Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals

Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals is a video game expansion pack for Zoo Tycoon 2 released October 17, 2007. The expansion focuses around extinct animals, mainly dinosaurs or ice age creatures, as well as today's extinct creatures like the dodo or thylacine.

This expansion pack follows the other expansion packs, Endangered Species, African Adventure and Marine Mania. Extinct Animals replaces, and includes the animals and objects from the similar Dino Danger Pack premium download.

The game's tagline is "bring 'em back".

Pre-release
During 2006, in a similar way to how the African Adventure expansion was first confirmed, Amazon.com listed a strategy guide for Extinct Animals under its listings. It was listed as "Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct (working title)", showing Blue Fang Games were still in very early production and had not yet thought of a title.

Nevertheless, in January 2007, Windows Vista released its 2007 gaming lineup as well as a promotional video featuring a few seconds of footage. Later, in April 2007, Games for Windows added an Extinct Animals page to their website and revealed several new pieces of information such as box art and animal confirmations. The text that was shown was in fact the same as in the previous Endangered Species.

On May 24, an official press release was released on the official Zoo Tycoon website revealing that Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals will be released in "fall/autumn" with a total of 30 animals, making it the largest Zoo Tycoon 2 expansion pack to date. On amazon.com and .co.uk it showed the release dates for Europe and the USA

Upon the arrival of E3 2007, Games for Windows and Blue Fang Games released a second promotional video of several new features and a set of screenshots. The Extinct Animals Games for Windows page was also edited with screenshots and new information. Zoo Tycoon.com, however, was still not updated for E3.

In August 2007, Blue Fang Games released an official trailer showing many of the main features of the expansion, including sonar detection for fossils and minigames to clone creatures, as well as confirming several animals In the same month Blue Fang employees on several fansites began releasing new information, confirming a total of eight unseen animals.

In September 2007, the official Zoo Tycoon website was finally updated with a new Extinct Animals page, in addition to screenshots, the rest of the game's features, a "fansite kit", game demo and an official screensaver.

Minigames
Several new minigames (similar to the trick training games in Marine Mania) are included. These are, as follows: locating fossils, curing diseases, cloning animals, building skeleton jigsaws and tranquilizing dinosaurs. As you progress in the game most of these get more challenging.

Dino rampage


This mode is only available when a dinosaur becomes upset with its living conditions. This causes it to go on a rampage, where it will destroy its exhibit, then break out and attempt to destroy the zoo. However, the player can prevent such disasters by locating the enraged dinosaur and then entering tranquilizer mode. In this mode the player is holding a tranquilizer gun and can aim at the problemed dinosaur. The player must wait for the gun to charge up, whilst keeping a steady aim. Once the gun is fully charged, the spacebar can be used to temporarily put the animal to sleep. If the player was to move the gun off target whilst still charging up or fully charged up the gun, the charger will begin to move down again. Once the aim is re-established, the player can fire. The gun itself is a large disentergrater cannon with an exaggerated blast tank, which, in the earlier screenshots, had CO2 painted on the tank. However, this was later removed.

The other option for the player is to hire a "Dino Capture Team". The team come in the form of a large building with two golden dinosaur statues on its roof. When a dinosaur starts rampaging, the building will rise out of the ground. Once it gets entirely out of the ground the team will leave their building and set out to tranquilize the problem. The team consist of three units; the "Dino Capture Robot", a gunman and an animal crater. The robot will activate its sirens, beep loudly and start to breakdance, distracting the beast, while the gunman shoots it with a tranquilizer. Once the dinosaur is restrained, the third unit will approach the dinosaur and crate it, ready to be released back into its enclosure by the player when the necessary exhibit maintenance is completed. This method is generally unused by players, (though the bunker is used as decor and as an extra precaution) as the Dino Capture Team's imperfect AI's causes them to take quite a long time to accomplish their task, sometimes long enough to allow the dinosaur to have destroyed several buildings.

Fossil finding
To begin, the player must purchase an Extinct Animal Research Lab, and then enter 'fossil finding mode'. The player must then find fossils using a hand held sonar device, which beeps when a fossil is nearby (or anything that is underground, surprises can be uncovered). Once the player has achieved the required number of bones, one must return to the Research Lab for the next step. The player can get upgrades for the sonar device as his star rating increases, which also unlocks the fossils of additional animals. The player must also dig up a majority of the bones, as paleontologists will occasionally abandon a dig site to continue searching for new ones. The player can jump to the dig site using the zoo map.

