Zoombinis – Logical Journey FAQ

Zoombinis - Logical Journey FAQ

Copyright 2003 RichardB
Email: Gbness@aol.com

1. Version History: Here's the version history to my guide for Zoombinis:
Logical Journey:

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Version 1.0: The first and final version of this FAQ.
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1. Version History
2. Introduction
3. Legal Disclaimer
4. Email Rules
5. IM Rules
6. Basics
7. FAQ
8. My Review
9. Outro
10. Credits

2. Introduction: This is my eleventh FAQ, this time for Zoombinis: Logical
Journey. I don't really see why a person needs a FAQ for this game, but since
lots of people love this game and it lacks a FAQ, I thought I'd lend a hand and
write a guide for this excellent game. Well, enjoy!

3. Legal Disclaimer: You are NOT permitted to put this FAQ on your site without
my permission first. All you have to do is email me or IM me saying you want
this FAQ on your site, then you can tell me your site and the chance is high
that I'll let you. But if you put this FAQ on your site without my permission I
swear you will regret it. If I let you, not ONE word should be changed from
this FAQ! NOT ONE! Got it? Good.

4. E-Mail Rules: I love getting good emails, so you're free to email me with a
question any time, and I will answer questions already answered in this FAQ.
But these are the rules:

1. Don't send me a question for something that this FAQ shouldn't list anyway.
2. If you email me try to make it neat. There's a much higher chance I won't
respond to you if the email has ALL CAPS, no caps, and no short talk like i
instead of I, ur instead of you're, etc.
3. Don't send me advertisements. They will be ignored and deleted.
4. No silly stuff.

If you follow these 4 rules there's a 99% chance I will respond to you within
12 hours.

5. IM Rules: I also like getting IMs, but don't send them to me too often, or
they may be ignored. I am on often, so feel free to IM me, but keep it light.
The same rules apply.

6. Basics: Here a few things you need to know before you get started on the
game.

********************
THE GOAL OF THE GAME
********************

The goal in Zoombinis: Logical Journey is to get your Zoombinis across lots of
puzzles and get them to Zoombiniville. There are four difficulty modes, tons of
Zoombinis, camps to rest at, and four treks to go through.

*****************
DIFFICULTY LEVELS
*****************

As you complete one trek three times with all of your Zoombinis lasting through
it, the difficulty level increases. Here are the difficulty levels:

Not So Easy: The first difficulty level. All the puzzles are pretty easy in
this level.
Oh, So Hard: A little harder than Not So Easy. Still, it isn't too hard.
Very Hard: This is where the game starts to get ridiculously difficult. You're
going to have to think to get past these.
Very, Very Hard: Here's where discouragement from completing the game with all
625 Zoombinis reaching Zoombini Isle is! This is the peak of the difficult. You
are GOING to have trouble with this, I can assure you.

*****
CAMPS
*****

Between the treks, you can find camps where you start off at the next trek.
Zoombinis can't rest at normal levels but they can here. You can put them in
the tree to let them relax.

7. FAQ: Here's my complete FAQ for this game, guiding you through all 12
levels.

Zoombini Isle:
--------------------

Zoombini Isle isn't really a level, but it's where all the Zoombinis live. To
the left, you can choose your Zoombinis by pressing the buttons. Once you make
one, press the button to the right of it and you'll get that Zoombini. To
embark on your journey, we need 16 Zoombinis. Just choose all of them, and
we're ready to go!

Allergic Cliffs:
--------------------

The Zoombinis are faced with a cliff. The cliffs down below react to certain
Zoombinis but they won't tell you what. You have a certain amount of time
before the bridges fall and your Zoombinis are lost. This never gets very
difficult.

Stone Cold Caves:
--------------------

There are four rocks here, all of them guarding the paths. In Not So Easy mode,
either the bottom or top rocks mind the Zoombinis. Figure out which one it is
and you can get your Zoombinis through. There is limited time before rocks fall
and block the paths though!

