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Zoo Tycoon 2 DS for Nintendo DS
In Zoo Tycoon 2 DS for Nintendo DS, you design and manage your own zoo. You choose animals, create enclosures and decide where visitors walk through the park. Each species has preferences for ground surfaces, water, plants and shelter. Using the stylus, you place components on the map and check how the animals feel. A well-designed enclosure helps your park progress, but you must also watch its income to pay for new animals and expansions.
The campaign gives you tasks with a set budget and a time limit. For example, you build a zoo and conduct research to unlock new species. In free play, you set your own starting conditions, such as your initial funds. You can also take the role of keeper and view an animal close up. Short touch-screen games let you feed animals and improve their happiness, among other things. Information cards tell you more about the animals you get to know as you build.
Locally, two players can exchange zoo data or compete to build a better park in Tycoon Showdown. Everyone needs their own DS and their own Zoo Tycoon 2 DS cartridge using Multi-Card Play. One game cartridge is therefore not enough for this wireless feature. Additional systems and games are not included; a link cable is not required.
Region and language
Our Nintendo DS games are European editions, unless stated otherwise. This product contains a loose cartridge for the European market. A box is only included if explicitly stated in the product details. We note any different region in the product details. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
With Zoo Tycoon 2 DS for Nintendo DS, you receive a loose cartridge. A box and manual are not included unless we explicitly state otherwise in the product details. This is the standard way we supply this copy.
The history of Zoo Tycoon 2 DS
Zoo Tycoon 2 DS was released in 2008, developed by Altron and published by THQ. It was the second Zoo Tycoon game on Nintendo DS, following the first handheld release from 2005. The series originated on PC, where Microsoft published Blue Fang's games. For DS, THQ worked with Altron on a separate edition. That collaboration retained building animal enclosures and managing a park but gave the controls a different form.
In this sequel, the stylus had a major role in placing buildings, buying animals and designing enclosures. The game also introduced the keeper role with three-dimensional animals seen close up. Design, financial management and direct care thus became three different ways of viewing the same zoo. An overview remained important, but the second screen and short care games also made room for smaller tasks between building and planning.
THQ added local wireless exchange and competition. Players could share zoo data and try to build the best park from the same starting position. That connection used multiple game cartridges and fitted the DS's local multiplayer approach. Zoo Tycoon 2 DS thus became a separate handheld branch of the series. The PC expansions and their complete animal collections were not automatically part of this smaller version, which combined its own campaign, free play and care activities.
Similar games for Nintendo DS
Zoo Tycoon DS for Nintendo DS already lays the foundation with animal enclosures and park management. Zoo Tycoon 2 DS makes more prominent use of the stylus when building and adds direct care with three-dimensional animals. In both, you think about a zoo where animals and visitors stay happy. The sequel more often alternates between looking at the layout and performing small tasks close to an individual animal.
Dolphin Island on Nintendo DS lets you save a marine park by caring for animals and completing missions. The story about a threatening hotel complex gives your work a set direction. Zoo Tycoon 2 DS focuses more on designing a zoo yourself and expanding it within a budget. Both link animal welfare with an appealing park, but Dolphin Island chooses a story-led home base, while Zoo Tycoon works more with construction choices and campaign conditions.
Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise for Nintendo DS lets you arrange a garden to attract piñata animals. You discover which plants and conditions a species needs to settle there. Zoo Tycoon 2 DS lets you buy animals and deliberately assemble their habitat using ground surfaces, water and shelter. Improving living conditions is the similarity; the difference between attracting wild garden visitors and managing a zoo open to visitors shapes your daily decisions.
SimCity DS on Nintendo DS expands land management to a whole city. Roads, buildings, income and the environment all demand attention there. Zoo Tycoon 2 DS also uses a map and a budget but centres on animal enclosures and visitor routes. Both let you build using the stylus. If planning is your main interest, SimCity gives you an urban network, while Zoo Tycoon offers a park with individual animals to care for.
Nintendogs: Labrador & Friends for Nintendo DS brings animal care back to puppies that you feed, train and walk. Contact with your dog takes priority, without a zoo's budget and layout. Zoo Tycoon 2 DS also offers close-up actions but places them within a broader management game. Both require attention to animals' needs; in Zoo Tycoon, you must also divide that attention between multiple species and their enclosures.
