[ska electric guitar and bass]
[typing]
Today, we've got an edutainment game that,
contrary to my initial misreading of the title,
has nothing to do with ice resurfacing machines.
Logical Journey of the Zoombinis,
designed by Technical Education Research Centers, or TERC,
and published by Brøderbund Software in 1996
for Windows and Macintosh computers.
This was part of their Active Mind Series
aimed at augmenting the traditional school teaching experience,
and the goal of this one was to build advanced math thinking skills
for 8- to 12-year-olds.
Though it appears that the box artwork and design
was aimed more at parents and teachers than kids, though.
This is pretty boring.
The Learning Company definitely took care of that
when they remade and re-released the game in 2001 as Zoombini's Logical Journey.
But we'll be taking a look at the original version in the rest of this video.
Inside the box, you get the game on a plain-Jane CD-ROM,
several technical supplements and registration info cards,
and a rather extensive manual,
covering every single game mode and puzzle,
as well as lots of supplemental information for parents and teachers.
You also get a piece of bent cardboard
which is super fun to play with
when you're so tired you feel stoned.
Quite logically, the game begins with an intro video
showing who the Zoombinis are
and why they're so intent on their journey of logic.
Turns out they were a peaceful species of anthropomorphic blueberry hippies,
and they just chilled on their island,
making little trinkets and what they needed to survive.
But then a race of ambiguous creatures known as the Bloats
arrived by ship
and offered to help them better themselves.
Of course, this turns into a retelling of every imperialism story ever,
and the Bloats break their promises, take over their land,
enslave them, give them smallpox blankets,
and then Disney makes a movie out of it.
You get to control a group of 16 escaped Zoombinis
on their exodus to the promised land,
known as Zoombiniville.
Here, you can either have the game randomly choose a bunch Zoombinis for you
or you can make your own by selecting their hair, eyes, noses, and mode of transportation.
Once you have 16, you take a ship to the map screen,
where you're given the option to either play all the puzzles in order,
or learn the ropes in...
SOULFUL VOICE: Practice mode...
LGR: From here, you've got 12 sets of discreet mathematics puzzles to solve:
developing skills in logical reasoning,
data analysis and sorting,
pattern finding,
algebraic and statistical thinking,
attribute comparison, set theory,
graphing and hypothesis formation.
Which sounds wildly boring,
except that you don't even realize that's what's going on when you're playing.
The way this game is built is just clever all around.
Not only does it present these problems in such a way that's enticing and fun to solve,
but it randomizes the solutions and automatically adjusts to your skill level the more you play.
The first puzzle here, the Allergic Cliffs,
has you trying to cross two bridges.
The problem is that the cliffs are allergic to certain Zoombini features,
and will sneeze them back to the other side
and destabilize the bridge in the process.
It's up to you to determine which cliffs are allergic to which features
before the bridges collapse entirely.
If you don't get all the Zoombinis across,
they'll return to slavery to live a sad life
of misery and oppression.
No pressure at all.
The next puzzle is the Stone Cold Caves.
Similar to the Allergic Cliffs, this one has you trying to reach one of four cave exits,
by determining which features the four snobby stone guards
will allow to pass by them.
You only get so many tries before an avalanche of rocks covers up the pathways,
but as long as you adjust your strategy from the previous puzzle accordingly,
you should do fine.
Pizza Pass is the next puzzle
where you'll come into contact with Arno,
the almost-omnivorous pizza-eating tree troll.
This little guy is insanely picky about his pizzas
and he will let your group pass
if you make one for him using his pizza machine.
The problem is you have no idea what he wants except by trial and error.
So make a bunch of pizzas until you get it right.
He'll smack your Zoombinis into the next county if you get it wrong too often, though,
and he's joined by other trolls that are even more picky on higher difficulties.
Promptly pick the proper pizza
and you'll reach Shelter Rock base camp,
but you'll need 16 Zoombinis before you can move on from here.
If you've lost some earlier,
you'll need to play through those same puzzles again to get enough.
From here, you've got two paths you can take, north and south,
and each of them have their own sets of puzzles.
