A repetitive headline to reflect upon a repetitive game. Now, if I did not have a job to do, that would be enough said. Ignition’s Zoo Keeper is a title that should come free along with the Nintendo DS along the likes of PictoChat but although the instant messaging programme of fun and communication has its uses, clicking and swapping the heads of animals over and again to score points is discredit to human’s superiority over the damn animals’ heads you are swapping! Who in their right mind would spend hours playing this title?

It seems as though a lot of people would.

Me on the other hand? No. However, even though I make it sound like a torturous experience to play the game in order to write a review on it, the experience was not all negative and there are one or two positive aspects of the game.

To start off with, there is no story to the game what so ever; why you are a zookeeper swapping the heads of animals is not even explained. The only two human beings you see within the game is the zoo eeper himself along with some important big-shot behind a desk that gives you orders and charts your progress. So, there is nothing for you to get engrossed in; even a weak and pathetic storyline of perhaps some crazed monkey that is loose in the zoo and you have to adventure your way through each of the different animals’ cages would have sufficed! Though it is supposed to be just a puzzle game, having nothing to play through or to progress in does not create much worth or continual play experience.

So, do you just swap the heads of animals for the whole time? Yes. However, there are three different modes in which you swap them. The first is the simple game of swapping heads and scoring points, having to get enough points and capturing enough of the right animal to progress onto the next level, all of which are exactly the same. The next mode is where you have to capture 100 of a certain type of animal. If these two are not enough for you then perhaps you would like to do the ‘quest’ mode in which you have to complete – a lame attempt at a storyline as it seems. Finally there is a mode where you have to accumulate the highest amount of points possible within six minutes. That is as far as the single mode goes but of course there is a versus feature, using the wireless connections and only one cartridge, which is another plus for the game; at least if you get bored with the single modes you can become the champion of the animal head swapping amongst your friends, if that is a title you would want. That is the game in its entirety.

Is there any point to it at all then? No, not really. The sound for the game practically does not exist. There are the electronic ‘swap’ sounds as you swap one animal head with another and of course the usual bings and bongs when you select an option, etc. If you think it cannot get any worse, then go out and buy the game yourself to find out, because as far as a ‘soundtrack’ goes, it is non-existent because there is only one single tune for all four modes that drones on and on and on and on. Pretty much everything about this game is repetitive!

Thankfully, the one positive feature and quality of this game is the excellent art and design, graphics and style of the game. It is very colourful, animated and is a feast for the eyes with the rows and rows of cute, smiling animal faces from hippos to lions, monkeys to rabbits! All of the design in terms of the title screen, option screens, etc are all clear, clean, sharp and precise. When you are in game, on the bottom screen all of the animals heads are presented but depending on the level, mode or what animal you are having to capture the most, you will see into the animal enclosure on the top screen. It is amazing and wonderful, with lush grass and trees with tyre swings for the monkeys or giant logs and watering holes for the crocodiles and hippos. Ignition have done an amazing job in this sense but this quality and potential should in no way be used, or wasted rather, on such a pointless and boring title such as Zoo Keeper.

All in all, for me, the experience was dull, a waste of time, without goals or interest and might be the worst console title, handheld or otherwise, that I have ever played. To expect someone to pay thirty pounds for it is insulting and absurd. I would not buy it, even if it was the only title out for the Nintendo DS. The only thing going for it is the looks and for some people that works, there are many who base the quality of things on how they look rather than what they actually are. Zoo Keeper struggles to get even a five out of ten from me. Nice try Ignition but next time, try and put your brains into a game of worth, one that deserves to have five minutes of attention spent on it.

Tobias Rowe