ZOO’S THE BOSS: ZOO TYCOON

Atheist Bale
18 min readJun 30, 2022
Video gamer? I hardly know her!

I will be discussing a nostalgic game of my childhood, Zoo Tycoon, developed by the small gaming company, Blue Fang Games. This time around, I will be discussing more in length my personal experience and the gameplay. I will essentially be going back to it and reviewing the good and bad elements and stray further from history, as there is little to no information pertaining to Blue Fang Games and its staff. In my return to nostalgia, I have found that the game is still just as extraordinarily addicting as it was when I was young(er), and even manages to be fun when using cheats (which I discovered online). In short, the first, original Zoo Tycoon game was likely so great because of its soothing rhythmic nature, freeform and scenario options, and overall simple gameplay.

Real Gs remember this screen.

To succinctly describe what Zoo Tycoon is, it is essentially just a sort of business simulator. Perhaps that brief overview does not do it complete justice, as there is more to it than that, and it does not serve as a Farmville-esque monstrosity of Freemium gaming and monotonous empty play. Zoo Tycoon is a game that asks its players to build a successful virtual zoo by keeping track of several factors, such as guest happiness, animal happiness, exhibit diversity…

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Atheist Bale

I’m not a pessimist, I’m correct. Follow me for troglodyte slaying 101. Dual BA and an MA, going on a PhD. Keeping the specifics a bit shady to avoid creepers.