Zoombinis: cute little blue blobs that skate, whirl and sometimes just hop across the screen. They are like Lemmings, only without the somewhat annoying tendency for self destruction that Lemmings have. And Zoombinis have been the featured creature in some of the best logic games for both children and adults for many years now. I remember using the early Zoombinis games in my first classroom nearly five years ago. So, when I found out that some of the Zoombini titles were available for the Mac, I was thrilled. I could now introduce the Zoombinis to my own children. Zoombini Island Odyssey lives up to my hopes for the game, and seems to have converted over relatively smoothly to a Mac OSX operating system.
The Zoombini games in general are logic/puzzle games where your goal is to move the Zoombini creatures through a story by solving various puzzles. In Island Odyssey, for example, the Zoombinis have been forced to move off their comfortable island by evil bad guys. As the story begins, a brave group of Zoombinis returns to Zoombini Island after the bad guys have abandoned it, leaving behind a barren wasteland. Your first puzzle is how to get your group of 12 Zoombinis up the side of the cliff face. The Zoombinis set themselves up to be launched by the catapult, but you have to time it just right so that the boulder travels down a chute and into a bucket attached to a series of gears to fall onto the end of the catapult rather than into the water. Much easier said than done, when you only have enough boulders for one try each. You can practice with mudballs instead, but if you miss with one boulder, not all the Zoombinis will make it up the cliff. Some puzzles don't require a full group of 12 to advance, but most do, which means you find yourself going back again to the same puzzle in order to move enough Zoombinis through it.
Other puzzles require you to categorize by trait, find patterns, tell time based on the position of the sun and moon, and even play a "rock/paper/scissors" like game where you are trying to figure out what genetic traits will combine to make a particular creature. I absolutely love the challenge of this game. You can set whether you want to play in "Not So Hard," "Oh So Hard" or "Very Very Hard" mode. One of the things I like best is that just because you have solved a particular puzzle at the "Not So Hard" level doesn't mean that you will easily master it when you increase difficulty. The puzzles really do change complexity enough, for the most part, that you can play the game through multiple times and still find challenge. And don't let the "Not So Hard" name fool you. While it isn't too hard to figure out how to solve a puzzle at this level for an adult, some thought and strategy is still required. Personally, by the time I get up to playing the "Very Very Hard" game, I'm definitely having to exercise my brain power. The lower difficulty is a decent challenge for my 4th grade son, and even challenges his 6th grade friend. Island Odyssey is a bit too challenging, even at the lowest difficulty, for my 1st grader to solve all the puzzles alone, but with a little help and guidance from me, she enjoys the game as well.
In the back of the manual that comes with the game is a section just for Parents. In it the author talks about what mathematical content is focused on in Island Odyssey. They list data representation, attributes, permutations, categories, organizations, mappings, sequencing, algorithms, algebraic thinking, operations and ratios. I would add to that spatial thinking because I've noticed that the more he plays the Zoombinis games, the better my son gets at this skill. In addition, the game teaches problem solving skills needed for solving math problems. The need to work through a problem methodically is a must for many of the puzzles. This particular game also has science content about astronomy, plant anatomy, mechanics, genetics and cryptography. And as if this weren't enough, there are even additional resources at the end of the manual that parents can use to reinforce the concepts of Island Odyssey. Of course, the best part of all is that while your son or daughter is doing all this learning, they are playing a game. A game without any violence, any bad language, or any other questionable content. It's simply an awesome, fun game that teaches as well as it entertains.
The developers have done a good job of making the game compatible with the latest Mac OSX as well. The game does take a while to load, but I'm noticing that on my Mac mini, at least, most games do. And it does require you to set your screen resolution to 800 by 600, but again, I'm finding many games, especially children's games, require this as well. I had some difficulty running the game at first because of this, but once I figured out that I had to reset the resolution, the game doesn't do it on its own, I didn't have any problems playing through the game completely at the "Not So Hard" level. I am very happy that someone is developing this series of games for Mac OSX, and can only hope that they do so with the other Zoombini titles. This series is one of the first ones I recommend to parents when they ask if I know of any good edutainment games for elementary and middle-school grades. In my opinion, Zoombinis Island Odyssey isn't just good, it is great.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
