Adibou (English: Adiboo) is an educational video gaming series first developed by Coktel Vision in the 1990s. The franchise expanded into comic books, music and television series (such as Adiboo Adventure (2009)[1]). Titles in the series follow Adiboo, a young alien who teaches children about a variety of topics including nature, maths, and language. Most stories are set in the world of Celesta.
The series is divided into different categories based on target market: Adi for 10-14 year-olds, Adibou for 4-7 year-olds, and Adiboud'chou for 18 months-3 year-olds,[2] and characters have different names in different regions. The name Adibou is derived from the French acronym ADI meaning Accompagnement Didacticiel Intelligent (English: Intelligent Accompaniment Tutorial). Adibou games are now supported by ScummVM's "Gob" engine.[3][4]
The series was created by Roland Oskian, CEO of Coktel Vision and the brains behind the original Adibou concept as well as coordinator of the game's development; Manuelle Mauger, who managed the development of the content; Arnaud Delrue, responsible for the game's technical development; and Joseph Kluytmans, who was responsible for the visual quality of the universe. The games were designed specifically to be applicable within a classroom context.[citation needed]
In October 2005, Coktel Studio was sold by Vivendi Universal Games International to French publisher Mindscape which itself closed in 2011.[5][6] More than a dozen titles were published until 2009 when the series went dormant.[7]
Following the closure of Mindscape, the IP rights to Adibou were sold to Ubisoft, and in 2020, French company Wiloki, an educational start-up founded by the children of Adibou creator Roland Oskian, partnered with Ubisoft to revive the character. In May 2022, Wiloki released a brand new title titled Adibou: La Chanson d'Adibou for browser, iOS and Android under their partnership with Ubisoft.[8]
The new version of the game is now available in French, English and German.
This list is far from complete; there were dozens of titles in the series, some more documented than others.
An animated series, Adibou: Aventure dans le corps humain (Adiboo Adventure), aired on French channels France 5 and TiJi, each of the 40 episodes usually lasting around 5 minutes.
Referring to AJ's World of Discovery, Feibel felt there were better run and jump games available[19] whereas Jeuxvideo argued that Adibou games were a good option for children but were too short.[20] The Argus praised the series for its music but criticised its "daft" title.[21] PC Mag praised Adiboo: Discover Nature, Animals & Planets for offering educational content and "hours of entertainment".[22]
By 1997, the series had sold over 1.5 million copies.[23] Today, the series is inactive and little in-depth information exists online apart from a few Let's Play series and articles.