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Lions and T-Rex and Dolphins, oh my!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I love this game and so do my kids. this is the best sim in my opinion. every time you play it it's different because you decide if your zoo is top rate or could use some work. I love to watch you animals and of course i love the baby animals.
But save your money and buy the complete edition that comes with the two expansion packs so you don't fork out the 25.00 each for the expansion packs when for the price of one you can get all three.

Excellent, addictive game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Fans of Roller Coaster Tycoon will certainly enjoy this game. It is full of the addictiveness and is just as fun. If not, it is funner! Build roads, animal houses, shops, and food stands to make customer's happy. Buy rocks, trees, 15 different cage styles, shelters, and terrain types so your animals will squeal with delight. You can chooses missions, which have set goals and times, or try freeform. SimCity players will enjoy the freeform mode. THis game also has many cheats and easter eggs, which I know many of you appreciate. If you are a simulation person, then this is the game to get!

If you like the Sims, you're gonna love this.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I really wish I hadn't bought this game. Why? Because it is sooo addictive that I can't stop playing it. The scenarios teach you the basics and free-form allows you to create a beautiful zoo or a terror filled zoo of havoc. And to make it even better, you can download new stuff from Microsoft. (I still haven't figured out what to do with the yeti - anitsocial beast won't come out of its cave.)

The fun has just begun.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: March 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I think Microsoft made a wise choice creating Zoo Tycoon. You know your going to have fun by just looking at the box. You can build so much stuff like trees, Food shops, Restrooms and on and on and on but what I really like about the game is that you can change the terrain type in the exhibits and I also like the great selection of animals their are I would have never guessed they would have so many animals like Giant Panda's, Black Leopard's, Red Kangaroos, African Elephants and 45 other animals. Also one of the fun things about the game is that your animals can escape. For me that is the best thing Microsoft came up with in Zoo Tycoon.

With animals to take care of you also have to manage the biggest problem of all Your Guests! If animals are not happy then fewer people will want to come to your park and if your animals escape people will be to scared to come to your Zoo. And remember the bigger and nicer the zoo the more money and visitors you'll get.

So if your looking for something to do on a Saturday afternoon then get Zoo Tycoon you'll be guaranteed to have fun in no time.

It's great

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I love this game!!!!!!! I got it for Christmas and I play it all the time. What I usually do is make a zoo one day and show it to my family the next. It teaches me about animals; it teaches me about their habbitats and what they eat. It showed me some animals I had never seen or heard about. This is the best game ever!!!!!!!!

An absolute joy! :)

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: December 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Unlike some tycoon games which are a bit too tedious and require a lot of time and patience, Zoo Tycoon is so easy to get into and very entertaining and enjoyable fun for all ages.

It has it's flaws (don't most games?!) but at the end of the day, I haven't played a game this enjoyable for a long time.

Build your zoo, look after it, keep the animals happy and get funding to buy the more rarer animals...
The animals look and sound great even though they are very small graphics (A sequel could improve on this and allow to take a closer look at them, and maybe an even more bigger variety of animals)...

At the end of the day, Zoo Tycoon is one of those games which make you wonder why they don't make more of this sort of thing...

Highly recommended! :)

Cute, Fun and Easy to Control

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: March 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

What a cute game! If you don't know, it's a Sim game based on creating a zoo that inhabitable for animals and fun for adults. It's a little more realistic than the usual park games and not so tedious, either.

First the good: the graphics aren't too bad -- they're just not like Quake. The animals are very cute and when they have babies they're just adorable. You have a number of additions to your zoo to decorate and entertain your audience. Speaking of guests, that's probably one of the better points of the game. In playing SimRollercoaster, I got very sick of how repetitious it was to send guards after delinquents almost every 5 minutes (meaning, it was just expected after awhile and got very boring.) Here, the guests act more like guests. You don't have mass riots break out (unless an animal escapes, obviously) and the most of you have to worry about is bathrooms and food stands. Once that's in place, it's easier to concentrate on your exhibits rather than the fact that guest #1245 is pissed because there isn't any drink stand within 10 feet of him (although there's one 15 feet away.) This isn't the case at all. The guests roam around, take photos and buy stuff without vomiting or getting angry (like the system tells it to.) It's a little more realistic and fun to play.

On the program itself, I was VERY surprised how well it loaded and how fast! First thing it did was scan my system (quickly) to make sure I was compatible. Usually with games, I have to run some type of diagnostic within the game disc, but this was different. Also, it loaded within 10 seconds. Most of the time, the games I buy take a full minute (such as the Sims or American McGee's Alice which takes a minutes inbetween boards) I barely have time to grab a drink before it says: What do you want to do?

The downsides would be some of the glitches. Very few, mind you, but they can be annoying. I find that the keepers have a hard time walking -- period. They sometimes walk in place for a second and my exhibits fill up with "poo" that they neglect to clean up right away. But, I'm expecting a patch which I'm sure they'll put out sometime soon. Otherwise, it runs just fine. Makes sense, though if you think about it, here's a software company putting out a game that is directly compatible with their platform. Who better to put out a game than a programming company?

All in all, cute game. Very much an "artsy" type of Sim game where the player concentrates on the look and management of the park rather than the rides. Pretty fun.

