Customer Reviews

Imagine: Master Chef

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've had this game a couple weeks now and I have played through 50% of it (it tracks your progress with a percentage). I find this game to be quite fun and relaxing to play, unlike it's rival "Cooking Mama" for the DS which is fun and awesome but NOT relaxing.
Imagine Master Chef puts you in the role of a young girl named Lisa (approximately 12 years old), who is learning to cook to impress her father who is out of town. There is a very lengthy story surrounding this game, where the girl's stuffed animals come to life and are quite chatty during cut scenes throughout the game.
These long pauses for dialogue between cooking lessons are fairly boring but whimsical, even nonsensical at times (poor translation?), but arent bad enough to turn one away from the game.

The meat and potatoes of this game is in the cooking lessons which are guided by a girl named Rachel. They are designed much like the original Cooking Mama with one major difference: NO TIMER! This is a wonderful thing too - cooking at your own pace, not racing against the clock. It's a little less hands-on than Cooking Mama, which makes it more accessible to younger players or those who are a bit new to gaming in general. Best of all - no hand cramps here! You will still find yourself chopping, stirring, frying, baking, etc on every dish but once in a while, Rachel (your teacher) will do one or two of the cooking steps for you (still leaving about 80% or more of the work for you to do though). There are many recipes to do here, 65 of them in fact, ranging from all sorts of local to international cuisine. A few examples are meatloaf, eggs over easy, garlic bread, salisbury steak, minestrone, custard pudding, Japanese pancakes, and much more. Rachel will guide you, step by step, telling you how to do every aspect of every dish. And she doesnt cuss you out if you get it wrong either! haha :) Another difference here (from Cooking Mama) is that when you go to begin a recipe, Rachel will tell you all the ingredients you need, and then you get all of them out (yourself) from the refrigerator, one by one. This kind of reminds me of Rachael Ray on her 30 minute meals, and I wouldnt be surprised if that inspired this part of the game. It's nice though. I like seeing what's going into my recipe.

When you finish each recipe, you get to select the placemat, plate, bowl, mug, and eating utensils that you use to serve it. Then you get to select all of your garnishes (french fries, ham, corn, etc - about 30 to choose from), and then squeeze your condiments however you want on your food. It's really cute that you have so much control over your food like this from start to finish! Then someone in the game (friend, family, etc) will eat your food and rate it based on how you did cooking it. But regardless of how high or low your ratings are, you still continue on.

Just the cooking itself is fantastic enough to make this game a worthy purchase but it doesnt end there! It also has additional games in it based on cooking! These unlock as you progress through the cooking lessons (and can be later accessed from your main menu). They include: 1.Cooking Quiz: where you do 10 trivia questions based on cooking. Nothing overly complicated here. 2.Match: this is like the card game "memory" where you match cooking/food related cards. 3.Darts: A very cute darts game where you throw darts at a board that looks like a pizza! 4.Puzzlit: A puzzle game where you guess the object being shown in the top screen. 5.Stackem DX: A plate stacking game. 6.Wash!: A dishes washing game (very cute).

Between your cooking lessons, after your cut scenes where you interact with your family, neighbors, friends, or stuffed animals, you will acquire a new kitchen item each time, and it will prompt you just before each lesson to change your kitchen if you'd like. You can change only the colors of items (i.e. blue toaster, red toaster, yellow toaster, etc), but it allows you any color combinations you like for 3 large areas of your kitchen, including items like your stove, fridge, walls, clock, trashcan, microwave, rice cooker, oven mitt, etc.

Last but not least, each time you complete a recipe, that one and an additional one or two is added to your recipe book to do anytime you would like in Freestyle Mode (accessible from the main menu). You get recipes not seen in the story mode, and even recipes for dogs too! Again I will reiterate that it's a very comfortable cooking pace too, so when you play freestyle, you can truly enjoy just cooking without racing against a clock.

This game thought of everything. It was designed for females, but honestly anyone who loves cooking (or virtual cooking) would greatly enjoy this game. It's cute, friendly, and truly fun to play, appealing to all ages without being too difficult or overly easy.
I definitely recommend this game as one of the most family friendly titles to hit the DS system this holiday season.

My mom bought this for me for Christmas and I loved it at first, but then it started to get a little boring.

This game (thank goodness) has no time limit so it is very relaxing, and you get to learn about how some of your favorite recipies are made. It is pretty fun making some of the meals actually. Also, another plus is that you get to set the tables and garnish your food and get scored on your food. Also, freestyle mode allows you to make some meals that you have learned or meals similiar to what you have made.

Now for the bad. There is WAY TOO MUCH diolouge between cooking classes which can be really annoying. Also the mini games are just a pain in the but to do. Another thing is that it is not hands on enough, your teacher, Rachel, does at least 60% of the things. The most annoying thing that I found was that after your dad comes home (which is the whole reason you are taking cooking classes so that you can make a meal for him when he comes home) you start again from the beginning but still haven't learned one dish and one technique.

