Over the years I’ve tried a few times to get into different types of management games, yet never found myself sticking with them. Most of the time I end up confused as to why I’m doing badly and unable to find anything in-game to clue me ins, so just stop playing. Let’s Build a Zoo! however seems to have something special about it which has truly hooked me.
As you may expect from the title, Let’s Build a Zoo is a game about collecting animals, satisfying paying customers and generally running a wildlife park. Unlike many of the genre’s contemporaries – which root themselves in micromanagement and business savvy ala 1999’s Rollercoaster Tycoon – LBaZ takes a more relaxed and whimsical approach to the genre, harking back to the whimsy and absurdity of 1994’s Theme Park instead. Whilst less mechanically complex than many other zoo games, LBaZ oozes with more charm and character than you would ever find in it’s competitors.
You start off as an aspiring entrepreneur with a large wad of cash, an empty plot of land and two rabbits and build your zoo from there. As you would expect, this isn’t a narrative-heavy game, instead focusing on your attraction’s own trials and tribulations, but there are still some interesting encounters which can affect that story. The most significant element which sets LBaZ apart from others is the morality meter, which tracks how “good” your zoo is. Making choices which are seen as positive, like being environmentally savvy, releasing animals into the wild, reuniting lost pets with their owners, selling high-quality produce and donating to good causes all build “good” points, which unlock new buildings which follow that theme – wind turbines, recycling bins etc. On the other hand, choosing to dress geese up as peacocks, reanimating dead animals, selling coffee made exclusively from faeces and pumping sewage into the river unlock more “evil” options, such as slaughterhouses. You really need to choose one way or the other early to reap the benefits, but I found this system to be both engaging and hilarious at times. There are a lot of opportunities to feel like a true ZOO-pervillian and it felt only right to relish them. This, alongside the myriad of flavourful and zany tasks and requests which came from various characters made me feel truly invested in my zoo and the story of how it came to be. Frankly, to do that to someone like me is a momentous achievement.
My only gripe with the morality system was how much was locked off by choosing a certain path, and the inability to have a second career zoo on my save essentially meant that the only way to unlock those facilities was to completely pivot my existing zoo – and considering how invested I was in my first location, that simply wasn’t going to happen.
The day-to-day gameplay is all about designing your area and getting new animals, whilst also researching new facilities, decorations and tools. Your animals grow in number by breeding and, as they do, you can find up to ten different variants of each animal. New animals are offered for trade daily and by giving up either a specific type of animal or a specific variant you can receive a breeding pair to add to your roster. Slowly, your zoo will build the variety of animals it holds and you’ll be able to expand. There are also a number of facilities which can help with this loop – such as the breeding facility where you can encourage a particular pair to reproduce, sometimes yielding new variants ready for trade. With a selection of 60+ animals to find and with each having 10 variants, you’ll be searching for new breeds for quite a while. Obviously animals also require feeding, so you’ll also be hiring zoo keepers and managing the food they’re given to maximise either profit or animal welfare.
Unfortunately, simply being an excellent zookeeper doesn’t make the money you’ll need to maintain your growing facility. The other side of the gameplay revolves around visitors and keeping them engaged and spending within your walls. There are a lot of elements which can affect this, from their tiredness and how pretty they find the zoo to simply how much cash they’re carrying – obviously you don’t accept card…for some reason? You’ll need to carefully place your shops, toilets, bins, seating and subways to ensure they have a great time and want to spend their hard-earned money. There are also countless other changes which you can make to maximise this – from the materials souvenirs are made from to how much salt – which increases thirst – is on your fries. Many of these are fine to be left as they are, but depending on how deep you want to go you can personalise most aspects of your shops and restaurants to improve your yield. There are lots of other things I could detail, such as how you can farm crops to help feed your animals or customise the number of buses, janitors and undertakers you employ, but in short there’s simply a huge number of things you can micromanage if you choose to. Some are more essential than others but all can make a meaningful impact if you choose to engage with them, and I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve enjoyed playing so much. I don’t really care about micromanaging how much chilli is in my tacos but love ensuring my animals have the right mix of nutrients, and in LBaZ that’s fine – you can choose how you spend your time rather than being forced to work with things you have no interest in.
