The numbers next to the animals mean how many you own.

Dear readers, I’ve not forgotten about y’all… it’s just that nothing was really worth writing about. Until now….

But first, I want to tell y’all what I did over the holidays. I made my first visit to the San Diego Zoo. OMG, I loved it! The animals, the park, the air…everything was great. So, I’ve been thinking, “why isn’t there a zoo game on Facebook?” It turns out, there is one (and a few others that are really poorly developed). Apparently, I was just a little behind the craze. Zoo World, developed by RockYou!, has reached over 13 million monthly active users in just six months. Well, I’ve been playing Zoo World for a few weeks now. So far, Zoo World has been an okay game… but the game is a little too simple so it lacks excitements… I mean, nothing really stands out.

Players are given a small zoo land in the beginning.

Overall, the game is pretty easy to pick up. However, the flash layout of this game is not efficient at all. Unlike other popular social games’ flash design, Zoo World isn’t designed in one main flash screen. There are tabs for the different activities. When you want to buy animals/items for your zoo, you’d have to go to a separate tab, and then you’d have to go back to you zoo page and place them in your zoo. Also, there’s a tab for sending gifts to your friends; there’s a home page tab where you can track your zoo achievement status and your recent activities; and there’s a tab for breeding animals. Sometimes extra clicks/buttons can help users navigate through the game space, but in Zoo World, they are poorly designed. It’s a waste of time to go back and forth between tabs and wait for the pages to reload.

Gameplay in Zoo World is simple: you buy animals and items (like food stands and restrooms) to fill up your zoo; you hire friends and workers to take care of your animals and stands; and you earn zoo money by having visitors. In turn, your zoo will be graded upon these categories. As long as you follow what the game wants you to buy, you’re guaranteed to get an A. Similar to games like Country Story, Zoo World has tasks that you can perform in order to gain bigger land. These tasks — like buying a small tree or changing your zoo ticket price — are there to help you get familiar with the game. They appear on the top of your game screen. But unlike Country Story, where I’d get missions and game updates from the mayor of my farm-town, Zoo World lacks that connection between the player and the game. Both game wants players to achieve something, but Country Story does a better inviting job than Zoo World.

One thing I like about this game is that earning zoo money is relatively easy. Visiting and finding daily treasures in your friends’ zoos will give you enough money to buy a few animals each day. The more animal species you collect, the more you will unlock. But, (like many other social games), special items are costly. All the extinct/mystical animals, special decorative items, and additional zoo layouts are NOT purchasable with zoo money. They require Wildlife points, LOTS of Wildlife points. Most of these special animals cost over $10 a piece. (Yes, that’s how much you’d have to pay to get the Wildlife points you need!) I’d love to show off my zoo with a phoenix, a Dodo bird, and a Brontosaurus on a pretty butterfly island. But sorry, the prices are just too ridiculously high. I’d way rather spend $10 on an animal sipper from the San Diego Zoo.

The tabs are the menu for this game.

As for the graphics in the game, they are rendered in nice pastoral colors with nice details. The cute and cartoony graphic style is friendly and inviting, which is nice to look at. However, I do think that the game can use some animated features. Zoo World is just too static for me. It’s lacking that excitement when I open up Restaurant City — seeing animated avatars busy serving costumers and seeing customers using toilets. Right now, there are two things that move in my zoo: my zoo visitors and my bald eagle. I’d love to see the animals roar, jump, and even poop. It’d be great if the developer would spice things up a bit. Isn’t that what going to the zoo is all about? Seeing the animals do funny things?

Dear Zoo World, too bad you’re not the exciting-and-full-with-greatness kinda game I was looking for. You are a good mindless game, but just not very attractive. Seriously, you have lots catching up to do before you can be as good as the San Diego Zoo.

Report Card:
C-

Exceeded Expectations
+ An overall pretty easy game to pick up. Nothing too complicated or confusing.
+ Earning zoo money is relatively easy and stress-free (which is a BIG PLUS for me!)
+ Zoo World does a good job being educational too. Clicking on the animals in your zoo, you’ll find a fun fact about each of the animals.

Needs Improvement
- The basic application for the game can be improved into one main Flash screen instead of the different tabs.
- It annoys me how hard and slow it is to earn Wildlife points without real money (you earn one point per level achieved); and yet, to buy these special animals (and most cost over 65 Wildlife a piece), can cost a fortune if I were to pay with real money!
- Not much customization in this game. Everyone gets the same map layout (unless you want to pay extra money for fancy ones). Limited selection of zoo items (i.e. food stands, trees, trash cans…etc.). I’d like to see more themed items… so players can creatively decorate their zoos.
- The idea of breeding is good; however, players can only breed limited numbers of animals and most of them are those extinct/rare/mystical animals.