Pizza Pass:
--------------------

This is my favorite level in the entire game. Arno the Tree Troll want a pizza.
The pizza-making machines to your left has the ingredients, but Arno can't tell
you what ingredients he wants. If it has something he doesn't like he'll tell
you so, or if there's some but not enough, he'll also say so. When you reach
Oh, So Hard mode, ice cream becomes available and a friend of his joins in.
Cheese for the pizza is also taken out. In Very Hard mode, another friend comes
in. Be warned: if you give Arno the wrong stuff too many times, he'll attack
the Zoombinis and throw them out.

Shelter Tree:
---------------------

This isn't a level; it's a camp. We have two treks to choose from. The top path
leads to Who's Bayou, and the bottom path leads to the Deep, Dark Forest. I
will cover both Who's Bayou and Deep, Dark Forest.

***********
WHO'S BAYOU
***********

Captain Cajun's Ferryboat:
--------------------

On this boat, Zoombinis can only sit next to each other if they have something
in common with each other. The easiest way to do this is to just put any
Zoombini in the first seat, then put all of that nose-colored Zoombini next to
each other, and when they run out, do another feature like eyes or hair, and
then continue with that. In higher levels, all of the seats will be closer to
each other.

Titanic Tattooed Toads:
--------------------

You can see lots of yellow toads up there. They all have something special on
them, like a leaf shape or a color. All of the lily pads in the creek have
those same things, but they make up a path to the other side, where we need to
get to. So we have to put a toad on that path and be absolutely sure, or
they'll get stuck and the Zoombini on him won't move. This will be a
horrendously long level, mark my words. When we reach Oh So Hard mode, Bruno
the Fairy gives us a wand to swap lily pads, but we can't use it into infinite.
In the next two modes, crabs will attack the paths but use leaf shapes as their
own paths.

Stone Rise:
--------------------

On the parts here, features are shown. This level is similar to Captain Cajun's
Ferryboat in that we have to have the Zoombinis there sharing something in
common. When you reach higher levels, it won't be straight lines. All of them
will be mixed up so you have to do some BIG THINKING.

*****************
DEEP, DARK FOREST
*****************

Fleens:
--------------------

You will find the Zoombinis' cousins, the Fleens, in this level. All of their
body parts are related to the Zoombinis. Feet are related to feet, eyes are
related to eyes, etc., and that will always be the same in Not So Easy mode. So
we have to figure it out without getting too many Zoombinis chased out. In Oh,
So Hard mode, the parts won't always be the same. When we reach the highest
modes, eyes can be related to hair, hair can be related to shoes, etc.

Hotel Dimensia:
--------------------

To the left, there's a clock ticking. It ticks on if you make a wrong choice in
the hotel. Oh, I forgot. There are five doors in the hotel (in Not So Easy mode
anyway), and it's random whether in the doors the shoes, noses, etc., need to
be the same. What I mean is that the hotel's doors are based on shoes, noses,
etc., and different kinds of them need to go in the doors. In higher levels,
there are five times as many doors and the same new rules.

Mudball Wall:
--------------------

The little machine on the right can shoot mudballs at the large gray wall. The
white parts of the wall are the parts we have to shoot at, but it isn't that
easy. The machine shoots mudballs, but the mudballs need to be made with the
machine and the ranks and files are based on the color and shape in the
mudball. I think you know what to do. In higher levels, the wall will get
bigger.

Shade Tree:
--------------------

Shade Tree is the camp after you've beaten Who's Bayou or Deep Dark Forest. Get
ready to go into the Mountains of Despair... rest your Zoombinis up and then
click the arrow at the bottom and let's go.

The Lion's Lair:
--------------------

The stone lion's paw is preventing anyone from passing. But that is why we have
the top features. It shows a series of nose colors, hair, etc. All five are
shown. So we have to put Zoombinis on the steps near the lion's paw. Also, we
have to group them by their features in the order at the top. In Oh So Hard
mode, some will be hidden out. In Very Hard mode, there'll be a secondary
feature. In Very, Very Hard mode, everything will be hidden!