Fossil building
Then the hunter can enter the lab and put the fossils together like a jigsaw puzzle. Using the '<' and '>' keys, or left mouse button, the player can rotate each piece of fossil to fit into the skeleton. Once completed, the player can then move on to the animal creation.

Extinct animals creation
This is then followed by the cloning stage, also within the Research Lab. This minigame is more similar to Marine Mania's trick training game. The player uses a scanner to analyze the DNA, while pressing the left mouse button and arrow keys. Once this is completed, the player can clone the animal in question for no price at any time, but must repeat the DNA minigame to do so.

If the player gathers a low score in the DNA minigame, another animal, usually a deformed version of an ambient animals, is given instead. Examples of these include a Giant Bullfrog, Squirrels, Giant Butterfly, and Spring Hares. If the player achieves more than 90% accuracy, one will receive a "super" version of the animal, that is larger and more immune to diseases.

Disease curing
Occasionally an animal will catch a disease ("pink elephant disease", and "speedy sydrome", for example). The player is requested to enter "disease curing" mode, a module where the player must help cure the disease. The player must take a sample of the infected animal by pushing the space bar. The player must locate the cause of the disease, generally in or near the animal exhibit. The player then takes a sample of the object. Meanwhile, the research lab "scientists" will start researching the problem, while the player can gather tips from them by pressing the 'H' key, the more the player uses hints the lower the reward is. The player can then find the cure, which is generally an object outside or away from the exhibit, and inoculate the affected animal(s).

This process can also be done for the player with the help of a zookeeper.

In-game humor
Extinct Animals is also the most joke-filled Zoo Tycoon game.


 * Inside the Stokesosaurus's Zoopedia, it states that the creature wears glasses. This will indeed happen in the game when an adult Stokesosaurus uses an easel enrichment object.
 * Guests can get sugar rushes and "caffeine crazes" from eating or drinking too much sweet foods or coffee.
 * Cavemen can appear in Glacier enrichment objects. They will thaw and then behave as a normal guest. The cavemen are named after neanderthal stereotypes, such as Grunt Rockbasher.
 * The Mastodon will occasionally draw detailed pictures of peanuts on the easel.
 * Sometimes, when you are inside the dinosaur recreation lab, the scientist will have an afro or he will be replaced by the Killer Penguin.

Animals
There is a total of 36 animals in this expansion pack, including updated animals from the Dino Danger Pack and the two true unlockable animals (Extinct Animals is the first in the Zoo Tycoon franchise to have any). The Dino Danger Pack animals and objects are included, and all are updated, although they are still categorised in the animal adoption menu under "Dino Danger".
 * American mastodon - Boreal Forest
 * Ankylosaurus - Wetlands
 * Aurochs - Temperate Forest
 * Bluebuck - Grassland
 * Eucladoceros (Identified as "Bush-antlered Deer") - Temperate Forest
 * Carnotaurus - Boreal Forest
 * ''Cave lion - Alpine
 * Deinonychus - Tropical Rainforest
 * Deinosuchus - Tropical Rainforest
 * Dimetrodon - Wetlands
 * Diprotodon - Wetlands
 * Dodo - Tropical Rainforest
 * Doedicurus - Scrub
 * Elephas falconeri (Identified as "Dwarf Sicilian Elephant") - Grassland
 * Elephant bird - Wetlands
 * Titanotylopus (Identified as a "Giant Camel") - Grassland
 * Megatherium (Identified as a "Giant Ground Sloth") - Scrub
 * Metridiochoerus (Identified as a "Giant Warthog") - Savannah
 * Kentrosaurus - Wetlands
 * Protarchaeopteryx - Wetlands
 * Smilodon (Identified as "Saber-toothed Cat") - Boreal Forest
 * Short-faced bear - Tundra
 * Sivatherium - Savannah
 * Stegosaurus - Boreal Forest
 * Stokesosaurus - Boreal Forest
 * Styracosaurus - Tropical Rainforest
 * Thylacine - Temperate Forest
 * Triceratops - Boreal Forest
 * Tyrannosaurus - Tropical Rainforest
 * Utahraptor - Boreal Forest
 * Velociraptor - Desert
 * Warrah - Grassland
 * Woolly Rhinoceros - Tundra

