| “ | Strike the targets one and all! And watch for a pattern on Mudball Wall. | ” |
| ~ Narrator prior to Mudball Wall on Not So Easy |
Mudball Wall is the third and final puzzle in the Deep, Dark Forest region of Logical Journey of the Zoombinis. After spending the night at Hotel Dimensia, the Zoombinis are confronted with a stone wall and a mudball machine. The Zoombinis stand on the wooden pads to launch themselves up the cliff. Afterwards, the Zoombinis settle at the Shade Tree.
Premise[]
The object of the game is to launch all the mud balls onto the sections with dots. Each ball you've launched will either connect the shapes or the colours. If a mud ball hits the wall with dots, a boulder will launch Zoombinis to the cliff. The Zoombinis will be unable to pass the game if you've wasted the mud balls. The shapes and color patterns become more complicated as the levels get higher.
In-game Help Text[]
Not so easy[]
The Zoombinis need your help in getting over the wall to freedom. Using the mudball launcher, hit the sections of the wall with dots on them. The color and shape of the mudball tells you what section it will hit. For example, green mudballs might always hit in the first row and square shapes might always hit in the first column.
Oh, so hard[]
The Zoombinis need your help in getting over the wall to freedom. Using the mudball launcher, hit the sections of the wall with dots on them. The color and shape of the mudball tells you what section it will hit. Be aware that the pattern that reveals where the mudball hits will shift diagonally on the mudball wall.
Very hard[]
The Zoombinis need your help in getting over the wall to freedom. Using the mudball launcher, hit the sections of the wall with dots on them. The color, shape and color of the shape of the mudball tells you what section of the wall it will hit.
For example, green mudballs may always hit in the first row, square shapes in the first column, and blue square shapes may always hit in the first square within a column. In this case, the upper left-most square on the wall would be hit with a green mudball with a blue square in the middle. To help you organize, divide the walls into five columns, each five squares wide.
Very, very hard[]
The Zoombinis need your help in getting over the wall to freedom. Using the mudball launcher, hit the sections of the wall with dots on them. The color, shape and color of the shape tells you what section it will hit. But be aware that the pattern that reveals where the mudball hits will shift diagonally on the mudball wall.
To help you organize, divide the walls into five columns, each five squares wide.
Pre-Journey Narration[]
Not So Easy[]
Strike the targets one and all! And watch for a pattern on Mudball Wall.
Not So Hard[]
Strike the targets one and all! And watch for a pattern on Mudball Wall.
Very Hard[]
Strike the targets one and all! And watch for a pattern on Mudball Wall.
Very, Very Hard[]
TBA
Detailed Mechanics and Rules[]
On the machine are 5 shapes, 5 mudball outer colors, and starting from "Very Hard" also 5 mudball inner colors. Upon selecting the mudball configuration, the player may turn on the mudball machine, which launches a mudball in a specific direction. There is a slight time delay before the mudball machine moves and angles its shot, before shooting the mudball at a particular brick. The aim is to hit the "successful" bricks colored light grey, rather than dark grey.
There are 8 "successful" bricks that launch the Zoombinis up the cliff, out of 25 (125 in "Very Hard" and "Very, Very Hard") bricks in total. Of these bricks are a number of dots that correspond to the number of Zoombinis that get launched; upon success, the rocks fall down onto the wooden platforms to catapult each Zoombini upwards. Hitting all of the "successful" bricks are required to get all 16 Zoombinis across. There are always 2 one-dot bricks, 4 two-dot bricks, and 2 three-dot bricks.
The patterns in "Not So Easy" and "Very Hard" are horizontal and vertical. On the "Not So Hard" and "Very, Very Hard" modes, the pattern shifts in a Latin Square format, as in a unique brick on the wall corresponding to a unique mudball configuration's "elements".
The maximum amount of ammo stored in the mudball machine vary among difficulties.
Mathematics[]
Strategy for Solving the Puzzle[]
This level is not very difficult compared to the other minigames. The player should remember that on later difficulties, one of the features (i.e. shape, inner colour, outer colour) will change randomly within each column, row, or section. In order to counter this, the player should make the first two mudballs with two features different from each other to figure out which feature changes randomly. After figuring out the odd one out, the player should be able to guess the feature and still have enough mud to complete the level.