Mirror Machine:
--------------------

This is the second longest level to complete in the game. (Nothing will beat
Titanic Tattooed Toads.) The parts on the right side show Zoombinis. One of
your Zoombinis is just like the one on the right side. We have to put those two
on the mirrors, then send the Zoombini down the mine cart. At higher levels,
other mirrors will appear that add features to that Zoombini.

Bubblewonder Abyss:
--------------------

The final level in the game. On the abyss, there are arrows that send you in
certain directions. Some of them are marked with features from the Zoombinis.
Only that feature from the Zoombini can cross. So you have to figure this out
without falling into the abyss itself. In higher levels, more rules like
colored arrows will come into this level.

Zoombiniville:
--------------------

This is it. This is the new home of the Zoombinis. If you have completed any
treks with all of your Zoombinis surviving, new buildings will appear here. But
can you see there aren't very many Zoombinis here? Go back and FREE THE
ZOOMBINIS! Go through the game and try to build all 16 buildings by completing
the four treks in the four difficulty modes and get all 625 Zoombinis here! My
confidence is behind you.

8. My Review: For the fans cheering on me, here's my review for the game.

Educational games. Very few people like them. I happen to personally dislike
them myself. They get extremely tedious, have no replay value and have rotten
graphics, and your parents force you to play them to learn stuff. It is nothing
but a deal of pure torture experiencing them. Of course, that rule only applies
to some educational games. There are some, but still a very small deal, of
educational games that are actually quite a blast to play. In that list, you
could add Zoombinis Logical Journey. Truly, it is one of the, if not the best
educational game that I have ever played. Every aspect of it is terrific and
there are no problems with it at all.

The story of Zoombinis Logical Journey is like this: at a certain time,
creatures called the Zoombinis lived on Zoombini Isle. There are 625 of them,
as I remember, and all of them are different. There are four features of
Zoombinis: the hairstyle, as Zoombinis can have spikey hair, straight hair,
long hair, pigtails, or be almost bald except for a few hairs here and there;
the nose color: the noses can be red, green, blue, golden, or purple; the eyes:
some Zoombinis have one eye, two eyes, sunglasses, glasses, or drowsy eyes; and
the feet: some Zoombinis have skates, other have a propeller, some have plain
shoes, and there are a few others I cannot remember. So 5 times itself 4 times
is 625.

Okay, more with the story. All of the Zoombinis lived on Zoombini Isle
peacefully, working hard but enjoyed their peace and prosperity. But one day,
the Bloats arrived. They offered to help the Zoombinis grow their businesses,
improve their quality of life, and that stuff. The Zoombinis were trusting
sorts, so they agreed. But in a short deal of time, the Bloats had taken over
everything. They tortured the Zoombinis and enslaved them, canceled holidays,
and just plain made life miserable for them. So they decided to find a way out
of it are build a new home in a distant land. So you are forced into a logical
journey through tons of puzzles to help them. It's a very fun journey.

Gameplay is fun, especially for an educational game, and provides me with one
of the most fun experiences that I go through on my computer. There are 12
puzzles that you must complete in this game. In one of them, you must stick the
Zoombinis on a boat, but a Zoombini can only sit next to his neighbor, who most
have something in common with him, such as nose color. In another one, you are
blocked by a pizza troll. He doesn't know how to work the pizza-making machine,
so you have to make him the pizza, but only the one he wants. There are lots of
toppings to place on the pizza. In yet another one, you have to cross two
bridges to reach the land on the other side. But the cliffs are allergic to the
Zoombinis, so you have to figure out exactly what they dislike to get all 16
Zoombinis to the other side. And there's also another one where you're faced
with a lot of the Zoombinis' cousins, the Fleens. All of their body parts are
matched to the Zoombinis', but it doesn't exactly show how, so you have to
figure it out. Plenty of fun.

