wonderful maths! (Logical Journey of the Zoombinis (PC))

Member Name: FraserP

Product:	Logical Journey of the Zoombinis (PC)
Date:	21/02/01 (127 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fun, educational, suitable for children and challenging even for adults

Disadvantages: cartoons are not cutting edge, quite hard one the top level of difficulty

This is the best educational but fun software that I have seen; the educational content is subtle. You are in a cartoon journey where you have to guide some cute Zoombinis through a number of challenges. The first is two bridges which you have to guide them over.

To start with it is not obvious why some can cross one bridge but not the other, however you shortly realise that there is a feature, such as the style of hair or the colours of the characters, which distinguishes between the ones that can cross on bridge to the other. It is easy to start with and gets progressively more challenging. However the animation is amusing and fun, and each challenge passed brings an new exciting puzzle around the corner.

Behind the fun colours and amusing story line there is a clever set of mathematical puzzles, from which the game derives its name. Once you have mastered the logic of the puzzle it is addictive to get your little Zoombinis through to the next stage.

My 10 year old daughter was hooked on this game, but not in an obsessive way; she left it and looked forward to playing it again. As it became more difficult in the harder stages I helped a little, but more in cooperation than by taking over. She was thrilled when she worked out a sequence which gave a key to a stage, most of which she did without any help.

My copy runs on a basic machine, now 5 years old, so it is not too demanding on the hardware. I don't to recall setup being difficult.

Hidden in the puzzles are skills covering set theory, sequences, algebraic reasoning and many other worthy skills. The best bit is that to my mind it makes it as a game, regardless of the educational benefits.

Every home should have a copy of this game.

Summary: