Imagine DS Games and Other Girly Shovelware

With the release of the Nintendo DS came a tidal wave of low-quality shovelware games. Many of these were games aimed at girls, like Ubisoft's Imagine series. Today, we're going to take a look at some of these games and examine why girls have historically gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to games made for them.
Intro: 00:00-00:35
History of Games for Girls: 00:36-03:23
Enter the Nintendo DS: 03:34-06:11
Ubisoft and the Imagine Series: 06:12-14:01
Other Girly Shovelware: 14:02-19:20
Conclusion & Outro: 19:21-23:16
Follow me on Twitter: / randymoooon
or Instagram: / littleppbigheart
DS overlays created by @Kalmia_ama: / kalmia_ama
Songs used:
2PM - Animal Crossing (GameCube)
5PM - Animal Crossing New Leaf
Map (Night) - Tomodachi Life
Shopping - Nintendogs
Streetpass Mii Plaza Theme
Bob's Pizza - Shenmue
Bath Time - Nintendogs
Main Theme - Neko Atsume
Walking the Dog - Nintendogs
Title Theme - The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time

[@randymoon]

Hey guys! Thanks for clicking on my video. I just wanted to say that I am aware that Dream Jelly recently uploaded a video on a similar topic. I don't want anyone to think I copied them, so I just wanted to make it clear that I've been planning to make this video for months and was already nearly done making it when Dream Jelly uploaded their video. I haven't watched their video yet because I didn't want it to unintentionally influence me, but I'm sure we each have our own unique takes on this topic, so if it's a topic that interests you, I strongly encourage you to watch both our videos! Okay thanks, bye!

[@SageArdor]

I've watched both your video and Dream Jelly's video. The topics are not quite the same, and I appreciate both of your takes on the matter.

[@nirgunawish]

me and my siblings played that petz pc game you mention at 14:24 a lot. got some inside jokes over the stupid mechanics still

[@aidanfleming7229]

Many people don’t know that Imagine Dragons started as a Ubisoft shovelware game.

[@sobertillnoon]

Give me that girly shovelware.

[@witchandrabbit]

The only shovelware game I played was an awful wizards of waverly place game for the DS and it glitched to a point where i couldn't move my character so I just gave up lol

[@Sunnylight200]

Hello! I love that so many are getting interested in the Imagine series and loved this video! Just gonna leave a few cool facts about Imagine! I hope you don't mind. I have been researching and playing Imagine and petz games for a few years and there is a lot to say about both franchises. The main thing is some of the imagine games are multiple Japanese game series that ended up being reskinned and localized as an imagine game. (same for petz games) Imagine Master Chef (Imagine Happy Cooking in EU and AU) is from a series originally released in Japan called Oishii Cake Okusan for the Game Boy Color in 2000. It was made by MTO (most petz games are MTO games) Only two of the 10 games released outside of Japan: Touch Pen de Tanoshiku o Ryouri (Happy Cooking-US and My Happy Kitchen-EU) and Edamoto Naomi no Shiawase Kitchen: Kakushi Aji wa Anata ga Kimete ne (Imagine Master Chef-US and Imagine Happy Cooking - EU and AU) Another interesting thing is that some of the Imagine games that only released In EU actually got localized in the US outside of the Imagine series. Imagine My Restaurant was released in the US as Gourmet Chef: Cook Your Way to Fame. Imagine Champion Rider 3D was released in US as Horses 3D and EU as Alexandra Ledermann 3D. (which is also the name of many of the petz horse games in EU) I have more facts but I'll leave them out because they are related to other imagine games not included in this video! I also wanted to say Lets Ride FF is my absolute favorite! I basically maxed out everything in that game and the song that plays is actually one of my favorites 😅🤣

[@EeveeFromAlmia]

Ms Pac-Man was a rom hack that later got licences, that’s why it’s copyright has always been weird. She’s an oc :) and has also been written out of history in recent years in some sort of weird pac divorce

[@ZipplyZane]

True, but they changed the character to Ms. Pac-Man from this guy who looked kinda like Pac-Man with feet called Crazy Otto.

[@giangeegibb]

Lovely video! My sisters and I had a handful of the Petz DS games when we were growing up, and I even remember being confused then by how vastly different the gameplay and art styles were within the games we had lol!

