Others say...

"A little boring"
I bought this game for my 9 yr. old daughter. We both think that the game takes too long to sart i.e. you have to go through A LOT of storyline before you can play. The game also performs some of the steps for you. We are used to playing Cooking Mama which is a little more fast paced. I would recomend this game for a younger child.

"Great for a budding chef!"
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.

"Imagine this...It's GREAT!"
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.