Personally, my favourite aspect was decorating and designing, and thankfully there are a lot of options to choose from in that regard. Yes, the initial selection is low but as you get further in you can customise your zoo to your heart’s content. I decided on a Disney-style layout, with areas themed to match certain environments circling my central main street and a giant decorative lake. The grid-based system allowed for a lot of fiddling with enclosure sizes and pathways and I never got bored of adding new trees, lighting options and buildings to my park. My only issue here was to do with the Switch version specifically, but I’ll go into that in my performance section.
With all this in mind, I must admit that playing LBaZ does feels like juggling at times. There is a constant need to keep an eye on ticket prices, animal happiness, staffing levels and a myriad of other things. If your prices are too low you’ll be bugged by the interface to heighten them, if an enclosure is blocked you’ll be made to feel like it’s the end of the world, and god forbid if you don’t have a water system close enough to an enclosure or enough little balls in one to keep your critters occupied. To be specific though, it feels like juggling two fabric balls filled with rice, whereas other management games often expect you to keep control of fifteen flaming knives blindfolded with one arm tied behind your back. There is always a lot going on, but whilst it’s all important none of it is truly world-ending. As far as I’m aware it’s practically impossible to fail in LBaZ and frankly that’s what I need from a management sim. Your aim isn’t to survive, it’s to thrive and improve and the fun is in doing so and seeing your park expand.
A final interesting mechanic I’d like to mention is the CRISPR facility – which allows you to either clone or cross-splice your animals. Cloning gives you the ability to create a new specimen of any animal or variant you’ve previously housed, which was pretty handy when somebody wanted a certain rabbit variant and I no longer housed any! Splicing allows you to slap two animals together, resulting in something with the head of one and the body of the other. These monstrosities can’t breed (thankfully,) but guests love them and there are thousands of potential hybrids to discover if you choose to.
Whilst the graphical design of LBaZ is simplistic by modern standards, the pixel-art aesthetic looks great on the Switch. The overall look is clean, clear and whimsical, reflecting the tone of the game but also maximising readability. I do sometimes wish that animals had more animation to them and that there was an option to temporarily hide visitors, but these are minor in the scheme of things. This minimalist design also extends to the audio aspects of LBaZ, with only a few tracks to hear and occasional sound effects related to your actions or the contents of your zoo, but if anything the simplicity of it added to my concentration whilst playing. I’ll admit to eventually listening to podcasts whilst playing instead of the game’s audio, but I think that’s something that most players end up doing eventually in most management sims in all honesty.
With all that said, and despite my love for this game, there are two big problem with it on Switch. Performance and controls. After a while, the framerate starts to tank, with daytime play becoming a slideshow. There have been times where I’ve had 2000+ visitors and simply had to zoom in on an uninhabited area, waiting for them to leave so I can actually move around and edit the park again. There are also quite a few graphical bugs, from disappearing cursors to flashing paths. None of them are completely game-breaking, but after a while I did honestly started to feel like I wanted to step away until a patch comes. Thankfully the devs have revealed that they are aware of these issues and are actively working on a performance patch; I just hope it comes sooner rather than later. Just after release there was also a game-breaking bug once you’d reached a certain size of zoo, but thankfully that was quickly patched, so they already have a reputation for working hard on this kind of problem. My other problem – exacerbated by the aforementioned bugs – is how it controls. At times it feels like there are too many steps to certain menus and that the stick controls simply aren’t precise enough. Management games have never worked well on console, but the addition of more intuitive menus and touchscreen functionality would have definitely helped. Despite these problems, I can’t help but feel this is a perfect fit for the Switch thanks to it’s pace and overall tone and look forward to these issues being resolved.
All in all I think Let’s Build a Zoo! is a resounding success and one of the best modern examples of the genre to date. It’s whimsical and accessible, but also provides the mechanical depth hardcore sim fans need. I can highly recommend playing it, but on Switch? I’m torn. The game itself is fab, but the port leaves much to be desired. If you don’t think the current problems will bug you too much you should have a great time with LBaZ on Switch, but if these consistent slowdowns are likely to annoy perhaps you should either wait for the patch or buy it for PC instead.
Note – For now, the author has chosen to discount Switch performance from the overall score due to the ongoing patch efforts. If performance continues to be an issue after the upcoming patch, this overall score will be amended to reflect it.
Grab your copy here https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-games/Let-s-Build-a-Zoo-2273192.html
Developer: Springloaded
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, MORE
Publishers: No More Robots, Merge Games
Enjoy the review? want to read more of our reviews? then click right here to be whisked away to the realm of our opinions.
You must be logged in to post a comment.