Ninjabread Man

An upwards motion on the Nunchuk or press of the Z Button allows the player to jump.

Ninjabread Man is an action-adventure platformer. There are three levels in the game, plus a tutorial level.[1] In order to proceed to the next level, players must collect eight power rods to activate a teleporter.[2] The Ninjabread Man can attack enemies directly with a samurai sword via a shake of the Wii Remote, as well as throw shurikens from a distance using the Wii Remote's IR functionality to aim. When the player completes a level and plays it again, a menu appears with a second mode available, ‘Score Pickups’. If the level is completed again in this mode, the player will unlock ‘Time Attack’ mode. Completion of this mode unlocks the ‘Hidden Pickups!’ mode, in which the player must find pickups.[2]

Ninjabread Man originally began development as a planned third entry in the Amiga Zool series; not much is actually known about the pitch, though it is believed that Zoo Digital Publishing (Zool's rights owners) weren't impressed by the tech demo and pulled the license. Evidence for this are some leftover Zool-themed levels, and a leaked intro that shows Zool crashing onto a planet that is clearly the one used in this game.[3][4]

Ninjabread Man received unanimously negative reviews upon release. The PlayStation 2 version of the game has a 31% average rating on GameRankings,[5] while the Wii version has an average of 17.5%.[6] On Metacritic, the Wii version of the game has an average score of 20/100, based on 6 reviews.[7] The PC version of the game was not reviewed by any major publication.[12]

IGN gave the Wii version a score of 1.5/10, saying: "It’s buggy, often completely broken, somehow manages to have frame issues in tiny levels, and is completely ruthless if (and when) younger players die."[8] Thunderbolt gave it 1/10, criticizing the game's length and the unimaginative use of the character as key flaws.[1]

Despite the negative reception of the first game, on 23 January 2008, a sequel titled Ninjabread Man II: Blades of Fury was announced.[13] Not much information nor a release date had been issued, but it had been revealed that Data Design had created a website asking for the fans of the game to give ideas for the sequel. It is likely the sequel will never be developed due to Data Design ceasing development in 2009. On August 24, 2012, Data Design went out of business, making a direct sequel unlikely to happen.

• Anubis II, Myth Makers: Trixie in Toyland and Rock 'n' Roll Adventures - three other games by Data Design Interactive which use the same engine as Ninjabread Man, and all of which were also panned heavily.