Zoombinis: Island Odyssey

Zoombinis: Island Odyssey is the third game in the Zoombinis series of educational games. In this game the Zoombinis return home after finding out that the Bloats have left the island after doing much ecological damage to it. Now they try to restore the balance and save the zerbles, an endangered species, by re-establishing their food chain and do zerbles genetics research. The player starts out with creating an party of twelve volunteer Zoombinis. The Zoombinis can be customized with different feet, eyes, nose color and hairstyle. Once a party has been created it's time to set sail to Zoombini Island. The game consists of seven activities, as follows:

• The catapult - When the Zoombinis arrive at the island they have to use a catapult to launch themselves onto the island. The player uses a gear contraption to launch stones at the catapult so that the Zoombinis, one at a time, are sent onto the island.

• The wall - Each Zoombini carries a caterpillar and has to deliver it to a tree so that it can be nourished and turned into a moth. A wall is in the way though and the player has to open a door so that the Zoombinis can pass through. This is done by placing tiles on the wall. Each tile has four shapes and these has to match with hieroglyphic characters that are written above each socket in the wall.

• The planetarium - Here it's time to metamorphose the caterpillars into moths. This is done by activating special lighting effects. There are two exhibits in the planetarium that represents the movements of the earth and the sun. One shows the sun shining on earth as it rotates from a space perspective while the other shows the sun's movement in the sky from an earth perspective. The player here has to match a certain time in both of the exhibits by using coins to advance the time.

• The greenhouse - The moths are used to pollinate snozzleberry seedlings so that they can bear fruit. The player is presented with a field of plants and has to lead the moths on a path through it and towards the right seedling. Each moth has a plant attribute that it is attracted to and each plant has a variation of three attributes (color, shape and number of leaves).

• The garden - In the garden the seedlings must be planted before sunset so that they can bear the fruit needed by the zerbles. Here the player meets Arno the Tree Stump who gives advice on where to plant the seedlings. Each plant consists of four parts (roots, stalks, leaves and flowers) and depending on these features they can be planted in different holes.

• The corral - Now the player has the food needed to feed the zerbles. The problem is that the zerbles are very shy and fussy about what they eat. Each zerble only eat certain snozzleberries, so the player has to use light projectors to lure the zerbles towards the right snozzleberries.

• The barn - After being fed the zerbles are ready to repopulate the island with babies. The zerbles have different kinds of feet (wheel, claw or pontoon) which determines what of the three regions of the island (desert, forest and wetlands) they can live in. The player here has to pair up male and female zerbles so that they produce babies with the desired features for each region.