"Sorry for the delay in my review, I was too addicted to this game"

And so will you be, after the 5 initial minutes of play. This game isn't obviously one which will change your life, but the simple gameplay it contains may attract you in a way that no other Japanese game currently can.

As you can obviously understand from the title, in here you will basically have to cook. While most of the plates are taken from the Japanese cuisine, there are also worldwide famous ones (like our beloved pizza), with a total of more than 70 different things to cook. When working on certain plates, you are even asked how you want to continue, the only time in this game in which knowledge of the language is advised (but not required!), making you have to pick between several paths in order to get different plates with the same basis.

By now you must be wondering how you will cook in the game. Well, the game is basically composed of more than 30 mini-games, where you will need to perform several cooking tasks. Depending on how good you play each one, you will be awarded one among 3 medals (bronze, silver or golden). Then, when you complete all the tasks required to cook a certain plate, you will get an overall score for the plate, which is calculated based on your score for each task. While it is hard to get a score of less than 50 points, getting the perfect score of 100 is even harder, with this mark only being achieved by top chefs.

As most of you must be wanting to know, the mini-games are always quite funny, with someone who plays this game being given the opportunity to perform tasks such as cutting vegetables in small pieces, breaking eggs, follow certain indications to properly have the stove at a set temperature, simply turning a microwaves on for a certain time, preparing all types of sashimi and many others you will need to play the game in order to find out about. All of these are played by using only the stylus, but there is a single mini-game in which you will also need to use the microphone in order to play correctly.

This same stylus is also used to pick the options in the main menu, which apart from the main mode (where you perform all the tasks stated above) seems to contain a mode where you can combine 2 different plates in order to create a new one and finally the usual options. In this final group there is even an option which allows you to connect to another player, but unfortunately I wasn't able to try that single option.

The game doesn't seem to contain any story, but who needs that type of thing when you have such perfect example of a fun and interesting gameplay?!

The game has an almost infinite replay value, I mean, there are lots and lots of tasks for you to accomplish, so you will probably only stop playing this game when you get REALLY bored of this game. And trust me, that won't happen easily, as you will hardly ever know what to expect next. As myself, when you start playing you won't feel like ever stopping, and when you look at the clock you will find that perhaps more than 3 hours have passed...

As for the graphics, they are not perfect or realistic but they are an extreme pleasure for your sight, and despite you get to see the plate you've cooked at the end of each segment you will also notice that there are sections in which it will feel like a certain drawing or graphic seems not to belong to the game.

As for the sound, despite having some interesting details that make you think that you are actually cooking I would generally rate them as of medium value. Neither it is the type of sound you would want to hear forever in your head nor the one you try to turn off as soon as possible.

The gameplay is simply amazing and the game is generally good, but then why didn't I give this game an higher score? Well, in spite of being a great game, it only seems to appeal to a certain kind of audience. If the player isn't interesting in cooking or familiarized with Japanese cuisine, this will probably look to him as just another random mini-game based japanese product, or else he would be able to learn some interesting things with this game. Don't get me wrong, if you are indeed into cooking japanese plates you should see this game with an extra point in the score, but for other people such feature may be considered as a turn off in the game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/06