The controls in the game are very simple. All you have to do is drag your
Zoombini where you want him/her to. It's basically just click and grab them,
and that's all there is to them. And then of course, there's more to the game
itself. When you get to Zoombiniville, the new home for the Zoombinis, you'll
want to get ALL of your Zoombinis to Zoombiniville! There are 625 of them! This
takes simply forever! Plus, once you get along the game, it becomes super hard,
to stop you. Ah, about that. The game is set into four stages. All of them have
three puzzles, and in all of them, Zoombinis can fail. Between stages, there
are camps. Zoombinis who fail go to the last stage. Once you make it through a
whole stage with all 16 Zoombinis succeeding three times, it goes up a
difficulty level and cannot go back down. The challenge levels are Not So Easy,
Oh So Hard, Very Hard, and Very Very Hard. Not So Easy is pretty easy, and Very
Hard and Very Very Hard get terribly difficult. So you'll have a pretty hectic
time playing this game, that's for sure!

The graphics in Zoombinis Logical Journey are pretty basic. I'll explain most
of them. In the cliff level, there's a big white mountain, and it looks very
realistic. The faces on them are really nice, as one's a guy's face and one's a
woman's. The rocks in the Snow Cold Caves level after that have faces on them
are they are really nice. There are other rocks here and they look quite real.
Perfect, just perfect. The next level, Pizza Pass, is very interesting. The
Tree Trolls are pretty small, but they look just like trees and their faces are
also great. The boat level after that has very pretty water, and the boat
itself looks just right. The next level is viewing in a top-down viewpoint,
which is never good, but you can see the lily pads and the toads are plain in
view. The next one has extremely interesting graphics. The sewer-looking things
are fascinating, and the colors that show up when something's done right or
wrong are good. Although there's just red and blue, they look quite real. The
next level, Lion's Lair has a VERY nice looking lion! It looks just like lions
in real life do, and the path and area itself look just like a dark lair. The
Mirror Machine level looks awesome. It features lots of green mirrors though,
so this is pretty weird because most mirrors are made of glass! Glass isn't
green usually. The tunnels look excellent also. The next level, Bubblewonder
Abyss has perhaps the best graphics in the whole game. It's a big abyss full of
bubbles. They look just like bubbles do in real life, and the blue-purple abyss
is significant. Also, there's the huge grassland with lots of houses, towers,
shops, and other spectacular things called Zoombiniville, which just looks
perfect. You'll appreciate how the areas look, that's a guarantee!

Ah, I don't think I've covered the designs of the Zoombinis themselves yet.
First of all, they're just round, blue, and pretty cute characters with varying
eyes, noses, hair, and feet. Every part of them looks nice, and that pretty
much sums up the graphics. The areas looks superb. From the grasslands of
Zoombiniville and nice looking houses, swimming pools, towers, and all the
buildings gracing it to the grand beauty of Bubblewonder Abyss and other odds
and ends that are placed in the game, all of the areas are perfect. The designs
of the characters like the Zoombinis and the creatures that you meet on your
journey like the Pizza Trolls, Allergic Cliffs and most of all, that great lion
found in the Lion's Lair, are just great. But even so, I feel that the game
doesn't get a 10 with graphics. They may seem weird and aren't detailed
perfectly enough for my taste, but that doesn't harm anything. Really great
graphics are here for you to experience! That pretty much wraps that up.

Then there's the music, and with the music comes the sound, to make the
category of music and sound. The music in this game is really good, although
sometimes it gets creepy in the last stages and you can hardly hear it. In the
Very, Very Hard part of the Lion's Lair, there is NO music, for all I can
remember. In the Mirror Machine, there is a little music, but it's very low and
forces you to turn your computer up with its volume. The music perfectly fits
the place you're in, and although it can get annoying and repetitive, it never
reaches the point of where you can't bear to listen to it. Also, the song the
plays in Zoombiniville is fantastic, perfectly fitting how Zoombiniville is and
sounds very nice. That pretty much wraps up the music.