[@Sunny10tv]

As a girl gamer. I started playing video games at the age of 2 in 1989. My first game system in order was the NES, SNES, N64, PS1, GBC, Original Pink see through GBA, PS2, Red GBA SP (still have), Crimson red ds lite, blue dsi, aqua 3ds, red 3ds xl, pikachu 3ds xl, wii u, nintendo switch oled, pink nintendo switch lite. As for girl gamers in the 90's I knew very few other girls my age who were into gaming at the time. When I was playing my super nintendo one of my grandma's neighbors who was a girl a few year's younger than me had Sega Genesis & the game gear & loved Sonic while I was into Mario & DK. We played Sega Genesis at her house a few times back then. When I was playing my teal GBC right before I upgraded to the original Pink see through GBA. I accidentally got my younger cousin also a girl hooked on Rugrats Totally Angelica GBC game. We stayed up until midnight at a sleepover at my grandparents house playing it back & forth she kept getting stuck on the pinball mini game so I had to play it then hand it back. Long story short when I upgraded to the original GBA I ended giving my younger cousin my old GBC with either pokemon red or blue also ducktales gb, & mickey speedway gbc so they would have several games to play on it. She gave to her older sister who more so wanted it & told me her parents (my aunt & uncle) were getting her the gba & a copy of rugrats Totally Angelica gbc. I could have gave her my copy because I beat the game 5 times over back then but still my favorite. Ironically I still have all my GB, GBC, & GBA games~ 😁🤣

[@matthewmuller7929]

I found your channel yesterday and I love your content. Excited to see what you release in the future!

[@gayghostprince]

Amazing as always! I love learning about shovelware whenever I can because there's always a wealth of games I've never even heard of that were probably a huge part of someone else's childhood. I only found it recently, but I love your channel! you deserve more subscribers tbh

[@gayghostprince]

I actually really liked the treasure planet PS2 game for the very brief amount of time I played it

[@sandgemtown]

I had the pink dsi as well :) great vid!

[@aedenlewis2047]

great video! really enjoyed the topic since I like collecting DS shovelware haha. Excited to see what else you talk about!

[@Habijob]

Fun fact: The Imagine series was renamed to "Sophie's friends" in germany, and when I was talking with a friend about DS games, I didn't recognize the game until I looked at my own collection here at home and was like "oooh"

[@randymoon]

that’s so random lol who’s sophie?

[@vroomvroom8668]

Love this, thanks for making videos!

[@alexaschendel3749]

Man these look a lot better than I thought! The covers of all these, with their realistic look, look so low quality and unappealing. They should have just had the anime art style on the box!

[@cat_jk00]

love your content keep it up :3

[@hystarukal]

how you always upload during my work sessions im eating so good rn

[@gray0014]

ahhh dropping everything to watch the new randy moon video!!! im so excited for this vid. i am afab (but not a girl) and have been into video games for almost 2 decades since i was around 10 and got my first nintendo ds lite. i have been on the receiving end of gamer girl accusations for a long time LOL

[@Walczyk]

awesome content as usual

[@anyaburke6636]

I was OBSESSED with Imagine Makeup Artist as a kid and was disappointed trying other games in the series as they weren't as developed as that one was, at least in my opinion. I think a lot of these games could have been really fun if they put more effort into them. I always feel guilty paying into the stereotypes of girl gamers and playing games like this or style savvy but some of them are just SO FUN. Awesome video!

[@purplemist7]

Great job on this video! If you do make that video on good girly games, you should look into the Style Savvy games. I've played two of those games: Trendsetters and and am currently playing Fashion Forward and those are two games that are girly as well as well made with a well made shop management mechanic that make the games fun to come back to. Also, I'm with you on wanting a Game Girl😁

[@Atomo_the_otherworldy]

Nice video. You deserve more veiws

[@gir8244]

if you're looking for suggestions, tinkerbell for the ds is unironically one of my favorite ds games ever. not just because i played it as a kid either

[@murkyseb]

In the 80s and 90s there seemed to be a large amount of female game developers, I remember reading the credits for age of empires and there was a large portion of ladies in the credits. For whatever reason during the 2000s up until very recently there seemed to be far fewer female game developers and the games got worse. I’ve always felt that a good game will be a good game to anyone and a game targeted to a specific group will be much more likely to be flawed and lacking what make a memorable gaming experience. I liked your video, I remember liking swan lake on pc and sim tunes and zoo tycoon

[@Fruz]

i need the good games version, i was already wanting to ask for that halfway through and i'm glad u mentioned the possibility at the end lol, cooking mama was always fire and i'd love to see if there's more to say about pokemon and if it was historically important for this or something, i always thought it was fire you could pick gender, it was one of the first quality games i ever saw doing that. i'm just curious about overall the whole history that got us to where we are now where we're somewhat slightly considered worth marketing towards \^o^/ as a random sidenote tv ads for the ds in south america referred to new super mario bros as a game for girls which i think is funny, hope we get more mario games for girls (beyond super princess peach, let me play as rosalina)

[@robothingy]

6:18 "yes, i'm saying /ju-bi-sɑft/, because /uː-bi-sɑft/ sounds silly" finally, someone's with me on this. great video!

