What if you could manage a clean and beautiful zoo without having to deal with all the animal manure that you would otherwise need to scoop out yourself when running an actual park? Tap Zoo is a free iPhone game that allows you build and customize your own virtual animal safari park at your fingertips!
About the Game
Tap Zoo is a simulation-based game developed by Street View Labs and now owned by Pocket Gems. The objective of the game is to build and manage the best possible zoo through trading and cross breeding of animals. Not all animals will give the same return so it important to determine the best yielding Tap Zoo animals before you should start breeding.
The Gameplay
Early in the game, you will be given a tiny plot of land along with 300 coins and a star as your initial assets to help you build a zoo. Because of the limited resources, it is important that you spend your money very carefully. Avoid spending your initial resources on décor right away, but instead you will have to invest in animals and breed them until you can generate revenue for your zoo.
From there, you will have a number of options to help you expand your area and earn more income. You can also begin cross-breeding your animals, unlock new animals, add staff, build more attractions and add decors, refreshment stands, sidewalk and animal exhibits to make your zoo become more productive and at the same time aesthetically pleasant. Inviting more and more visitors to your zoo will help you progress through the game quickly. You will eventually gain more coins, bonus stars and level ups.
User Interface
Once you have downloaded the game, you will be taken to a brief tutorial of the game so you can get the hang of it. The concept and the inventory management system are both easy to understand. There are also many interactive and engaging features that make the game so much fun. The controls are also very responsive to touch which therefore makes the game much more enjoyable. Unfortunately, the cramped space on the iPhone screen could be a problem when it’s time to customize the zoo. Nevertheless, there’s always something to see and do on every per square inch of your gaming platform.
A piece of advice: Just like any other game, always save your Tap Zoo game on a regular basis so you can easily load it anytime it becomes unresponsive.
Graphics and Sound Effects
Without decent graphics, Tap Zoo would rather turn out to be a flop. The graphics are not in 3D, but they are fairly good for a free game. They look just as great to keep kids enchanted with the bright, sharp and colorful characters and structures of the zoo. The animals look cartoonish and cute, keeping the kids more fascinated with the game. Meanwhile, the fun sound effects also give the game a little something to punch up the excitement.
The Drawback
Anything you want to buy in order to customize and upgrade the zoo will cost far more than your initial assets. A hedgehog, for instance, is worth 16,000 coins. You will basically use coins and stars in order to pursue your interests in the game. Coins are the basic game currency used for trading animals while stars are mainly used to purchase high end items that cannot be bought with coins.
Although you can earn free coins and stars by downloading certain apps for iPhone, it may become an irksome job in one way or another. There’s also a lot of waiting involved before you can generate free coins from animal breeding. The easiest and fastest way to acquire these currencies is to purchase them with real money. You can purchase additional stars and coins using actual cash by tapping on the icon at the upper right corner of the screen. Unless you’re willing to shell out real money for the developer, your Tap Zoo experience may become far less enjoyable without doing in-app purchases for upgrades.
Conclusion
Let the kids experience running their own virtual zoo from your iPhone. There are many animals available for cross-breeding to create new creatures. Tap Zoo allows your kids to build and customize a safari park, experiment on new breeds and discover an array of fantastic animals. While it is not bad to make in-app purchases, disabling such feature will teach kids the value of patience before they can collect revenues from the zoo.
Category: Games
Price: $2.99
Developed By: Pocket Gems
Requirements: Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Compatible With: iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad
Other OS: Android, Facebook
Our Rating: 
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