"Turtle Trails"

“Turtle Trails is the new exciting puzzle game for Android that trains your brain. Help the turtle find its way through the jungle with a minimum of moves.”

Turtle Trails is a free game for Android and is available from the Google Play Store, Amazon Digital Services, and other vendors. The goal of the game is to guide Jim Turtle to his destination in the fewest possible moves. There are six “jungle creatures” that can block Jim’s way: Leo Lion, Baby Turtle, Charly C., Hugo Hippo, Spence Spider, and Mick Monkey.

The animals are shown as gentle cartoons, but Charly C. is the classic human “savage” caricature. This caricature has long been a popular depiction of Africans or any other indigenous people of color who are considered uncivilized. The savage is sometimes depicted as a cannibal, but the game description assures us that “Charly may look scary with his large fork. He is, however, a peace-loving vegetarian.”

Turtle Trails was created by Scynolion, a German company, with the tagline “keep on thinking.” But what ideas are trained into the brain when children and others play a game that feature a black man as a savage jungle creature?

Link to Turtle Trails game (accessed 01/22/2022)

Product Description

"Turtle Trails is the new exciting puzzle game for Android that trains your brain.

The goal is move Jim Turtle from the start point to the destination.
It’s trickier than it sounds. Jim Turtle can only move along his own trails.
The other things you and Jim have to consider are all of the jungle creatures. Only one creature can be moved at a time and only along its own trail. Turtle Trails is a brainteaser that is not only fun, it was also expertly designed to be tricky enough to keep your brain active as you maneuver Jim Turtle through the jungle in as few moves as possible."