All in all this game is fun, but can get a bit boring, and need some tweeking.

Bought this for my 9 yr old daughter, who has developed an interest in cooking. She is new to the DS game system, having never owned any other gaming systems, with limited playtime with other friends gaming systems. Its a very user friendly game. She didn't have to read the manuals first. She plans to actually prepare some of her "creations". I find this to be a more creative game, like a textbook. It's very relaxing & she enjoys seeing the instant results without all the cooking mess. I would highly recommend this game to a someone who's interested in learning to cook. She also received the Fashion Designer game by the same manufacturer.

I got this game because I love to cook.
In this game you play the role of a little girl named Lisa who takes cooking lessons from a cook named Rachel. You get to cook a lot of different things. In each lesson you cook a main dish and two side dishes and at the end of each lesson the other characters such as: Rachel, Lisa's mom, and Lisa's friends taste the cooking an see how they like it and give you a grade. This game also has 8 bonus games, practice for each cooking technique and it lets you do freestyle which you can cook whatever you what.
Some advantages I can think of for this game is it doesn't time you like on the other cooking games for nintendo ds and whenever you save it the game gives you a percentage to tell you how much you played.
One disadvantage is between each lesson there is a lot of dialouge between the characters and can get boring sometimes.
Overall I think this is a fun game and I recommend it to people you like to cook.

Story is a bit long but gameplay is worth it and you get more recipes than you do in "Happy Cooking"se amount of minigames though even though 2 are. New The computer still does most of the stuff for you though and it took me one day to complete the game but you can do freestyle and combine every recipe

I am 11 years old and I got this game a couple of months ago after reading the reviews. I wanted another imagine game for my ds and by the reviews this one was the best. The good part about this game is what it should be about, which is the cooking. It is very fun for the most part, except that you are guided a little too much. Other than that, it is a very fun part of the game. The bad part is that there is soooo much dialoge between cooking sessions! Her stuffed animals come to life and talk so much! The time it takes to click through it is longer than it takes to do the cooking part, whick I did not enjoy because it is pretty much pointless. I would recommend this game for someone under the age of 12, at the oldest, or else it would be too easy and boring. Overall this game is okay, not as good as imagine interior designer, but better that imagine fashion designer.

I got Imagine: Master Chef for Christmas last year because I love the imagine series and thought this seemed fun.

It is more relaxed and stress-free than Cooking Mama, and, in my opinion, much more realistic.

In Cooking Mama it is more of a game. They have unrealistic ways of cooking and is just a game with a cooking theme.

Imagine: Master Chef, is really like cooking. You really can burn or undercook it, and you have to choose the right ingredients, and the way you cook is more real. Also, there is no time limit, which is much more realistic. It is also not a series of mini-games, it is actual cooking. I personally hate Cooking Mama, it is just too much, and too stressful! It's just not as enjoyable as this game.

But, if you like a fast-paced, more game-like "cooking simulation," it is a GREAT game. But if you like a more relaxed, more realistic "cooking simulation," than this is the better game. It really depends on your personality.

Also, this game has a nice storyline. It involves a lot of dialogue, but is a fun storyline. You can also customize your kitchen, and the freestyle mode lets you cook all of the dishes you've already learned. It also has a real-life recipe for each dish, which is a nice feature. There are also dog recipes, which is a nice bonus.

The only reason I give it four stars is because it is boring to repeat the storyline and gets boring doing the freestyle mode.

All in all, if you like the more "realistic" cooking games, then this one's great. If you like more unrealistic,
"game-like" cooking games, then Cooking Mama is definitely the way to go.

This game is the best! I got it for my birthday in november, and the day after, I beat it! It was really easy to play, fun, and after I beat it, I still play it! There are really fun minigames, you can cook for fun, re-do your kitchen, of you can just work on some of your basics! This game was really fun and I enjoyed it alot. Thanks for making such an awesome game!

I received this game as a "goody" in a car ride entertainment bag. I was very excited to start playing the game, as I was interested in the game.

Imagine Master Chef is a game where a girl named Lisa takes lessons from a famous cook, named Rachel. She teaches her how to cook different things.

There are also a few twists in the game, which is nice. That way it doesn't seem like a job. It is fun and entertaining.

One thing I didn't care for was the amount of events between each cooking lesson. I mean, you take a walk, you get a gift... I just wanted to cook.
But most times I took a walk I received a gift for the kitchen, such as a Spatula, Pot, Frying Pan, Ladle, Rice Cooker, and Refrigerator. You can customize your kitchen, which is an exciting feature that is included.

I would recommend this game to anyone who would like to learn cooking, but also have a fun and enjoyable experience.

My daughter says this is a fun game. She tells me that in the game you get to pretend to cook. You receive points on how good your cooking skills are. You get to go into town and get presents and see people. She really likes to play this game and will play for hours at a time.