Plants

 * Agave - Desert
 * Aloe vera - Desert
 * Boxelder - Grassland
 * Common Daisy - Grassland
 * Rhododendron atlanticum - Tundra
 * Leontopodium alpinum - Alpine
 * Cycas revoluta - Tropical Rainforest
 * Monkey Puzzle - Alpine
 * Saguaro - Desert
 * Speargrass - Grassland
 * Goldenrod - Grassland

Buildings

 * Dinosaur Fence
 * Electric Fence
 * Extinct-Themed Buildings and Objects (Unlockable)
 * Extinct Research Lab
 * Play Dig Pit
 * Brachiosaurus Slide (Unlockable)
 * Entertainer Stage
 * Dino Recovery Team
 * Extinct Education Center

Shelters, Food, and Toys
Objects marked with an asterisk (*), originally appeared in Zoo Tycoon 2: Dino Danger Pack.
 * Grasslands Large Burrow
 * Rock Shelter
 * Small Elephant Log
 * Dodo Rock
 * Dino Toy
 * Glacier
 * Tar Pit
 * Misty Spring
 * Dinosaur Meat*
 * Cycad Leaves*

Unlockable animals
These animals can be unlocked either by completing an in-game campaign, or by achieving a score between 10% and 50% in the animal creation minigame. None of them (besides the killer penguin and quagga) have Zoopedia entry and proper stats, so are not generally counted as true animals. These animals (Excluding the quagga) tend to only live for about a month in gametime. The quagga is the only unlockable animal that is a real extinct animal. The quagga is unlocked by releasing all extinct animals back in the wild, fossil hunting competition or completion of campaign mode. The quagga can interbreed with the common zebra.The killer penguin is unlocked by getting 10% to 50% in the animal creatin minigame. This will only happen occasionally and are the most dangerous animal in the game. The zoopedia states that they love to kill other animals, are from Madagascar (probably a reference to the penguins from the Madagascar film), and to say no when offered a free penguin. This is because during challenge mode, there will be a message stating that "someone is offering you a free penguin" but the penguin is really a Killer Penguin.
 * Squirrel
 * Springhare
 * Giant bullfrog
 * Giant monarch butterfly
 * Killer Penguin (Eudyptes "killer") - Tundra
 * Quagga (Equus quagga quagga) - Savannah

Dino Danger Pack Animals

 * Carnotaurus
 * Styracosaurus
 * Triceratops
 * Tyrannosaurus rex

Super animals
When in the Extinct Research Lab, once fossils have been pieced together, during the DNA minigame, if 90% or higher accuracy is achieved, a "super" animal will be created. The name of the animal will be "Super" followed by the animal name and number. Super animals are slightly larger than their original size, get ill less often and, instead of the regular circle around the animal when it is selected, a DNA symbol with a star surrounds the animal, which is also by the gender of the animal in its stats tab. It is impossible to purchase super animals. However, if one breeds two super animals, or a super and normal animal, the offspring will occasionally be a super animal, and, very rarely, the offspring of two normal animals could be a super animal.

Animal biomes
A new feature of Extinct Animals, all animals included can only truly "thrive" if given a "climate" object. They do not require these objects, but it is more beneficial to do so. Depending on the species and biome of the animal, this can be either: a glacier (alpine, boreal forest, tundra); misty spring (grassland, temperate forest, tropical rainforest, wetlands) or tar pit (desert, savannah, scrub). In the "Zookeeper Recommendations" panel, they are categorised as "Enrichment Items", which is generally used for toys, despite the fact that animals do not directly interact with them. These items bring up the animal's "Biome Satifsaction" level. In addition to this being applied to almost all Extinct animals, older animals have also been edited to use these. In the glacier, occasionally a caveman can be seen. The glacier will eventually thaw, and the caveman will be free to roam the zoo and the world once again.

System Requirements
As it is an expansion pack, it requires the original Zoo Tycoon 2 or Zoo Tycoon 2: Zookeeper Collection to play.
 * Microsoft Windows 98SE or Higher
 * PC with 733 MHz equivalent or higher processor
 * 256 MB of system RAM
 * 900 MB available hard disk space
 * 32x speed or faster CD-ROM drive
 * 16 MB 3D video card required
 * DirectX 9.0 or later
 * Sound card, speakers or headphones required for audio
 * Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

Reception
Critically, Extinct Animals did well, receiving a 7.2 critic score and 8.6 user score on GameSpot. The first-person shooter mode of the game attracted slightly older audiences, but brought the expansion's ESRB rating up slightly.