Chillingo has released the wildly popular Zooloretto board game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Based on the board game created by Michael Schacht, Zooloretto pits you against other players in a pass-and-play style or agains the iPhone’s AI.
Upon start up of Zooloretto it’s obvious to see that this is not a casual game -- at least not in the sense of play for two minutes and then forgetting it. No, this is an involved turn-based strategy title that’ll will probably take you hours to master. It took us about five minutes just to study the gameplay instructions -- and we still found ourselves revisiting them while engaged in a round.
The game puts each player in the role of a Zoo owner competing against the others in a profit seeking business. Money is made by attracting visitors. These visitors are attracted by A) having full or nearly full animal enclosures or B) hosting concession stands. During each turn, players select a tile which will represent an animal or a concession stand. These selections are then placed by the player into one of three trucks on the right side of the board. Animals cannot be placed into a player’s zoo directly from the tile pile, but instead a player must select a truck holding at least one tile and then subsequently place those animals or stands into his or her zoo. The goal is to arrange animals of the same kind into enclosures. Once an enclosure is full, bonus coins are awarded and visitors increase. Within a turn, players also have the option to interact with each other. Granted one has enough funds, animals can be bought from and sold to other players. Additionally, funds can be used to swap overflow animals from a player’s barn or expand one’s zoo with new enclosures. Rounds continue in this manner until a player draws the 15th tile, which brings the game to completion. Scores are then tallied according to each player’s range and visitor points.
Chillingo and developer Spin Bottle Games have created a truly engaging app with Zooloretto. The included tutorial starts this complex game off on the right foot, or should we say hoof. Animal animations are charming and controls are concise. During gameplay other player’s boards can be browsed with the swipe of a finger or through a neat overview map that can be yanked down like a classroom map. Handsome graphics make the long periods of gameplay quite enjoyable.
If you’re a fan of the board game version or you’re looking for an involved turn-based strategy game for your iPhone, give Zooloretto a try today!
Zooloretto gets our AppSmile 5-Dimple rating:
