LGR - Zoombinis Logical Journey - PC Game Review

It's only logical to take a look at the first Zoombinis game during Edutainment Month. These little anthropomorphic blueberries were darned endearing!
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[@Jimpiedepimpie]

They'll probably adress the Zoombinis that were left behind in Zoombinis Logical Journey 2: The Fall of The Reich

[@Ashebrethafe]

The Learning Company actually _did_ make two other Zoombinis games in addition to remaking the original game, but you don't actually lose the Zoombinis that get left behind. IIRC, they just go back to the last checkpoint (Zoombini Isle, Shelter Rock, or Shade Tree) to be put into a new party of 16 -- or if you don't want to split the party, you can return to the map to send _all_ the Zoombinis back. (This is also how you make the puzzles harder, outside of practice mode -- each time you complete one of the four paths without leaving any Zoombinis behind, the difficulty of the three puzzles on that path is increased, unless it's already at Very, Very Hard.)

[@NostalgiaChan]

For years, I've had "FLEENS?! You're not Fleens! Whatever you are...MAKE ME A PIZZA!" burned into my mind because we had this game in our school's computer lab. I don't think I ever actually got far enough in the game to learn who the heck the Fleens were; never enough time in computer class to finish. But yeah, I remember this game being stressful as a kid! Like, the minute you find out you could lose the Zoombinis, it was like "Wait, WHAT?! Did my favorite little Zoombini with the ponytail and sunglasses and roller skates just DIE?!" Didn't help that the game was honestly pretty hard for a kid that had no clue what a logic puzzle was.

[@Reierdacool]

This is an example of how to do an educational game right. Really tight graphics too. Great game.

[@QJ89]

Tighter with the graphical re-release on Steam. Too bad the sound didn't get over-hauled...

[@NitroRad]

I remember having this game at a daycare I used to go to, and NO ONE could get past that damn pizza puzzle.

[@xanthrax6098]

SOMEONE MAKE ME A PIZZA

[@alexn9856]

+Xan Thrax MORE TOPPINGS! *punts Zoombini*

[@ticklezcat5191]

Something on that I don't like!

[@HypaspistOrange]

I was stuck at the lilypad level

[@tombardsley3081]

HypaspistOrange that was a painful one as you had to be so careful and check all the paths!!

[@benbmusic88]

Oh man that practice mode reference never gets old...

[@InsanePsychoRabbit]

Oh? I've gotten tired of it.

[@FennecTECH]

this video brought to life a little part of my brain that has not been alive for i dunno 18 years wow

[@thewixter]

Zoombinis was my shit.

[@Zuon94]

You might want to cut down on the blueberries then. ;D

[@alexriesenbeck]

Do the shnozberries taste like shnozberries?

[@Scarfulhu]

Great review, Clint! I've loved this game since I was a kid, and it's great to see it reviewed. I still find it funny how I'm actually working on a video about this game currently. Maybe it was fate, haha.

[@TheGuyWhoIsSitting]

I loved this game when I was able to borrow it from the Library back when Libraries still let you borrow software, heck I didn't even know it was an edutainment game back then so I think it did its job very well of secretly teaching you stuff that would otherwise make you go "why would I want to learn when I could be having fun?" as is the childhood mentality.

[@HuntHerKillHer]

I LOVED playing this in primary school! I found a copy of the game at an op shop recently. Ahh the memories! I wonder if its as hard as it was when I was a wee one.

[@spongebot64]

I didn't enjoy this, though it was surely for the fact that I was just a cretinous moron back then who couldn't get past the cliff level.

[@THISISLolesh]

Oh jesus, thank god you reviewed this.. I remember how much fun I had in Primary School playing this when we occasionally had lessons on the computers. I had completely forgotten the name and was desperate to remember, the nostalgia!

[@michaelcroff7097]

Circa 2002 our district had an “intermediate building” for 5-6th grades, which used to be a middle school of award-winning design. The library had a separate room (typewriting room?) which was lined with humming iMac G3’s running OS 9, obviously superior to the handful of OS 8.6 Apple LC’s that each classroom had. Near the end of computer time the computer teacher would play Zoombinis on the library projector, with us seated away from our computers to raise our hands and such. What a forgotten classic!