The sound in Zoombinis Logical Journey is stronger than the music, in my
opinion. The Zoombinis make pretty cute sounds in themselves and they always
have really nice voices. They grunt, whisper a couple words and make other
sounds that you'll never grow tired of hearing, and the sound they make when
their feet tap the ground and they walk or if they have propellers, fly, always
sound pretty good. The narrator of the game (known as Fleenburt), has a really
deep voice but it always sound good, especially when he tells you in
Zoombiniville to free the Zoombinis. His voice definitely suits his personality
perfectly. The first Tree Troll (Arno) is very funny when he speaks, especially
when he yells ''More!'' a lot, and the other two Tree Trolls have perfect
voices. The Allergic Cliffs sneezing to the four rocks of Stone Cold Caves
scolding and saying their nice little things are always great. Heck, all of the
sound in this game is great, and is one of the strongest points of the game.
From the voices to the footsteps to everything else, Zoombinis Logical
Journey's sound will not disappoint at all.

The strongest point of Zoombinis Logical Journey is the replay value. Since
there are four difficulty levels to play through for each of the 12 levels,
there are 48 challenging puzzles to work your way through. All of them are
different on your second way through, and the game is just so much fun you'll
have to have another goal at the great impossibility that it features. I have
played through each puzzle around 40-50 times, and still I have not lost one
bit of the fun that you will have while you play this game. That pretty much
sums up the replay value; it's the third highest replaying game I've ever
played, next to Final Fantasy X and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. So
obviously it has a lot!

I think I've pretty much told you just how high the challenge of this game can
get, but I'll just explain it again. When you first start this game off, it's
very easy and even little kids should have no problem, even with a few of the
latter levels, as long as they understand the game. Then, you can just complete
the levels perfectly thrice, the difficulty takes a gigantic step up and begins
to go from those easy puzzles to almost impossible ones! Plus, you cannot lower
the difficulty once it's reached its point, so you'll definitely experience a
great deal of frustration while playing the game! But trust me, you'll always
have a fun time coping will all the troubles you'll have in the game,
regardless of how big they are. You can mark my words.

Ratings:

Graphics: 9/10
Music: 7/10
Sound: 9/10
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 10/10
Lifespan: 10/10
Challenge: 10/10
Overall: 10/10

GOOD POINTS:
-------------------
Great graphics, some of the best for computer games.
The music isn't great, but it's average.
The sound is cute and it's very nice.
The story is highly above average.
There is quite a lot of replay value.
Tons and tons of challenge is to be found.
It's just about the best educational game you can find.

BAD POINTS:
-------------------
The music could have been a little better.
Some parts of the game are really weird.
This game gets way too frustrating and difficult.
12 levels is a little short and could throw people off.
No one is going to go through the levels 50 times.

Overall, you will NOT be disappointed by Zoombinis Logical Journey! It is one
of the games that has a great amount of stuff that you can enjoy and presents
you with all the stuff you'll want, like all the Zoombinis have names and
they're all unique, and just about everything in the game is great. The
graphics are really good. The areas, characters, and everything in the game is
cute and cute doesn't mean bad at all! The music can't be heard at times and
it's really weird. But for those you can hear, you're definitely going to like
them. The sound is really good. The Zoombinis grunt, sneeze, and makes other
noises at quite a lot of times. They sound really good and you'll never get
tired of them. The gameplay is awesome. Playing through this game is simply a
blast, regardless of the fact there are only 12 levels.

The replay value is extremely high in this game; it is actually my third
highest replaying game. The game can be replayed about 40 times and you'll
never grow tired of it, as long as you take a break at certain times. But not
everything is too fantastic. The challenge of the game is so ridiculously high
you're going to be frustrated in a short amount of time, and you'll need help
from someone quickly. But if you can stand the challenge and you're willing to
play this game even though it's educational, you will find a fun, action-packed
game with tons of fun, lots of great features around it, and one of the
greatest educational games ever. I can personally guarantee you'll look this
game.

9. Outro: Well, I'm glad you enjoyed this guide! Look for more guides in the
future, and thanks for reading!

10. Credits:

Gbness: For writing this guide.
CJayC: For posting this guide.
My father: For buying me this game a couple years ago.

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