Game Review: Zoombinis

Game: Zoombinis
Console: PC
Developer: TERC
Release Date: October 28th 2015

It's not often I review a game that was released less than a month ago, but this is a special case; The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis was released in 1996, and first played by me in 2000 or so. It's an educational video game which challenges players to solve various logic puzzles in order to guide small blue creatures (called Zoombinis) through from Zoombini Isle where they are oppressed, to Zoombiniville, which is a paradise.

There are 12 puzzles in all, 9 of which players will encounter in any given run. From Zoombini Isle, players set off with a party of 16 Zoombinis, and play 3 logic games, any one of which can result in the loss of Zoombinis from their party. After the 3 games, there's a campsite where Zoombinis can be stored. A party of 16 is required to continue from here, either north or south, with 2 different sets of 3 challenges, which lead to another campsite. The final leg of the journey involves 3 more logic puzzles, after which any remaining Zoombinis enter Zoombiniville.

At Zoombini Isle, players either choose the features of, or randomly generate 16 unique Zoombinis. The importance of them being unique within the party is that many of the logic puzzles rely on sorting them by their different features; there are 5 features to set, with 4 options for each feature. When the game begins there are 400 Zoombinis on Zoombini Isle and 0 in Zoombiniville, the goal of the game is to guide the entire population to Zoombiniville. Any Zoombinis who don't make it through a puzzle go back to the last campsite and are stored there for addition to later parties that are short of members.

The logic puzzles themselves are what made the game memorable, and even 15 years after initially playing the game, I was well aware of most, if not all of them before even playing. The ones that stick out the most are Pizza Party where players attempt to appease 3 hungry pizza trolls in a Mastermind-esque game based on toppings and who likes what, Mirror Machine where players must create an exact likeness of each of their party through a mirror with various filters which change features inbetween, and Bubblewonder Abyss which is a mazelike puzzle with traps, requiring players to send their Zoombinis in the correct order to ensure they all get through.

While the game is fun and very interesting for an educational game, there are a few issues with this updated version that can be frustrating. On a few of the games, it can become almost impossible to select your Zoombinis, making it necessary to leave some behind even if there's still attempts left at the logic puzzle, and at times the sounds of the Zoombinis can become overwhelming as they all begin to make noise at once.

Graphically the team have done a great job updating the original game into a high definition and modern version; the colours, backdrops and overall clarity have been greatly improved. Soundwise many of the original tracks and clips from the game have been used. While this is great for the nostalgia factor and reliving memories of the game, it's noticeable that these are old midi and wav files from how they cut off fairly suddenly, and other clues.

Overall Zoombinis was a lot of fun to come back to; not all of the puzzles are as enjoyable as I remember, but there's a general level of quality. I'd definitely recommend picking this up on Steam if you remember playing the original game, there's some great sound effects and narration that'll take you right back to being young. If you've never played Zoombinis though, there's not much point in starting unless you've got kids that you want to train to be logical geniuses. For one of my favourite PC games as a kid, this really hit the nostalgia spot.

Rating: 63/100
Grade: C