[@keanuluis9568]

I have been searching for this game for the longest time now, I remember playing this game multiple times at my primary school IT room, I could never get past the dam pizza puzzle though from what I can recall. I am in university now and have finally found out the title of this game through the most obscure google searches I have ever done. Here and there this game would come to memory and I just had to know what it was called. I finally found it, it brings back so many memories.

[@TheLORDMJ]

"Eerie ambience that Helda Pickel would be proud off" You are so awesome for making that refrence.

[@ChimpManZ1264]

I played this in the 90's. I loved the fact it had a storyline but cor the amount of Zoombinis you have to save to finish the ultimate journey really tests your mind as the difficulty rises.

[@elizabeth_noir]

YES! Thank you for covering this game. In elementary school this game was the reason we sped through our typing tutor game so we could devote the rest of our computer lab time to Zoombinis. I loved making all of my Zoombinis with propeller feet. This is my first time commenting so thanks for all of your awesome retro reviews (especially oddware and your retro computer reviews). If you really want to make my day, check out another edutainment game from my childhood, Fisher-Price Great Adventure Castle. It's a point and click adventure/logic game aimed at 4-7 year olds.

[@vaporgator]

I remember this! We had it at school. That pizza game use to drive me CRAZY! I don't think I ever made it to the end but it was still fun. Great review!

[@RinoaL]

i saw this in your IBM pc video and looked it up, i'm glad your doing a video of it now.

[@VelvetKevorkian429]

I remember playing this in elementary school. I think it might have been one of the first game I ever actually played. I really liked how in the beginning you could customize all your zoombinis. Never experienced that before in a game. This game went hand in hand for me with Math Ace Jr. (I tweeted you about that one), which was another cool edutainment game that had a lot of charm & fun mathy mini games. There was also the original Math Ace, which I think you'd find interesting as well.

[@PartTimeSarah2]

Now we're talking! I have so many great memories of playing this with my sister :)

[@draignathair]

I'm another one who loved this game growing up and spent countless hours playing with my cousins. I picked it up again a few years ago, decided to beat it to see what the ending would be, and was quite disappointed to find that there basically was no ending. They let you play the last path with however many zoombinis you need, so less than 16, but once they get to Zoombiniville, it's just done. You can look at all the zoombinis and special buildings, but that's it IIRC. Anyway, thank you for covering this game and for the many hours of nostalgia and entertainment you provide!

[@kitling5781]

I spent so many hours playing this back in the day. It was something actually fun to play when I was stuck waiting for my single parent teacher mother at her school.

[@Olive-ld2es]

I remember getting a bundle of educational games by The Learning Company as a kid. Zoombinis was the only one of those games that I still fully remember. Though the CD case said “Zoombini’s Mountain Rescue” the game itself was actually this one! This is actually the first time I found out what the name of the actual game was. Thank you for finding the answer to a question looming over me since I was 6.

[@UltrawideBenchmarks]

Thamk you so much for uploading this clint, I was searching for a review for this game months ago. Aaaah the memories that I have with this game

[@tombardsley3081]

The memories. Played this for hours to ensure every one was saved :) . And got the mountain rescue sequel which was equally as fun

[@Wysidia]

Aww, I remember playing Zoombinis in school. :')

[@nikoc8968]

that pizza stage must have stumped me when i was a kid because its the one part of the game i remember most vividly. xD

[@itzspencerr1403]

I'm still a lazy game reviews fan ever since i've watched you're videos! You've gotten really far.

[@marliem.5575]

I am nostalgic for the original format of the game. I have to say that I absolutely love the remake of the Zoobinis! it made a timeless system of games feel so fresh even though it plays the same as it did over twenty years ago. Looking back at it, it does reek of the 90's and I still love it. The artist for the remake I cannot praise enough! I can't stop staring at the graphics as I play. And even if I'm tired of solving puzzles, I keep playing even longer because it just looks so pretty. Sorry, I didn't mean to brag about the new version of the game, But I highly recommend it. It's much easier to download from Steam than to order the old copy, and potentially go through hell trying to get an old disk to work on a new computer.