[@GhostSublimeAnimations]

OMG I HAD THE BLACK AND RED 3DS

[@shrimpsc4mpi]

love this vid

[@KatieMarquez97]

Not me saying “don’t talk that way about Ghost” and you immediately calling me out 21:38

[@ariana8573]

YESSS new niche interest video

[@HonkYeahArson]

does anyone know what that pink clock in the background is? its so cute omg

[@paulinak4483]

Since i watched Jelly's video i did a little research (5-10min google) and from what I can tell, the better titles in the Imagine Series, werent made by Ubisoft, but instead localised to English and their original titles and boxart changed to match the rest for whatever reason. Which honestly annoyed me because I never would have known there were decent games thrown in the mix. Also i think (i might be wrong) that the lack of quality girl games was more prominent in the Western countries, because places like Japan seemed to have lots of very cutesy games for women and girls, for example otome games.

[@ethanspencer9589]

Good shit, I remember most of the games from borrowing my sister's ds and games after mine got stolen

[@AllSheilacan]

as someone working in game dev, I would love to go indie some day and just make cute girl games but with actually good gameplay and stories

[@madali3]

"babyz with a ZED" I knew I loved you when I found out you were canadian

[@TheMorganParkShow]

1:49 im waiting for the gamethey

[@honkhonk2277]

OBSESSED WITH THIS VIDEO UGH

[@amberfranklinmk93]

I had a game boy advance sp and a few if the Nintendo do series, a psp, an Xbox 360 with Kinect, a Wii and now I have a Nintendo switch

[@mrdeatheli]

Let's gooo!!!

[@lauratiso]

Oh, I will appreciate if you do a video about GOOD girly games. :3

[@kyuuubik]

Great Vid And Is that an Pumpkin Kitty On your Arm?

[@randymoon]

it is!

[@kyuuubik]

Wooaaaah! Ultra Fancy! Pumpkin`s 10/10@@randymoon

[@SimberPlays]

I actually really liked the imagine games i had but maybe i got lucky with the good ones. I had imagine teacher and imagine zookeeper. Some of the Petz games really suck but Petz Tigerz is actually fun. My sister had that one and i stole it from her lol

[@vtg_co]

Lol now I cant stop imagining what that cooking game would be like if Chief Hopper was in it... all you can eat Eggos and trauma? Anyways, a very cool rundown for those unfamiliar (like myself :P)

[@saleah4368]

另一个认证的兰迪·穆恩的经典 (look my mandarin is rough, 兰迪·穆恩 is literally just a transliteration of Randy Moon, sue me) (also this translates to "Another Certified Randy Moon Classic")

[@Merkantoine]

The sims and animal crossing have been the best gateway games for my wife

[@tierral.1241]

i loved shovelware games i think it’s was the only games i played on my ds besides nintendogs

[@Ovalee]

I actually really liked the horse game series Let’s Ride on PC, it seems like the DS version was a poor translation of the game.

[@sobertillnoon]

I saw that ghost.

[@SmashMaxLP]

Watching this video makes me feel like Ash in the Pokemon anime when he pretended to be a girl to sneak into Erika's gym

[@lilypadqueen]

if the audio you used over the clip of the horrifying baby ISNT that one audio clip of shayne screaming than you somehow found one that sounds almost exactly like it LMAO

[@randymoon]

i just searched man screaming but maybe it is

[@thunderousbitch8163]

it's from a prn vid 😓@@randymoon

[@nerdybird5764]

The only imagine game that I think is good is imagine ballet star, that one had lots of content

[@spaghettiking7312]

Imagine them? I remember them.

[@madelineaguilar302]

I got a blue ds and red 2ds

[@keyaunna.]

this was such a relaxing video to play and learn from while playing animal crossing new leaf. also, hello fellow autistic individual! i love your hair!

