EXPOSED! DDI Shovelware Special - Just Bad Games

Former DDI employee here. I love seeing people dunk on the company, because it, and Stewart Green in particular, was no better than the garbage games it put out. I was hired after the Wii shovelware dump, but heard from other employees that they were expected to crunch nearly non-stop and given as little as 6 weeks to take a game from concept to release. While I was there, there was no QA department whatsoever. Us programmers doubled as makeshift QA. Fun DDI fact: In the early 2000s, they were trying to get a license to develop their own Spyro game. There was even a playable demo they shat out in less than a week, complete with Spyro models and animations ripped from the existing games. It wasn't good. Fortunately, they didn't get the license.

Fun Fact: Just recently, a bunch of Data Design Interactive development hard drives were released on the internet, and on one of them was a prototype for a 3D Zool game

Also worth noting: Zool had a sweets level. Zool had a rock music level. Zool 2 had an ancient Egypt level. Zool 2 had a toyland level. I wonder why they had the assets to make these four games in particular?

Now we know why Nintendo gave up on their "Seal of Quality".

The "II" in Anubis II clearly stands for "Ninjabread Man II".

Imagine paying 20 bucks for a game, 20 of your hard earned dollars, giving it to your kid, and 30 minutes later they say “mom I beat it!”

The "II" in Anubis II clearly stands for "you paid way II much for this game!"

The idea that Ninjabread man was originally going to be a 3d Zool game makes far too much sense to me.

DDI Going Out of Business - Bones with a Spinal Column

How to know its gonna be a good episode: - the Thumbnail has at least one thing or person screaming in terror. - Money ghost. - MMMMMMOTION CONTROLS!

Funny story: All 4 of these games were at my local Value Village, and whoever donated them slipped a piece of paper in with the manuals, and each piece of paper said, "DO NOT BUY THIS GAME, LET IT ROT ON THE SHELF", written in permanent marker. Whoever donated those games seriously hated them. EDIT: Guess what? After a full year, someone finally bought them again, and it was the same guy who wrote those notes. I actually met him (he was a young adult male), and he told me he wrote those notes because of not only how terrible the games were, but because he actually had a ragequit on all 4 of them. He wrote that note partly as a warning, and partly out of spite. He was a great guy. I asked him if I could ask him questions about why he donated them, and he happily oblidged, being a good sport about it the whole time. I told him about how it was reminicsent of the beginning of one of those old creepypastas, and he admitted that he hadn't thought about that at the time, but he realized it was a lot more like that then he thought. After all was said and done, he asked me if he could have my phone number. I politely declined as I really only have family on my phone contacts, but told him that he could contact me via Gmail if he wanted to. He said if it was okay with my dad (who was with me at the time), it was okay with him. My dad gave the thumbs up, and now I have him on my Gmail contacts (I won't reveal his email address for privacy's sake). He was a good sport all-around, considering he had a random kid (me) coming up and interviewing him outta nowhere.

No mention of the reason WHY Ninja breadman sold so well. The game was SO poorly coded it actually enabled you to hack the wii, which meant people could install the Wii Homebrew Channel on it. For fun I suggest people looking it up as it's also the reason why copies of Ninja Breadman skyrocketted in price on the second hand market.

So basically DDI became one of the best-selling publishers on the Wii, purely based on how much absolute shite they shoved on the system. Is that correct?

"The connection between mummification and Chupa Chups." I think we have a new Ph. D. thesis, gentlemen.

I'd argue that these games aren't just bad. That's being kind. That would imply they have some good/redeeming qualities. They're terrible. They basically ruined the Wii's reputation and made most people associate it with shitty shovelware tripe like this. And for that reason, it's not just bad, it's abysmal. Also motion controls can work in Wii games if done well, I don't mind it.

There was actually FOUR reskins, the fourth one titled "Casper and the Ghostly Trio" was only released in Europe and Australia (trust me, it's awful, I once owned it in fact).

“By a candy company” which logo was designed by great surrealist painter Salvador Dali... This isnt a game, its a work of surrealist art, and THIS explains EVERYTHING

...odd that I miss those "Wii would like to play" commercials

Ninjabread man, as a concept, sounds like it could be a hidden N64 gem. I almost bought the game as a kid because I loved the idea of it so much, but my mom looked up the reviews and convinced me to save my money.

"They made Zool into a F**KING cookie!" 🤣 Yeah, you know it's bad when a partnering company sees the product and says NOPE knowing the product would become one of many shovelware titles with the exact gameplay.