[@jaytee2314]

I played this in 3rd grade back in '01 it was so freaking cool. i grew up on humongous games so im a product of edutainment. but i was so freaking excited when i finally got a copy of this game at home. its just a solid game, glad to see you enjoyed it even going back years later

[@kathryncampbell4432]

I remember when I played this game at the children’s area at OMSI (Oregon Museum and Science Institute) while I was… I think in Kindergarten. I only played it to the stump troll guy, and couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to do. Glad to finally know the name of it.

[@SporeGoar]

this was the fucking shit in 1st grade. one time we had an entire lesson in the computer lab dedicated to zoombines only and the teacher tried to teach us all of the puzzles. i only got as far to the pizza level....

[@alvaroramos9069]

I still remember playing Zoombinis with a friend back in the late 1990's. We were only 3-4 years old and had the hardest time playing with it, but we still continued to play it even though we had no idea what we were doing.

[@ApartmentViews]

OMG, I remember this game!!!! I tried looking for it like a year or 2 ago but I'd totally forgotten the name! Thanks so much, LGR!

[@inspectorjavert8443]

Thanks for linking me to this man! I loved this game!

[@DreamcasticChannel]

My all-time favorite edutainment game! I used to play this all the time! The pizza troll and the Fleens were my favorite out of the puzzles.

[@NotRadagast]

Thanks to this I've been able to find a game I played as a kid that I've been looking for for literally years! I hadn't seen anything under broderbund lists that matched what I was looking for, but when you mentioned "Active Mind Series" for teachers I thought maybe since Zoombinis was also on all the school computers maybe the one I was looking for was to. Lo and behold, it was Math Workshop from the same series~ If you could get your hands on/also make a video of that game I would be super grateful! And entertaining video, as always.

[@Astroignitionvideos]

I really gotta try and track down one of the later XP compatible re-releases off of ebay: more of a pain for us brits though as far as I can tell the 2004 xp compatible version never saw the light of day in the UK; when they renamed it to "Maths Journey" over here all they did was just ship the 1996 version again albeit with different packaging. I remember the version we had to be fairly buggy; severe problems with the game crashing randomly on cut-scenes for no reason and sound going out of sync. This didn't just happen on our home pc, it also happened on the school computers we played on at primary school at the time; really sucks because when it worked it was devilishly clever logic game that was fun to play. Great review LGR!

[@yourMoonstone]

Oh my god I remember playing this years ago, haha. I applaud your attentive alliteration as well!

[@DeeManDrawsIsTheBest]

I actually remember this game! It was actually something I *liked to play*, not something I *had to do*, like it was homework. That right there is the key to good edutainment, you have to make it likable and not feel like a chore.

[@fraubow]

My elementary school had this on their computers. I loved it so much I made my mother buy me a copy for home

[@weirdproq]

I loved my zoombinis game as a kid. It felt like a big journey to try and get some of these guys to the village.

[@devalt1]

Oh my god. I remember playing this game at a friend's house when I was really young. This is crazy nostalgia.

[@harrydiplock6915]

Holy Schnikes! I remember playing this on old Acorn computers at school when I was a kid. You rock LGR.

[@ianism3]

oh man it took me so damn long to get zoombinis to the ending island. I was definitely too young for it, but man I liked it

[@MasterKurow]

Zambonis Zambonis Zambonis~

[@TNDGAlcatraz]

vinesauce / lgr crossover?

[@WhiskeyRichard.]

I've missed you, practice MOOOODE

[@Videogamestwin]

I was OBSESSED with Zommbinis as a kid. We had this game on the one computer in my class and every time i played it, i tried to get further and further. Most of my class couldn't get past the pizza puzzle.

