When comparing Hack 'n' Slash vs Zoombinis, the Slant community recommends Hack 'n' Slash for most people. In the question“What are the best educational games on PC?” Hack 'n' Slash is ranked 15th while Zoombinis is ranked 18th. The most important reason people chose Hack 'n' Slash is:
Players can use their hacking abilities to subvert their enemies instead of just using a traditional weapon like a sword. For instance a user can plug into a rock in a level and reprogram the code of the rock to allow for it to be moved and how many spaces. It is an intuitive way to interact with objects and solve the puzzles in the game.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Intuitively uses coding as a main mechanic
Players can use their hacking abilities to subvert their enemies instead of just using a traditional weapon like a sword. For instance a user can plug into a rock in a level and reprogram the code of the rock to allow for it to be moved and how many spaces. It is an intuitive way to interact with objects and solve the puzzles in the game.
Pro Writing is clever and funny
Like the majority of Double Fine games, Hack 'n' Slash is very cleverly written with humor similar to the Adventure Time series and many jokes referencing the old Legend of Zelda cartoon. This is definitely something for those that get the references of its origins.
Pro Allows you to break the game
The game does not restrict or prevent the player from experimenting, and breaking the game (crashing it) is a common result. It's simple to load back to a previous point in the game and try again with a different strategy.
Pro Teaches logic in an approachable fashion
Each puzzle is a logic exercise, most utilizes the difference in appearances of the zoombinis (in a "guess who" fashion). Others are more varied, like process of elimination (guess what the gatekeepers want on their pizza), state machines (get the zoombinis through the active maze), etc. Most puzzles are very intuitive, yet all require a logic based approach to succeed.
Pro Various logic puzzles
Pro Great for teaching logic to young children
Although parental guidance is better than kids just "punching their way out of a paper bag", the puzzles are fun and engaging, and simple to explain. This creates a perfect environment to teach children deductive reasoning.
Cons
Con Design seems lazy at times
Things like a poorly designed map or often not knowing where to go which leads to back tracking that may not even help makes for frustrating play. Really it comes off as lazy more than a design decision.
Con Might become too difficult for very young children
Although the puzzles have simple solutions at the beginning, each round/playthrough, the difficulty increases. The difficulty increases the farther you progress. Becomes quite challenging after a while, so younger children may struggle.