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Zoombinis Island Odyssey

Zoombinis Island Odyssey

List Price: $19.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Gets kind of boring
Review: Zombinis is a very fun game but gets kinda boring after the first few weeks.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Could be better...
Review: The Zoombinis are very cute and it's a fun game, but the noise they make is awful! Their voices are so high pitched and annoying. I know what your saying...that I should just turn off my speakers. Well, that won't work because the only way to get directions on how to play the different activities is to listen to the narrators voice. Don't buy this game unless you're buying it for someone under 8 years old.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great Product
Review: If you're looking for a great educational game, the Logical Journey of the Zoombinis would be it. With different levels of puzzles that involve patterns and use lots of logic, there's no way you can't learn something. And there's also no way you can't have fun. The only drawback is that it is very addictive, but what great things aren't? If you're thinking about buying this game, don't even hesitate, because it will be well worth your money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Zoombinis Logical Journey
Review: I am a grandmother, and the first time I purchased this game was actually for some children of a friend. When we bought the game, my husband and I sat at the computer and thought we would give it a go to see if it was "hard" enoough for the intelligent children it was intended for. Well, to say the least my husband and I was SHOCKED! It was so good we had to purchase a copy for ourselves and now have purchased a copy also for some of our grandchildren. Oh and the first version we bought for our friend's children? Its years later and they still get a kick of playing it..as do I for that matter! I am looking forward to the other versions I have just ordered recently.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A great product but may cause frustration in young kids
Review: This is wonderful product for teaching children deductive reasoning skills. It's even fun for grown ups. Each journey begins with 16 Zoombinis who must survive treacherous traps, overcome obstacles and solve problems of increasing difficulty. The only caveat is that all 16 Zoombinis must survive each step so if a child has completed many levels and spent over an hour on the game and then lose a Zoombini, they have to start all over. This caused me to give 4 stars instead of 5. Overall, a good investment.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Which one?
Review: My mom found this at a store, and ever since I've been playing Zoombinis. The good thing about these games coming together is that you can separate them and give your children one now and save the other one for later. If you don't want one of them, they come individually too. And I don't know about anything bad. I'm just nine years old.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Be Careful!
Review: We have other Zoombini games and love them but can't even use this one. We purchased a brand new computer with a pretty advanced system yet we can't play this game and it was a waste of a purchase.

After 40 minutes on the phone with Dell and being assured we had the most up to date Video Card, Sound Card and Cd-Rom drive we are still unable to install this game. We have had no help from the company's tech support either. Unless you are an expert in Video Card Drivers and can get past the "UNABLE TO SET VIDEO MODE" error message that we got I'd be careful in purchasing this one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Algebra Made EZ
Review: I honestly think this game made Algebra come easier for me. It is a really fun little toy. You take a party of sixteen zoombinis, each of which have different eyes, hair, feet, and noses. (You choose how they look) Then, based on physical appearances (generally) you have to get them through obstacles. For instance a certain "monster" only lets zoombinis with red noses pass. There are also games where you have to use deduction. It helps build skills really well AND its fun. This is a really excellent choice for a computer game, probably for ages eight and up (I'm 14 and I still play it).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Disapointed
Review: First of all this software is okay. Unlike the 1st one I easly conquered all the levels in just 10 hours or about 10 playing days. It's still fun, but after you win the game it starts to get a little lame. Although I didn't have any loading problems the screen froze once. The graphics were good and the games were exiting at first. Overall if its on sale you might as well buy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Outstanding Product for almost any age
Review: I've been teaching "information design" at a major University for the past 5 years, which means I teach others how to teach or instruct in various media. Before this, I spent 16 years designing computer software interfaces, web sites, and instructional material, including dozens of national and international awards for my work. As such, I am keenly aware of both the theoretical and practical issues and difficulties in designing instructional games for children.

The best-known, most-respected, and most-successful educators tell us that education for children (and for adults, for that matter) is most effective when it is fun, when it involves guided self-discovery, when it transparently and automatically adjusts the level of difficulty to match the learner's skills, and when it gives immediate feedback, especially when the emphasis is on positive feedback to the extent possible. Zoombinis excells in all of these areas.

My 9-year-old son has become engrossed by the game, and now spends time helping his 6-year-old sister. They LOVE the silly aspects of the Zoombinis ("hip, hip, zoombini!!!"), and are completely unaware that they are learning some rather complex logic and mathematical concepts. I was amazed when I overheard my son explaining to his sister how to solve the logic puzzles.

I tried playing it myself, and found that the animation and characters are not annoying, cloy, or childish, but possess just the right amount of levity to keep it interesting. I've found that after just a few hours of playing it, my son is already faster than me at figuring out the puzzles. He is now doing it at an intuitive level, while I still have to think it through step-by-step.

Unlike other software, which usually follows a fairly simplistic, linear algorithm that is easily defeated by simple trial-and-error (click everything until it works, then memorize the right pattern), the Zoombini puzzles/problems require the learner to internalize generalizable, transferable problem-solving methods.

Sorry if this sounds like mumbo-jumbo. The bottom line is that this is an outstanding educational product that teaches remarkably complex thinking skills to children while seeming to be nothing more than a really fun computer game. Buy it! You'll be happy you did.


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