History VideoGame / TheMagicSchoolBus

* TerrifyingTyrannosaur: In ''Dinosaurs'', there is a RandomEvent in which the bus malfunctions and lands in the Late Cretaceous -- right next to a ''Tyrannosaurus'' threatening to eat the class. Clicking several times or on the "X" (which the ''T. rex'' eats) will prompt the bus to get away in time. Subverted by the ''Tarbosaurus'' in Cretaceous Mongolia and ''Albertosaurus'' in Cretaceous Alberta, both of which pose no threat to the class, although they will ferociously roar when clicked on.

* TemporaryPlatform: The balloons on the Neptune level in ''Explores the Solar System'' are a variation of crumbling platforms that float up when you jump off of
them. They also don't respawn except for a select few of them when they're off screen.

* TemporaryPlatform: The balloons on the Neptune level in ''Explores the Solar System'' are a variation of crumbling platforms that float up when you jump off of them. They also don't respawn except for a select few of them when they're off screen.

** The parrot snake in ''Explores the Rainforest'' is shown blinking, despite snakes lacking eyelids.

** The African elephant ''Explores the World of Animals'' has a two-lobed head and a humpback like an Asian elephant. It also lacks tusks like a female Asian elephant, though tuskless African elephants do occur.

** ''Explores the Rainforest'' portrays toucans as having three toes pointing forward and one pointing back, when they should have two in forward and two in back. The same mistake also occurred with the parrot in ''Explores in the Age of Dinosaurs''.

When ''Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus'' was adapted into an animated TV series, the publishers of the books, Scholastic Press, collaborated with Microsoft and a software company called Music Pen to adapt the books as a series of point-and-click [[EdutainmentGame edutainment games]] starting in September of 1994. The first game was an adaptation of ''The Magic School Bus Gets Lost In The Solar System'' and was released within two weeks of [[Recap/TheMagicSchoolBusS1E1GetsLostInSpace the first episode of the show]], which adapted the same book to television. Seven more games followed, ending with ''The Magic School Bus Explores Bugs'' in 2000.

** Also in ''Dinosaurs'', one of the wrong answers for the [[MiniGame Dino Madness]] question on what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs is [[ComicStrip/TheFarSide a pack of cigarette's]].

There was also a series of five "activity centers" covering a somewhat different range of topics that were released from 2000 to 2001 and did not have any objective, instead focusing on information and mini-games. In an inversion of the VideoGame3DLeap, these were fully animated while the main series used a mix of animated gameplay and CGI cutscenes.

* OddballInTheSeries: ''Human Body'' is very much this. The whole game has a certain WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs quality. The PopUpVideoGames trope is pushed in the direction of outright surrealism. Plus, there's that constant droning of eerie music. And then there's that "magic view" thing.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover of ''Explores the Age of Dinosaurs'' shows the bus in the form of the alarm clock time machine it became in the book and TV episode. In the actual game, it transforms into AnimalMecha instead.

* JumpScare: In the "Treefall Gap" area of ''Explores the Rainforest'', a jaguar will randomly pop out from behind the fallen tree and let out a roar, which may startle some players.

* ThatOneLevel: Out of all the minigames in the series, many people refer to the Drill for Oil, Dig for Coal game as the most frustrating Minigame where a lot of players have a difficult time successfully defeating Liz in collecting the hidden resources on their side.

* ExpositionFairy: Some concepts and bits of trivia in ''Explores the Ocean'' and ''Explores the Rainforest'' are given by a clam and a frog respectively with some jokes through in.

* SuddenlyVoiced: Liz is a lot more vocal than she usually is in many of the games.

* PteroSoarer: The pterosaurs in ''Explores the Age of Dinosaurs'' mostly subvert this at least for the time. Jurassic Tanzania (based on the Tendaguru Formation) has a bipedal ''Pterodactylus'' that gets mistaken for a dinosaur by Wanda, only for Ms. Frizzle to explain to her that it's a pterosaur.

** Played with in ''Explores the Earth''. While your main goal is to locate the 4 Rocks and Miderals Arnold is missing from his collection, it is still possible to collect all the other available rocks and minerals to.

* GottaCatchEmAll: Both ''Explores the Ocean'' and ''Explores the Age of Dinosaurs'' have a series of collectable cards you can earn for winning levels in certain games (Fish Cards for ''Explores the Ocean'' and Paleo Cards for ''Explores the Age of Dinosaurs'')

* GottaCatchEmAll: BOth ''Explores the Ocean'' and ''Explores the Age of Dinosaurs'' have a series of collectable cards you can earn for winning levels in certain games (Fish Cards for ''Explores the Ocean'' and Paleo Cards for ''Explores the Age of Dinosaurs'')

* MiniGame: All over the place. In ''Rainforest'', they can all be accessed from a locker in the classroom.

* WackyHomeroom: Just click around the classroom and see what happens.

* BrokenAesop: Despite ''Explores the Age of Dinosaurs'' pointing out the theory that birds are dinosaurs, the MiniGame Dino Madness has a turkey and an ostrich as correct answers for the "That's Not a Dinosaur" questions. Made especially jarring when ''Archaeopteryx'' is correctly identified as a dinosaur.

* BrokenAesop: Despite ''Explores the Age of Dinosaurs'' pointing out the theory that birds are dinosaurs, the MiniGame Dino Madness has a turkey and a ostrich as correct answers for the "That's Not a Dinosaur" questions. Made especially jarring when ''Archaeopteryx'' is correctly identified as a dinosaur.

* BrokenAesop: Despite ''Explores the Age of Dinosaurs'' pointing out the theory that birds are dinosaurs, the MiniGame Dino Madness has a turkey and a ostrich as correct answers for the "That's Not a Dinosaur" questions. Made especially when ''Archaeopteryx'' is correctly identified as a dinosaur.