Not as great as I thought

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: January 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Maybe that is my problem, I purchased this game with high expectations. I am a very big fan of Roller Coaster Tycoon, both RCT 1, 2 and both expansions, but Zoo Tycoon is not a fun. First of all the staff members have less control. Your maintenance people (they are the ones in charge of making your park look nice), tend to have a mind of their own. Some of the animals are impossible to please. I will add that the game is more challenging. Roller Coaster Tycoon is all about the guests. You're job is to make you park work nice, and if you do things correctly the roller coasters don't complain about not having enough to eat or that they need more work done on them, or they are feeling crowded by too many guests. The animals however are easily upset, difficult to take care of and it's very easy to forget about your guests and worry only about your animals. That makes the game a little more interactive, you have to work extremely hard to make sure you're zoo is productive, the staff and zookeepers are also more expensive. You have to worry about the animals reproducing, (don't worry mom and dad there are no graphics for that the babies just appear), lest the animals grow to large for their enclosure. In my opinion that is what makes the game more fun than it's sister, Roller Coaster Tycoon.

One of the big downsides (at least in my opinion) is that their is no winning. In Roller Coaster Tycoon you have objectives and each scenario is different or more difficult. In Zoo you pick your own level of difficulty, but there is no way to really win. I am very competitive and for me there has to be closure. I currently have a zoo that has been open for ten years, it's completely developed and I have over a million dollars, I started with only 10k, what else do I need to do to win? Needless to say I have lost intrest in that park and only bring it up and use it when I am bored.

There is a fairly good sized variety of animals and you never run out, it's fun to make your guests happy and make money, you also get to see the private donations that your exhibit attracts and that is quite fun as well. Overall I am glad that I own it, but I most definatley will not be buying the expansion packs. It's a fun family game that really can capture you for 2-3 hours and it's seems like you just started to play. Overall fun game

3 Stars

Microsoft goes zoological

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: January 28, 2002
Author: Amazon User

"Zoo Tycoon," an absorbing game, requires you to become the entrepreneur of a zoo as grand or as simplistic as you want to make it. Instantly intrigued with the base concept of this game, I purchased this game and have been very satisfied with it over the past two months. Within an hour, you can play this game easily, and start creating your own zoos, using the various "freeform" game and terrain styles available. The essential concept of "Zoo Tycoon," is one that gives you a set amount of starting cash to build a few initial exhibits and some concession stands, and then supposedly you can start watching the money roll in, which can then be used to build additional exhibits and attractions. A few notes of caution, should be offered, though. The "intermediate" level of the "free-form" games starts you out with a grass-terrain zoo and seventy-five thousand dollars. (Your zoo can be given cash awards to help increase cash. A lot of money is also generated from the sales at foods stands, gift shops, and even donations from guests and organizations.) You can build exhibits using a variety of fencing, animals, trees, and terrains, but the fastidious animals become very unhappy if you construct their exhibits cheaply, resulting in exhibits that end up costing upwards of thirty thousand dollars. Animals require zoo keepers to feed and maintain their exhibits. Zoo employees receive salaries, all which subtract from your cash pile. To keep your guests satisfied and your zoo beautified, maintenance workers and tour guides must be hired. There are a plethora of structures and scenery that can be purchased to enhance, embellish, and increase the revenue of your burgeoning zoo, but some of it can be expensive. Every few months, additional animals and structures are added to those you can have in your zoo (until the end of the first year), but you must research to access animals like giant pandas and okapi. A variety of diverse exhibits can be created, from the salt-water California sea lions to lions to giraffes to elephants to wolves and polar bears. Animals reproduce and scamper about their exhibits happily or angrily, depending on their quality of their care and suitability of their exhibit.

Overall, "Zoo Tycoon," is a very engrossing game, that allows you to put your creative skills to play in the creation of a zoo. Although keeping both animals and guests satisfied can get annoying at times, "Zoo Tycoon," is a great game that I really enjoy. Some negative points include the scenarios which really aren't nearly as fun and enjoyable compared to the "free-form games," the fact that to build expansive zoos a fast computer is required, and that staff members aren't always as intuitive and responsive as they could be. Enjoyable, realistic, and creative, "Zoo Tycoon," is a good game choice if you're looking for something new or another ingenious offering from Microsoft.

Snoozer-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 10 / 15
Date: December 16, 2002
Author: Amazon User

People say one of the drawbacks for this game is--because it is too much like Roller Coaster Tycoon. However, I, a lover of almost all simulation games and Roller Coaster Tycoon, I disliked this game. Unless you find the concept exciting, do NOT buy this game.

Unlike Roller Coaster Tycoon the scenarios are much more boring and broad and after a while (for me, two or three hours) the game became monotanous and boring. It was definately not worth the money and now it is sitting on a quiet dusty shelf.

Also, unlike Roller Coaster Tycoon this game appeals to younger age groups. My friend's on (12 yrs. old) loves this game with a passion.

So to conclude, I would only recommend buying this game if.....

-The idea of building a zoo appeals to you.

-If, you are not buying for youself, primarily younger people will take an interest in this.

-You don't mind a somewhat monotonous game play.

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