that one day we will be able to see the dawn and have our wishes fulfilled.

Thank you for reading! In Retrospect is where I talk about games that I find interesting, for one reason or another. It means a lot that you took the time to check out what I have to say. If you’re interested in supporting my work, then i’d appreciate a follow on my Bluesky.

I also have a Kofi so if you also want to support me, you can do so that way also!