[@mrkalius1926]

Thank you for this review, LGR. I've always wanted to see someone do a in depth review of this game. I think the pizza making game my my most favourite one, as you could just make loads of a crazy pizzas. :)

[@jmh1189]

zoombinis was by far my favorite game in elementary school

[@matthewrichards88]

Brilliant ganen. Mine had a pink coloureds cd ROM. I remember as a kid having trouble even loading the game in Windows 95 - this program caused illegal operation, and as a 7 year old I was proud going into the settings to get it working! :) Memories!!

[@veraxis9961]

Such a good game. I remember some of these puzzles got genuinely quite hard on the higher difficulties. A few of them could be cheesed by having party load-outs with a lot of common features, like the riverboat one.

[@TechnoToastx]

FUUUUUCK DUDE. Watching this just unlocked a part of my childhood that I've NEVER thought about! We had this game in like elementary school and I liked it a lot. We played it in groups and everyone got to make their own characters and I think we all tried to see which group would save the most first or something. I feel like I also had this game at home too since my parents were all about getting me these edutainment games. Funny that I never thought once about the story for this game, little kid me just wanted to win. Jesus, this was nice to remember.

[@nwawallace]

I remember when I was in elementary school, any time it was a rainy day we would all stay indoors and play in the computer lab. It was a race to see who could get this game first. There was maybe 3 copies to share between 15 kids. Those who didn't get this played some other game where you build igloo's as one of the puzzles. Can't remember what that one was called.

[@JustinHallPlus]

I remember this game. Hooray for nostalgia.

[@ashlynnconner3359]

This is one of the games I remember playing at my elementary school. For the longest time I remembered the little round blue guys on skates and springs, but I could not remember the name of the game. I would describe it to people and they would have no idea what I was talking about. So I though I was remembering the game wrong but here it is. So I was not making it up after all. Oh the nostalgia is strong with this game for me.

[@Gigacolossus]

I *loved* this game as a kid, and your interpretive commentary really made me smile.

[@plemgrubern]

I appreciate the samba music at the end

[@lordcrayzar]

Oh man! Childhood classic.

[@brosgo1257]

Ahhhh...... this game brings back many good memories in school good job lazy game reviews with another great kid

[@rustyfinds7154]

I found a loose copy for $2 just recently and really excited to try it after seeing your play thru. Not sure I was smart enough as a kid to have figured this out, looks tough!

[@ihatejamon]

I gotta say, I LOVE LGR! I have learned a ton about the PC world before my generation and it is AWESOME, LGR content is one of my favorite things to watch on KZbin, like clockwork every day after I get home from work

[@danieledwardsen7912]

Used to play this in primary school it was an amazing game

[@kadenzza]

I can't remember the last time I thought about this game. It's probably been twenty years since I last played it. Goddamn. Thanks for the burst of nostalgia.

[@ColeWolfsson]

I remember playing this at school on the teacher's promethean board. I was actually looking for this game, and thanks to you I've found it!

[@sassysarah29]

I had this game as a kid! And we had it in our classroom. We were allowed 10 minutes in pairs once a week. Clearly not enough time for it's awesomeness!

[@Baszilpesto]

I had this game as a kid. Absolutely loved it. Played it so much. This and Croc and Reader Rabbit and Spyro :)

[@bitnewt]

Aaah! I loved this game when I was little! I found it really hard because I started playing it before I could read but somehow I still loved it. Oh, the memories... :3

[@Yaishakuri]

this game is still so awesome 17 years later. don't know about anyone else but i also used to really love the nancy drew series too

[@ZemKatarn]

I keep this around and still play it periodically. And hey, I asked this before, but have you considered doing a LGR of Operation: Inner Space?

[@masterkeaton1000]

I remember playing this at the library in my town. Super-fun game back then.

[@Lizziguin]

Talk about my childhood! I looooove Zoombinis

[@THECOHORTONE]

Bro Ive been tryin to find out what this game is called forever! Brings back elementary computer lab memories

[@joman66]

We had this game in school back around 2000-2003

[@matthewacbroad]

Same here. Wow brings back memories!

