Oh man, even more, tycoon simulators! This week we also previewed the new Park Beyond, the new spiritual successor to Rollercoaster. Let’s Build A Zoo is a spiritual successor to Zoo Tycoon. It’s a great game and concept – just not on the Nintendo Switch. But let’s review it anyway since the game deserves its love!
So, I said Zoo Tycoon, right? Let’s Build A Zoo combines Zoo Tycoon and Jurassic Park (without the dinos, since I played the version without the DLC). In It’s time to Build a Zoo, you can construct and decorate enclosures, buy and breed animals, hire zookeepers and vets, try your hand at DNA splicing, and stitch together over 500,000 different types of animals. But, of course, this can only go smoothly… We still haven’t learned anything after six movies, have we?
Management With A Twist
Let’s Build A Zoo is right up your alley if you like cozy management games with decorating, animals, and cheeky/dark jokes. The story mode keeps the game exciting and challenges you to think outside the box. You can go full positive and happy zookeeper, but if you want, you can milk the zoo for as much money as possible and become a dark overlord zookeeper. I’m bad at playing the bad guy – so I opted for building a beautiful and animal-friendly Zoo instead of a money grab. But that’s all up to you, just like in Fable!
What makes Let’s Build a Zoo special as a game is that it lets you import a variety of animals from other Zoos worldwide! Breed your animals and start families to expand your wildlife and fill your enclosures. But if that doesn’t suit you… you could create animals instead! As I mentioned at the beginning, the game features DNA splicing. With DNA splicing at your fingertips, you have the power to bind together over 500,000 different types of animals, creating monstrosities and oddities as you go. Ever wondered what a ChicKaka would look like? Now you can find out!
Downside
I thoroughly enjoyed the game until I got near the end. Then, the story/challenges got repetitive, and it became more of a “let’s see how many animals I’ll need to donate today not to have my zoo overflowing” game. I see the benefit in having the animals breed quickly so that you can unlock different variations and new animals, but it got old fast. It got to a point where nearly half of my time playing the game was spent flipping a switch to make animals infertile and donating extras, and it got annoying enough that I didn’t even finish unlocking all the animal types. I almost wish the animals were born sterile, and you had to flip the switch to allow them to breed, but obviously, that’s not realistic.
Switch vs. PC
This game needs to be played with a mouse and keyboard. I agree with the developers that the demographic for such a game is found on the Nintendo Switch, but it doesn’t work in the current control scheme. Placement needs to be precise, which doesn’t work with this game and the Nintendo Switch. Sorry, but Kairosoft nailed this down to perfection and featured the same gameplay elements (even though Let’s Build A Zoo is more extensive). It’s a great game, but it’s probably better on a different platform – which kind of sucks since I wanted to give this game an 8, but the controls held down my fun with the game; so don’t be discouraged, play it – don’t play it on the Switch.
