I’m not a stranger to boardgames. On spielbyweb.com couple years ago my record is Amun-Re won 14 out of 65 games 22%, Hacienda won 28 out of 61 games 46%, Hoity Toity won 33 out of 56 games 59%, Santiago won 27 out of 72 games 38%, and Tikal won 110 out of 174 game 63%. Played on mabiweb.com 63 games of Knizia’s Samurai. I play boardgames in real life too although not nearly as much as I used to. So for $5 can I get entertainment out of Zooloretto for iPhone? For me it’s a no brainer and already have as I have sunk probably about 20 hours of gameplay so far into Zooloretto.
When Zooloretto came out for the iPhone I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. True it’s not online boardgaming but rather against computer opponents so I was a bit skeptical. After a few issues with the initial release, Zooloretto 1.1 was released and it seems all bugs are fixed and just has some typos and corrections that need to be made in the included manual. Zooloretto isn’t like zoo tycoon so don’t be fooled into thinking it is. Don’t let the childish cartoony graphics deceive you as this is a strategy board game.
Play three, four or five player games against AI opponents. Also you can play other humans via pass and play mode. Initially you can only play three player games but after play a few games you unlock third AI opponent and few more games the fourth AI opponent. Resuming a game is possible which is imperative since games do take quite awhile to play. In Options you can set Music and SFX Volume to 0%, 50% or 100% respectively. So you can listen to your own music while playing.
Objective of the game is to score the most points which are all tallied at the end of the game. Game ends when the 15th animal tile is drawn then that round is played to the end. Each player has their own zoo with three enclosures although one could have four enclosures if one pays 3 coins to expand your zoo. Swiping your finger down or tap curtain ring to reveal overview. Swipe up to close curtain. Swipe left or right to reveal opponents individual zoo’s or simply tap on a player.
Scoring
- Each enclosure contains two numbers (for instance the five space enclosure has a 5 / 
with a coin bonus. Six space enclosure has no coin bonus.
- Fill an enclosure completely you get points of the higher number. Example, five space enclosure you’d get 8 points.
- If one space short then you get lower number instead. Example, five space enclosure you’d get 5 points.
- Enclosures with two or more empty spaces if a vending stall is next to enclosure you score one point per animal.
- For each vending stall type (remember each different stall) score 2 points. So if you have three green vending stalls and one red vending stall you don’t score 8 points but rather 4 points (2pts for green and 2pts for red)
- Each animal type in barn (not how many but type) is minus two points.
Scoring Example – Pink Hair Lady has 18 points at this point near the end of the game. 3 points for 3 pandas since she has a vending stall near the enclosure. 3 points for 3 monkeys which also which has a vending stall by that enclosure. 4 points for two red vending stalls and one yellow vending stall (2pts for red ones and 2 pts for yellow). 4 points for the three camels since she is one space short of filling the four space enclosure so she scores the lower number which is 4. 8 points for the flamingos filling the five space enclosure getting the higher number which is 8. So 3 + 3+ 4 + 4 + 8 = 22 points. However, minus 4 points for two different animal types in her barn. Thus 22 – 4 = 18 points.
Each animal type has 11 tiles consisting of 2 males and 2 females and 7 regular animals. For instance, there are 7 monkey tiles with 2 male monkeys and 2 female monkeys for a total of 11 monkey tiles. Each player starts with 2 coins. 12 vending stalls total with 4 types and 12 coin tiles.
Three player game consists of six animal types and 3 trucks.
Four player game consists of seven animal types and 4 trucks.
Five player game consists of eight animal types and 5 trucks.
On a player’s turn usually you draw a tile which can be either an animal, vending stall or a coin. You choose which delivery truck you wish to place it on with a maximum of 3 items per truck. If you see a truck that looks beneficial to you snag it before an opponent does and place the items in your enclosures or barn. Only one type of animal can be place in an enclosure.
However, before you take a truck (thus ending your turn for the round) during your turn in lieu of drawing an animal tile you could perform a single money action.
- Expand (3 coins) adds another enclosure
- Move (1 coin) single animal/vending stall from barn to enclosure
- Swap (1 coin) same animal types from barn to enclosure OR from one enclosure to another enclosure
- Buy (2 coins) animal/vending stall from another player’s barn. 1 coin to bank. 1 coin to that player.
- Sell (2 coins) discards animal/vending stall from from barn.
Making babies if you place a male and female into an enclosure they’ll make a baby. So in the screenshot above I added a male elephant to the enclosure with lonely female elephant and baby dumbo is born. Note: if you place them in a barn they won’t reproduce until in an enclosure. However, if part of a swap action that produces a baby that fills the enclosure you won’t receive coin bonus, if any.
Example of a turn thinking process – I only have two coins so not that much I can do. Should I choose a truck and draw a tile? Hmm…the top truck has a male monkey. If I put that with my other male monkey those two won’t pop out a baby. Ok screw it, I’ll just get the fourth truck with a female monkey which will make baby monkey and fill my four space enclosure so I’ll get the one coin bonus too and 5 points for completely filling in the four space enclosure. Plus I have a panda already in my barn which perhaps in future round I can swap out with another enclosure.
Showing all players barns with animals within. Would be nice to show male/female symbols in this overview as currently you have to choose BUY action to see symbols for all players barns. Also showing ones own barn. Remember this would be minus 8 points. (-2 one flamingo, -2 four pandas, -2 one zebra and -2 one kangaroo).
Conclusion – this is an excellent computerized implementation of Zooloretto. The artificial intelligience of the computer opponents is decent to give you a challenge. If you’ve never played board games (German board games that is, like Settlers of Catan) Zooloretto might have you shaking your head thinking what the heck did I get myself into. So perhaps it’s not the best intro German board game to play. However, it is rather a light affair compared to some heavier board games so as long as you like strategy and agonizing decisions with some tactical screwage then Zooloretto on the iPhone is something to consider. For those in the United States if you really like this boardgame perhaps it’ll get you to buy the real deal Zooloretto $31.50 and the Polar Bear expansion $7.50 that Zooloretto iPhone verision will be adding in a future update.
