Zoombinis Mountain Rescue

Age Group: Ages 8 and up
Type: Math, Thinking Games, Puzzles Memory
Price: $25

PC version requires:
Windows 95+, Pentium 200MHz, 32MB RAM, 50MB Hard drive, 8x CD-ROM, 16-bit color, 800x600

Description:

This year could well be named the year of The Learning Company. After a tumultous recent past of mergers, buyouts and sell-offs, TLC has emerged with one of their strongest product lines ever. They have revamped Reader Rabbit, Carmen, The Zoombinis, and The Oregon Trail into outstanding new editions, and are also publishing Brighter Child's newcomersCaillou and Zoboomafoo, which are excellent early learning programs. Riverdeep has recently acquired TLC's educational division, hopefully they will be able to continue creating great games under their new owners.

Revising existing popular programs is difficult because of the need to stick with the winning formula while at the same time incorporating new items, but with Zoombinis Mountain Rescue, TLC has managed once again to pull off a winner.

Just as in the Zoombinis Logical Journey, the name of the game is logical thinking incorporated into puzzles. The Zoombinis must be transported along a journey dotted with these puzzles in order to help some stranded friends stuck in a cave (the storyline isn't important.) To begin, choose sixteen zoombinis using different body parts of feet, hair, eyes and noses. These characteristics are the criteria in each puzzle that uses patterns and categorization to sort the zoombinis. Some of the same critical thinking concepts from the previous game are here, as well as new ones dealing with binary numbers and other computer programming skills. Of course, kids won't realize they're doing math, not with these fun and challenging games!

There are nine different puzzles on the path to Boolieville, the Zoombini's ultimate destination. Some of these puzzles are new and some are the same as in the previous edition, albeit dressed differently. Each puzzle uses important critical thinking skills such as categorization, deducting, and planning ahead. In Chez Norf, players will need to choose menu items for the Norfs using clues which can be marked off in a grid, similar to logic problems found in magazines. In Boolie Boggle, pinballs are used to toggle the Boolies back and forth from happy to sad according to certain rules. When individual rows of Boolies are all happy, then a Zoombini gets to cross over. On the harder levels, this can get pretty complicated. Snowboard Gulch requires deducing which characteristics are wanted for each path of the slope, and Aqua Cube has players freeing trapped Zoombinis from air pipes by only using a set number of moves.

Features:

• Zoombinis!
• Nine puzzles
• Critical thinking skills
• Binary and computer logic
• Adventure or practice mode
• Auto leveling in adventure mode, manual in practice
• Puzzles randomize
• Ingame help on solving puzzles

Technical Aspects:

The age range is stated for kids ages 8-up, this may be a little misleading as the difficulty levels increase rapidly and some eight year olds will have a tough time on the harder levels. However, the practice mode levels can be adjusted.

Report and Conclusions:

The only caveat I have with this program is that it increases in difficulty too quickly in the adventure mode, and younger players may get frustrated early in the game. This could have been alleviated by having manual leveling offered in the adventure mode as well as the practice mode. Other than that, we love this game! My 11 year old daughter's favorite puzzles are Beetle Bug Alley, where bugs have to be moved around to the correct color stones and Chez Norf; mine are Bubble Bumpers, where the zoombinis are placed on a flat grid with with directional arrows for certain characteristics that move them along, and Snowboard Gulch.

I absolutely recommend this program if you have children, especially if you want them to gain valuable practice in logical thinking.