Zoo Tycoon 2 : Marine Mania expansion pack product reviews

Ever since I fist encountered the first incarnation of Zoo Tycoon, I was hooked. Where "The Sims" left me cold, and the "SimCity" franchise just confused me, ZT awoke in me a pleasure that I hardly found outside of "lego". The ability to build and observe was paramount in this game. The Marine Mania expansion pack for the first iteration of the game was a lot of fun, and I was surprised to see it missing from the second generation of ZT.

So it was with great pleasure that I finally see the Marine expansion pack being released for the newer engine... and what an upgrade it is! With some stunning animals, such as the Beluga, the Bottlenose Dolphin, an assortment of Sharks, and even some extremely rare creatures such as the endangered Sea Otter, the Narwhal or the rare Manatee... as well as the usuall assortment of themed buildings and attractions... it made for a really stunning aquatic zoo.

The only thing I still don't like about the ZT engine is it's demands for defined locations for the zoos. There's NOTHING in New Zealand... why not?! A great upgrade, perhaps even if it's restricted to the Freeform style game only, would be to allow the Zoomeister to select any piece of dirt the map displays. NZ is there, so why not let us make a NZ zoo? C'mon Blue Fang... let the Kiwi's have a bit of home turf... after all, we have every kind of landscape on the globe tucked away in our little piece of paradise, from desert tundra to icescapes, from lush forest to mountain shale... surely it is obvious from the many nature and wildlife parks we already have, that we can handle running a virtual zoo or two...

Overall, I found this to be a long-overdue but very welcome addition to the ZT2 franchise and look forward to seeing what spectacular expansion packs are in the pipeline... maybe they'll resurrect the old gen-1 "Dino Digs" pack and tweak it to work on the new engine... now THAT would be awesome! Your very own interactive Prehistoric Park!!