The Illogical Journey of the Zambonis is a dark parody of the Logical Journey of the Zoombinis released by Noyb in 2014.
Long ago, humans and zambonis co-exist peacefully. However, a political faction who hates the zambonis rise to power. Facing exile under the threat of death, the zambonis have to migrate away, hoping to find a new home just for them.
Download the game to play here
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WARNING: Unmarked spoilers below!
Tropes in the Game:
- All Trolls Are Different: The pizza troll appears in the game. Unlike the original game counterpart, he has a typical appearance of a troll (hairy, inverted fangs). Also unlike the original game counterpart, he has a violent tendency and will kill those who bring pizza in a wrong combination.
- Asshole Victim: The troll killed too many zambonis for serving him pizza with wrong toppings, leading the rest of the group killing him.
- Bottomless Pits: Three "puzzles" involve very high pits that the zambonis who fail them will fall into.
- Cruel Twist Ending: The end of the game, where the two zambonis who survive the four puzzles finally make it to what they assume is a home… except it's full of racist humans who shoot them dead, rendering them extinct.
- Deconstruction Game: Of Trial-and-Error Gameplay. The "puzzles" are rigged so you always fail a set amount of times before succeeding, no matter what you choose, and the narration illustrates the mental toll of being faced with completely unpredictable death.
- Developer's Foresight:
- Once you reach the fork in the road, trying to go back yields another narration.
Narrator: There is no turning back. Pizza is a finite resource. The vending machine cannot sustain a village in the long term, even if it weren't the site of many painful memories. Returning to the boat means passing once more by the stone faces, who will surely take the opportunity to kill more of their party. If some zambonis do reach the boat, where would they even go? Their homeland must be here, somewhere beyond this arterial bifurcation.- Also, you get more narration if you try to restart the game after reaching the end.
Narrator: I see you wish to start anew? Well, I’m not going to stop you, but I will ask you to reconsider. If you feel unhappy with the way things transpired, please own those feelings. Do not dwell on "what ifs" and "if onlys", for no one can change the past. If you feel angry, let that anger inform your future actions. But for now: Accept that what happened happened, and that we can only move forward from this fixed point in time. - Once you reach the fork in the road, trying to go back
- Does Not Like Spam: The pizza troll has certain toppings that he hate. Problem is, he won't specify which when you overload the pizza content- and, in fact, like all the other puzzles, there is no solution.
- Downer Ending: No matter what you do, all of the zambonis are going to die.
- Dwindling Party: As the game progresses, the zambonis lose more and more of their kind until there are none left.
- "Everyone Dies" Ending: The game ends with every single zamboni in the party dead, their "Illogical Journey" being meaningless. They were doomed from the start.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: More like everything will kill the zambonis- even the ending.
- Floating in a Bubble: This supposed to allow your zambonis to cross this version of Bubblewonder Abyss. Unfortunately for one of them who tried, it's a trap that causes him to go through an eternal loop.
- Grid Puzzle: There is a puzzle based on Mudball Wall, except the results are already scripted regardless of what color and shape combination you enter.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: One of the zambonis killed by the pizza troll was described to be halved.
- Jerkass:
- This game's version of the Allergic Cliffs, as it seems as if they’re not holding back when they sneeze, unlike the original ones. The zambonis outright try to convince them to stop after they kill a few of them by sneezing and sending them into the abyss below, but they prove to be unreasonable, arguing that they’ve lived so long that they don’t care about if anyone dies.
- Also, compare this version's pizza troll to Arno and his friends from the original. While the originals do attack the Zoombinis if they get the combination wrong, they have a certain amount of times they would tolerate mistakes before they do it, and they never intend to kill them. This version, however, kills the zambonis for getting the combination wrong, and even kills two of them right away.
- Karma Houdini: The Allergic Cliffs and the humans at the end. At least the pizza troll died.
- Non-Indicative Name: Zamboniville, as the survivors realized too late, is a place filled with humans who hate Zambonis.
- Railroading: Once you reach the fork in the road, the first path you pick will always lead to the Bubblewonder Abyss, regardless of which path you pick.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The zambonis' effort in finding a new place come to naught when all of them eventually die.
- Stylistic Suck: The game's artstyle is a very crude mishmash of assets.
- Ungrateful Bastard: The thanks the zambonis get for bringing the troll pizza? He kills some of them for bringing the wrong flavor combination.
- Yank the Dog's Chain:
- As lampshaded by the narrator, just as you thought you have guided a zamboni across the Bubblewonder Abyss successfully...
Narrator: Poor zamboni. Poor, hopeful zamboni. This system was designed for zambonis to use, but not for their benefits. The moment freedom is in reach, this cruel machine changes its criteria, leaving its captive adrift. Stranded, but in motion, perpetually allowing for a sliver of hope, a hope rooted in an assumption that movement implies progress and that a zamboni needs only wait for the system to let him pass. It never will. This system ensnares zambonis, shunting them from checkpoint to capricious checkpoint until, finally, the zamboni either runs out of air or the waning surface tension of the bubble causes it to burst. The trapped zamboni cries for the others to join him, for it will surely not be long now before he makes landfall. But his friends have no way to reach him without entering the system themselves. There is nothing they can do for him now.- And yet again at the end of the game, when the remaining zambonis arrive at Zamboniville, only to realize too late what kind of place it really is.
- You Can't Fight Fate: Try to start the game again after completing it and the narrator tells you that trying again isn’t going to change anything- the zambonis will always die in the same way and there is nothing you can to change that.
- Zerg Rush: How the remaining zambonis defeat the troll despite each being weaker than him.
