World of Zoo

World of Zoo is a life simulation video game, published by THQ and developed by Blue Fang Games, who also developed the similar Zoo Tycoon series. World of Zoo was released for Windows PC, Wii and Nintendo DS on October 26, 2009. The game was showcased in the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009 on June 1, 2009, held in the Los Angeles Convention Center.

The game educates players about animals using facts provided by the National Geographic Society.

Gameplay
World of Zoo will simulate a zoo, and players will care for 95 different species of animals, from 11 different families, and place it in one of the 20 exhibits. The goal of the game is to keep the animals in the zoo happy, ways to do this include: feeding the animals, playing with the animals, and improving the animals exhibits. Keeping the animals happy will result in hearts and tokens for the player, who can then redeem their hearts and tokens for food, tools, and new animals.

Certain achievements can earn the player certain objects, for example: new species can be unlocked, or in-game awards earned. One example of an in-game award is the player raising in status with one animal family, for the big cat family, awards range from, lowest to highest, "Junior Big Cat Handler" to "Big Cat Whisperer".

The game will also feature an "Animal Creator", a feature that allows players to create and customize animals' personalities and appearances similar to Spore; along with an "Animal Adoption Network" feature&mdash;another way players can add animals.

Every animal has unique personalities and behaviors; the player's goal is to earn trust and happiness of each animal, so the player must find a method to gain trust and happiness from each animal. Trust the animal has in the player is measured via a trust meter; after the trust meter gets to rank six, the player can hypnotize animals.

Minigames are scattered throughout World of Zoo, and often pose as challenges arising in the care-taking of animals, e.g. grooming or healing.

The Wii version of the game can function as single player; but also can also support multiplayer mode up to four players. The Wii Remote is used to control the game in both modes; in multiplayer, player one controls the camera.

Animals
95 animals available in World of Zoo, separated into 12 families: antelopes, bears, big cats, canid,  crocodiles, elephants, giraffes, koalas, pandas, penguins, small monkeys, and zebras & horses.

NOTE: Only the Wii version contains all animal types. The PC version of the game does NOT include the following animals: antelopes, bears, canid, crocodiles, elephants, and penguins.

Big Cats

 * African Lion
 * Caracal
 * Cougar
 * Leopard
 * Jaguar
 * Cheetah
 * Bengal Tiger
 * Clouded Leopard
 * Snow Leopard

Horses

 * Plains Zebra
 * Konik
 * Brumby
 * Icelandic Horse
 * Onager
 * Przewalski's Horse
 * Grévy's Zebra
 * African Wild Ass
 * Misaki

Giraffes

 * Giraffe
 * Reticulated Giraffe
 * Masai Giraffe
 * South African Giraffe

Monkeys

 * Capuchin Monkey
 * Squirrel Monkey
 * Rhesus Monkey
 * Patas Monkey
 * Red-shanked Douc

Pandas

 * Giant Panda
 * Qinling Panda

Koalas

 * Koala

Elephants

 * African Elephant
 * Indian Elephant
 * Sumatran Elephant
 * African Forest Elephant

Penguins

 * Emperor Penguin
 * Royal Penguin
 * Rockhopper Penguin

Bears

 * Brown Bear
 * American Black Bear
 * Spectacled Bear
 * Polar Bear
 * Sloth Bear
 * Moon Bear
 * Sun Bear
 * Kodiak Bear
 * Tibetan Blue Bear
 * Gobi Bear

Crocodiles

 * Nile Crocodile
 * Gharial
 * American Alligator

Canid

 * African Wild Dog
 * Fennec Fox
 * Wolf
 * Fox

Antelopes

 * Gazelle
 * Gemsbok
 * Pronghorn
 * Bongo
 * Impala
 * Giant Sable Antelope
 * Blackbuck
 * Okapi

Reception
Critics' reception to World of Zoo was muted for the first two months after launch. Most reviewers have, as of December 15, 2009, declined to review the game or give a score. This includes better-known sites like IGN, GameSpot, Gametrailers, 1UP, and GameSpy. User scores have generally been positive. The Metacritic user score for World of Zoo is 96%.