Published by: Brøderbund
Age Range: 8 - 12
Year: 1996
Image © the Learning Company. Used with permission.

The goal of this game is to lead as many oppressed Zoombinis as possible to Zoombiniville, a new homeland where they will be safe and free. Players design a band of 16 Zoombinis, small blue creatures with one of 5 kinds of hair, eyes, nose, and 'feet'. In order to save the Zoombinis, players must overcome a series of obstacles by solving puzzles involving logical reasoning about these features. Each puzzle takes place in a fantastic setting with fictional characters such as trolls who demand pizza with certain toppings, bridges that sneeze, or rock caves that only admit Zoombinis with certain attributes. The solutions to the puzzles change each time you play, success brings promotion to more difficult levels, and there is an open-ended possibility of accumulating many Zoombinis in Zoombiniville. As players get more and more bands of Zoombinis safely through sets of puzzles, additional buildings appear in Zoombiniville, each with a plaque commemorating success on the winding path through the perils of the route. There is no time pressure or hand-eye coordination involved. Unlike in many games, no characters die as a result of failed attempts at solving the puzzles.

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