Math Rescue

Math Rescue
Genre(s)	Educational, platform game
Year of Release	1992
Platform(s)	DOS
Developer(s)	Redwood Games
Publisher(s)	Apogee Software
Official Website	http://www.3drealms.com/math/index.html

Math Rescue is an educational, platform game created by Redwood Games and published in 1992 by Apogee Software for the DOS operating system. It was released in three episodes, the first one being a shareware release whilst the final two requiring a payment.

Plot

A bone-chilling crisis has struck the world! Reports are pouring in from all corners of the globe: Missing numbers!

Numbers were missing from speed limit signs and the frantic highway patrolmen couldn’t stop speeders.
On Wall Street, stock brokers were throwing up their hands in despair. The Dow Jones wasn’t down, and it wasn’t up, it was gone!
Your own mother has closed herself in the bathroom and won’t come out because her paycheck is inexplicably blank.
You start to call your best friend, but the buttons on your phone are blank, and you can’t remember your friend’s number!
Where will it end?!
Glancing out the window, you suddenly freeze with horror. A creature that looks like a giant nose with arms is standing in your driveway!
Its stealing the numbers off your street address and loading them into a robot controlled garbage truck!
Speechless with shock and rage, you point a quivering finger...
Before you can say, “Mystic Intervention”, a huge butterfly appears in the air and dumps a bucket of slime on the nose.
In a flash it disappears!
You have discovered the secret to stopping the number stealers!
Grabbing a nearby garbage can lid for protection, and hoping the butterfly will continue to help you, you embark on your mission to recover the stolen numbers and outwit the mysterious aliens.
Yes, the fate of the world as we know it is in your hands!

— Math Rescue instruction manual

Game options

At the beginning of the game the player was asked to enter their name and to choose whether they were a boy or a girl. The player then chose a difficulty mode of either easy, medium or hard.

Easy mode was aimed at players aged four to seven. It allowed the player to leave a level after only collecting ten icons, and it also gave the player a slime for every problem they solved. The Gruzzles were not very good at chasing the player in this mode, and did not return when they had been slimed.

Medium mode was aimed at players aged seven to ten. Players had to collect all of the icons on a level in order to move on, but it still gave the player a slime for every problem they solved. The Gruzzles had slightly improved AI in this mode, but still did not return once they had been slimed.

Hard mode was aimed at players aged ten and over. As with medium mode players had to collect all of the icons on a level to move on, but they only received a slime for every other puzzle that they solved. The Gruzzles had significantly improved AI in this mode, and reappeared a short time after being slimed.

Following this the player was able to choose whether they should only be given addition problems, or only be given subtraction problems, or be given a mix of the two. In the second and third episodes multiplication and division problems were also available.

The final decision was on word problems. Players could choose to have no word problems, half word problems or all word problems. They could also choose to skip all of the problems and just play the game, however parents and teachers could choose to permanently disable this option.