Simplz Zoo, from Reflexive Entertainment and South Winds Games, is an interesting casual game in a recent vein of games that combine the match
three genre with some form of simulation. You might think it an odd combination but it works quite well. In order to get more items, animals, and buildings in your zoo you need to play the match-three levels and collect the necessary resources. It’s surprisingly engrossing.
Each of the match three levels has some specific goal that you need to reach. Whether it be to match three on specific areas of the board, unlock certain pieces or collect specials it will certainly take some doing on some of the levels.
Once you’ve got yourself some resources you can then go beef up your zoo. The goal is to get to the top rated zoo in the world. You’ll start at the very bottom, ranked 1,000 and need to work your way up based on points and what you add to your zoo. 60,000 to get to the top and it’s a long slow climb.
After each match three level, if you’re fairly successful, you can generally purchase one building, perhaps a couple animals for the houses that need them and place some paths and decorations. Then it’s back to the match three to do it all again.
Some of the match three levels are frustratingly difficult and will require try and try again, this stagnates the game and has you repeating the same level over and over without getting anything out of it. Highly irritating to say the least, plus, since you get absolutely nothing from a failed mission you can’t proceed in any way until you pass it. Not very casual game-like is it?
The art of the game is very cartoon-like and yet the difficulty level is certainly above most children at times and must be aimed more at adults. Certainly children could play it but would need some help as there is no difficulty setting in the game.
The sounds provide a rich experience as well with everything from animal sounds to crowd noises as people swarm to your up and coming zoo.
Overall, Simplz Zoo is an interesting and challenging game with both casual and more in-depth gameplay mechanics. The split of gameplay between sim and match-three helps break up the repetitiveness but it’s still an issue and won’t keep the attention of most for more than an hour at a time.
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