The art design carefully walks the line between cartoonish and life-like. The game calls to mind Kinectimals, another Frontier Developments game in which you play with impossibly cute baby animals. The game can be played in its entirety with a controller, but I supplemented the controller with the occasional Kinect-based animal interaction because I'm a sucker for hand-feeding giraffes - even if I know deep down they're just artwork and lines of code.Ĭo-workers cooed at the many soul-smotheringly sweet moments that happened with newborn rhinos and bear cubs. With Kinect, you can feed the animals, wash the animals and make faces at the animals and oh my gosh they make faces back it's so cute I'm just going to die. The tycoon character exists to help you better engage with the park and its dozens of creatures.
Zoo Tycoon's best trick, and the reason I enjoyed playing it in a big room with lots of people, is the ability to switch at any time into a third-person character - a zoo tycoon, if you will - and roam the park you've constructed. While squinting on the couch, it was easy to imagine the game would be more enjoyable at a desk. The design calls to mind simulation games on PC. The screen is often overtaken by tiny pop-up updates written in tinier text not ideal for a television screen. Using the simple menu system and a circular cursor, you select a new display or restroom or concession stand and plant it wherever you'd like on a flat grassy map, gradually creating a sprawl of restrained wildlife. Much of the work can be done from an omniscient, birds-eye-view.