| Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania | |
| Developer: | Blue Fang Games |
| Series: | Zoo Tycoon |
| Genre: | Simulation |
| Modes: | Single-player |
| Platforms: | Microsoft Windows, MacOS |
Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania is a 2002 expansion pack developed by Blue Fang Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the 2001 simulation video game Zoo Tycoon. Marine Mania adds marine animals and exhibits to the game, allowing players to add aquatic shows to their park. Upon release, Marine Mania received average reviews, with praise for the variety of new animals, objects and show features, but criticism for the lack of additions that altered the core gameplay. An expansion with an identical name and theme, , was released in 2006.
Marine Mania adds the ability to create aquatic enclosures to display 20 new marine animals, including dolphins, sperm whales and orcas. Marine enclosures are created by building tanks, which can be vertically adjusted to provide greater space for animals. Similarly to land animals, marine animals must be kept happy through providing the right balance of additions to their habitats, including a new range of aquatic flora. An added feature in Marine Mania is the ability to hold Aquatic Shows where certain marine animals such as orcas, sea otters, bottlenose dolphins and sea lions can perform tricks for visitors in shows held at customisable intervals. Holding shows requires the player to attach special show tanks to animal habitats and place grandstands in proximity to the tanks. Shows can be customised by players to increase additional visitor happiness and income by adjusting the number and sequencing of tricks in a show and placing toys inside the show tank for new tricks. Maintenance of animal needs and performance of shows is handled by the hireable marine specialist, a counterpart to the zookeeper in the original game. Marine Mania also includes new ten new scenarios, new decorative objects and amenities for players to place in their park, and minor gameplay changes, including the ability to pick up and move park guests.
Marine Mania was announced by Microsoft in mid-2002,[1] [2] with a planned release date of 18 October.[3] Marine Mania was billed as a "double expansion pack" included the content of the previous expansion, Dinosaur Digs. In 2003, Marine Mania was packaged with expansion Dinosaur Digs as part of a re-released title named Zoo Tycoon: Complete Collection.[4]
In December 2002, Marine Mania peaked in ninth place on NPD monthly sales charts, joined by Zoo Tycoon in fifth place.[5] At the time of its release in October 2002, sales for the base game passed a milestone of one million units sold.[6]
Marine Mania received "mixed or average" reviews from critics according to review aggregator Metacritic. Several critics praised the value of a double expansion pack containing the Dinosaur Digs content. Describing the game as a "decent expansion pack", Carla Harker for GameSpy enjoyed the new objects and scenarios, highlighting the marine shows as "one of the best improvements" to the game, although finding the animations to be "poorly done" and unsatisfying. GameZone commended the game for adding a "fun element that was missing from the original", citing the aquatic displays, the colourful design on the new attractions and landscapes, and new set of animals. Eddie Park of Inside Mac Games found the game to add a "wealth of content", expressing that the shows and performances were "fun" and added "variety and enjoyment" to the game, although noting the game lacked innovations in its graphics and had little additions in terms of core gameplay. However, Andrew Park of GameSpot considered the game to contain similar problems to the original game, including its "unimpressive presentation" and "largely unchanged gameplay", critiquing the shows as unstimulating, although finding some of the later scenarios were engaging. Elizabeth McAdams of Computer Gaming World found the game's difficulty to be "practically nonexistent" and fail to revitalize the original game.