[@woganmusic778]

This was the best back in the day, loved this game so so much

[@Flash33c]

Man I remember playing this game and having fun with it. Bubble Wonder Abyss is one of my favorite games to play in it personally. If I had to criticize it though is that on the harder difficulties some of the puzzles become downright unfairly hard and frustrating to solve. A prime example is the Lion's Lair where on the hardest difficulty there's no hints on the wall, so it's all down to luck/trial and error. Other than that though the game is fun and I definitely recommend it to people.

[@yanni6556]

I remember this! I used to play it at the end of math class in primary school. Was fun back in the day. Never finished it though.

[@Candiecane908]

Sims 1 Loading music

[@alexriesenbeck]

Out of all the edutainment games I've played in my life, this is one I have never heard of. Not once! Thanks for bringing this out for us to see.

[@TheWolfkit]

I loved this and played it all the time as a kid. I'm a software engineer now. Hrm. 🤔

[@StinkyScrublet]

I've been waiting for a Zoombinis video. Awesome

[@littleelisej]

I loved this game in primary school. I was trying to find it and couldn't remember the name. Thanks so much!!

[@thecultclassiccorner8615]

I remember playing this in school. I also remember playing Need For Speed 2 SE in school too. But this was good enough that i didn't mind playing it when i couldn't play NFS2SE.

[@starofgalaxies]

I remember this! Oh, I loved it soo much! This and some game with clock bombs were my favorite edutainment games from school. At home, I had Jumpstart.

[@chaoscontrolandspear]

I Loved this game as a kid and i still do to this day it did not even feel like learning it felt like an adventure!

[@TheFoodieCutie]

That cardboard quip took me by surprise on how funny it was

[@TeamShoelace]

I want to revisit this game someday. Last time I played it was early middle school; I remember this game creeped me out for some reason as well.

[@420alphaomega]

holy shit nostalgia punch to the face!

[@matthewrichards88]

lgr wow flashback! I still have this game (I loved it and have kept the CD). really enjoyed it at the time, and after installing it recently I still found myself enjoying it. used to love the speech on this game. . I used to have 'Maths Workshop' by broadband software. we had it at our school. ever tried it?7 it had some crazy sound fx and mini games.

[@generik88]

This game was next to chew quest on my shelf! Thanks for the review. Also, I think in later versions (2001+) the intro about the bloats was stricken from the game. I've played through this so many times and I've never seen that before

[@-GIGA-]

I remember playing that at school all the time, I never understood a single thing. Thanks for reminding me about this game LGR.

[@tullyfog]

I played this sooo much as a kid and loved every second! I would probably have just as much trouble now as I did then though lol

[@dizzym9554]

We had this on iMacs in middle school :P Great fun

[@Arcallyn]

I've been looking for this game for years now! When I was a kid at school we were made to play it when they couldn't be bothered to teach us.

[@SammeLagom]

That "Practice Mode" sound is amazing!

[@yuriythebest]

I played this for ages as a kid - had the city at the end build up fully or almost fully I think - it was real crowded. It's funny how I only vaguely remember the graphics - I remember though that I thought it was awesome and played till my eyes hurt. It is only now that I think maybe that it was this game that, using it's "covert" teaching helped me become a programmer/game dev today

[@judithlebreuilly]

I can't believe I've only seen this now! This was one of my favourite games when I was little. Shame I can't play it anymore :(

[@Freako]

Me and my friend could never get to the end of this game. We're pretty stupid.

[@Pizzaboy609]

Sorry for the late reply, but you aren't stupid :). Completing the puzzles on the harder difficulties is TOUGH. ESPECIALLY when you consider this was made for kids...

[@ADJAXhardcorecraft]

I didn't too :(

[@BevinKB]

If you are looking to play this game, Zoombinis is available on Steam as a remastered version with updated graphics. You're welcome!

[@daniellevalencia4625]

I loved this game when I was little. I'm so glad I found this. Was thinking about this game a little bit ago. Thx