There have been a decent number of zoo simulation games on the App Store, but they usually feel like a city builder with animals. Disco Zoo offers a completely different experience as your focus is on acquiring the animals and you don’t have to worry about building extraneous structures or training critters to do anything. It’s a freemium game, and I could see how one could easily get caught up in it and sink a bunch of money into buying coins or disco bux, but so far I’ve managed to put quite a bit of time into it without emptying my wallet. This well balanced game play is actually making me want to give them some of my cash.
You are the curator of a zoo and it’s your job to build up from the ground up by bringing animals to it. There are seven different areas to collect animals from including a Jurassic zone, but only the Farm is available at the beginning. The other areas can be unlocked by spending disco bux or acquiring a certain number of animals and spending coins. Coins also allow you to go on rescues and are earned simply by owning animals and from generous zoo patrons. You have to be sure your animals stay awake, though, because sleeping creatures don’t earn any money. Disco Bux are sometimes awarded for doing things around the zoo, but if you want to earn these in any great number you’ll have to spend some real money.
Collecting animals takes place on a 5 x 5 grid and is sort of like playing Battleship. You get 10 attempts which consist of picking a tile to see what’s underneath it. If you uncover all the tiles for a particular animal you get to keep that animal. As it happens each animal has the same pattern every time, so as you start getting used to them it makes it easier to uncover the animals based on logic rather than guessing – assuming you find a starting point, of course. Some tiles will contain nothing, but in addition to the animals you might find coins or on rare occasions Disco Bux. If you use all your attempts and still have animals left to find you can expend Disco Bux to continue the search, but I wouldn’t advise that unless you have mythical or rare animals to search for.
In the zoo itself you can collect coins that visitors toss out and you can also search for escaped animals in other pens. If too many animals fall asleep at the same time you can start a disco party to wake everyone up and get the whole place hopping instead of just the rabbits. The main reward system is watching the critics give each of your sections a higher rating as you accumulate more animals. There are only two leaderboards in Game Center, neither of which are all that exciting, and no achievements to earn. However, that by no means detracts from the addictive quality of the game, which I have to confess I’m having trouble pinpointing. All I know is that right now I’m hooked.
The graphics are cute, with a highly pixilated look that still manages to convey some cool details. On the zoo screens you get to watch the animals walk around their habitats and see the patrons make a variety of different comments. The sound effects are kind of Sims-ish but serve their purpose, while the music is well done and diverse – so far each group of animals has had its own theme during the rescue operations.
Sometimes a genre or sub-genre just needs a developer to think outside the box to make it interesting, and for zoo simulators that was Nimble Bit. From actually collecting the animals to simply watching them play around in the zoo, this game is a lot more appealing than its peers. I even broke down and bought 10 Disco Bux via IAP, even though I know I’ll go through them a lot more quickly than I’d like. It’s definitely worth it for the entertainment I’ve received from Disco Zoo so far.
| App Summary | |||
| Title: | Disco Zoo | Developer: | NimbleBit LLC |
| Reviewed Ver: | 1.1.1 | Min OS Req: | 6.0 |
| Price: | Free | App Size: | 57.3 MB |
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