[@gray0014]

i had a super long comment typed out on my phone but my phone is dogshit so it reset the youtube app when i spent too much time in my browser looking for a game. so this is the cliffnotes version of my comment. 1. PLEASE make a good girly games vid. my three sisters and i all had various versions of the ds and had so many games. 2. shamus underwater adventure or something like that by activision was a game i really enjoyed. it was challenging but in a good way. the controls were kinda weird and awkward iirc. i either never fully beat it because i got stuck or after beating the final boss it didnt save your progress, so i played through most of the game so many times. not sure if this qualifies as a girly game cuz im an autistic agender person with a terrible conception of how general cishet society genders stuff. 3. drawn to life is a thq game that i enjoyed a lot as well. i think it may be a rip off of scribblenauts but idk which released first and have not seen scribblenauts gameplay. the drawn to life story was super engaging and interesting to me as a kid and the gameplay had a good difficulty level for me at the time. i dont think this one is really a girly game based on the fact that the protag u have to play as is a guy. there may have been like side stories where you play as a girl character but i dont remember.

[@gray0014]

5. puppy luv: spa and resort by activision was a TERRIBLE game i had. i literally launched it on my ds ONE time, realized the gameplay was simultaneously confusing and boring and then never played it again. i remember passing it along to one of my younger sisters and none of us could ever figure it out or be entertained by it (it probably mostly attempted to be played by one of the twins that are 4.5 yrs younger than me bc i think my youngest sister who is 7 yrs younger than me was too young at the time).

[@haroldflower8589]

@@gray0014 drawn to life and scribblenauts are actually made by the same people! i love seeing other people who know about drawn to life, that game is way too underrated

[@gray0014]

@@haroldflower8589 oh thats awesome! i didnt realize they were made by the same people. i only ever had drawn to life but it was one of my favorite games!

[@jimothy5291]

I love the imagine games lol… i play them everyday amongst a bunch of others. some are not great tho haha but a lot are!! i’m also 27 and autistic… so maybe not the best person for an opinion lol.

[@Quimbyrbg]

The segment on Pac-man is a little backwards. Pac-man was originally targeted at women and girls, with the creator saying that he decided to make a game for them specifically because they were not being considered by most other games designers. He selected the theme of eating to appeal to them because women like to eat (?). Ms. Pac-man was an unauthorised ROM hack made by US hackers who entered into an agreement with Namco to avoid being sued. They retained the rights to Ms Pacman, and later sold them to a plu and play machine manufacturer. Namco has downplayed and replaced Ms Pac for a while now to avoid paying royalties for her use.

[@theescapedape122]

woot woot

[@100PercentTHCfilmsX420X]

the sims is awesome

[@fathomtuns7127]

It sucks that after the industry received (valid) criticism about how they gendered games, it seems that they decided to just not make 'girl' content professionally anymore. The strongest modern entries to the genre are farming sims (a trend started by an indie dev), mobile games (the 'casual' scene), or entries to previously popular franchises (like AC:NH or the recent Cooking Mama). Weirdly, today it feels more okay to be a 'girl gamer', but not to make 'girl games'.

[@takke9830]

It is important to remember that sexism in gaming and the hyperfocus on boys and men as gamers is not the case everywhere. Japan in fact always had games for both girls and boys. just like how there is shounen and shoujo anime. Gaming culture is not the same everywhere.

[@maxwellbowman4084]

Japan had console specifically aimed at girls even.

[@mrdeatheli]

Love the new profile pic! You are so dreamy

[@Isabelachabella]

Can u make the video abt good girly games

[@Walczyk]

0:28 tbf gamer boy doesn’t sound good either

[@cha0sgam1ngs16]

first

[@Deebofreebo]

I don’t think brain age was a launch title for DS

[@bidoof8361]

you said rocketts and secret paths and the Barbie game were criticized for forcing gender roles and stereotypes can you provide a source for this or proof of it and I'm not talking about modern-day criticism when the games were released by a significant number of people not just one article from some left-wing feminist I hope these are legitimate criticisms and not you just enter in your opinion as historical fact.

[@jayofthenorth3364]

the hair and the glasses rub me the wrong way. I don’t like the aesthetic. Love the video. Please smile more.

[@crazymandanger9009]

most normal internet user

[@joharakiri]

* rolls dice * the hair and the glasses rub me the wrong way. * shuffles deck and draws card * I don’t like the aesthetic. * flips coin * Love the video. * spins wheel * Please smile more.