The north path brings you to Captain Cajun's Ferry Boat,
a crotchety old captain who demands that your Zoombinis
sit in an exact order before he'll take you to the other side of the bayou.
Figure out the pattern and you're good to go.
Titanic Tattooed Toads is next,
and this is another puzzle involving crossing a body of water.
You'll have to get your Zoombinis across on the backs of giant tattooed toads,
but they'll only be able to cross if they hop on lily pads matching their tattoo.
Make sure the path of patterns is complete,
or a toad and its Zoombini will get stuck forever,
and presumably die a slow, agonizing death from starvation
only yards from the exit.
Stone Rise is the final puzzle on this path,
and this is another one where you'll need to order the Zoombinis according to features.
This time you'll have to arrange them in such a way
that they're paired off by a certain feature
so that stones rise up from the ground,
allowing you to reach the top of the embankment.
After this, you'll reach another base camp,
but there's also the southern path to take, if you'll remember,
which begins with a puzzle called Fleens!
In order to pass by these punked-out Zoombinis,
you'll need to scare them off
by unleashing a bunch of bees from a beehive.
Each Fleen's features directly relate to a certain Zoombini of yours,
so you'll need to figure out which three Zoombinis match the three Fleens above the beehive.
Next is Hotel Dementia,
where your Zoombinis can have a rest on their trek and stay overnight.
But of course, there's a little setback.
The hotel manager is all about segregation
and demands that only like-featured Zoombinis
stay in the same rooms together.
Separate the little guys by their colors and the way their bodies look,
and you'll be allowed to move onward to the Mudball Wall.
Here, you'll find a machine that shoots mudballs
of varying colors and shapes at a wall,
which activates a catapult that launches your Zoombinis to safety.
Figure out which color and shape corresponds to each spot on the wall's grid,
and make sure those little guys fly before you run out of mud.
After the last base camp, there's the Lion's Lair.
This is like some kind of trap-filled Indiana Jones tomb,
and here you'll need to arrange your Zoombinis in a certain order on the path
using the clue written on the wall to the left of the giant lion statue.
Do so and the lion's paw moves, allowing you to continue.
Fail and the gate will unceremoniously come crashing down
and doom the rest of your party to a long trek back to their own personal hell.
After this is the Mirror Machine,
which has kind of an eerie ambience going on
that Helda Pickel would surely proud of
You gotta get each Zoombini through the cave in a mine cart,
and in order to do that, you have to match up their reflection
with one of the crystal plates on the other side.
And lastly, you've got Bubblewonder Abyss.
This is a cave with a weird floating grid and a bubble machine,
where you'll have to determine which Zoombinis
can make it across each pre-made path
by - once again - looking solely at how they look.
Finally, you'll have reached Zoombiniville,
and everything is fine and dandy.
And you'll even unlock a new building for each 16 Zoombinis saved.
It's quite the party and everyone's happy.
At least until you realize
how many didn't make it and are still back at the beginning
living out their miserable existence
as slaves to the Bloats.
Ah, whatever, at least you're safe!
Out of sight, out of mind.
And that's the Logical Journey of the Zoombinis for you.
If you're attracted to logic puzzles,
enjoy segregating fictional creatures,
or are simply a Vulcan,
this game is awesome.
It's got a strangely engaging atmosphere and story,
the graphics are great,
the music and sound are fantastic and really add to the environment,
and the game teaches all sorts of useful skills quite covertly.
Even if I didn't play it as a kid,
I can see why it's so well-remembered
and why it ended up spawning a handful of sequels.
It's just a solid edutainment title through and through.
The game is super easy to find a copy of nowadays online,
and the later versions seem to run just fine on modern OSes.
And it turns out they're even trying to get the game re-released
for iOS and Android devices, too,
so that'd be cool,
as I think it's still a very viable product
to teach kids this kind of math and logic.
Aw, yeah! Edutainment that doesn't suck!
I approve!
[salsa music]
And if you'd like to see some more reviews
on edutainment games that may or may not suck,
why not check out some these.
There's still more edutainment coming in April,
and I do more videos every single week,
so... subscribing. That's cool.
You could also do Internet thangs related to LGR
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And as always, thank you for watching.