The San Diego Zoo Presents: The Animals!

""Animals" is a big under-statement"

Introduction
For some odd reason, I have this game in my possession. And for an even odder reason, I actually paid forty bucks for this game. I mean, forty bucks! Well, was it forty bucks well spent? To put it mildly, no, it wasn't. Animals is just an interactive encyclopedia that focuses entirely on the animal kingdom. And for some odd reason, this ''game'' was released for the Sega CD. Well, at least I know that one copy of this game was sold.

Graphics
Most of the graphics in the game are just pictures and video clips of various animals doing various things, such as eating, sleeping, and yes, sometimes even breeding. Unfortunately, all of these pictures and videos are in very low-res. The videos are especially bad, with an excruciatingly slow and choppy frame rate.

Other than this, the only other graphics are the small icons and the little man that acts as your on-screen cursor. All of these things are just average. There are small icons of a globe, a set of books, a dog, some arrows, and a map. The little man that acts as your cursor wears a bright orange jumpsuit, has a white face, and has an antenna coming out from the top of his head. Yeah, that sure seems average to me.

The pictures and the videos, which are supposed to be the game's eye candy, are very ugly by today's standards. And the remaining portion of the visuals is very average. Man, and I really wanted to see a baboon's red behind in detail.
Rating: 3/10

Sound
The Animals's sound is okay, even if there are very generic. There is the audio of the aforementioned video clips, which is a little choppy, but not too bad. Then there is the sole sound effect in the game. It's the sound of the click you hear every time you press a button. The click is just a normal click; there's nothing too special about it. And lastly, there are the hundred or so sound clips of various animals. From aardvarks to zebras, there is a sound from almost every animal imaginable. This is by far the best part of this game's audio, and maybe even the game. But what does that say about the rest of the game?
Rating: 6/10

Gameplay
(Yawn) Man, is this game boring. You might as well be reading an encyclopedia in your local library. All you really do is browse through menus with your man-cursor, click on this and that, maybe watch a movie of some lions eating, then listen to the roar of a grizzly bear, read some articles, and look at some pictures. That is the game's entire concept. Oh, and I almost forgot. If you play the CD in a CD player, there is a bonus track of, surprise, static. Unfortunately, it only lasts for six seconds. But go ahead, try it out. You might have some fun.
Rating: 2/10

Replay Value
Well, I must admit. It would take an eternity for a person to actually read all of the articles, listen to all of the sounds, watch all of the movies, and look at all of the pictures. But then again, would anyone actually want to? If there is someone out there reading this that would actually want to, then more power to you. But to the rest of us, just take a nap. You'll get the same result.
Rating: 3/10

Recap
Graphics: 3/10
Sound: 6/10
Gameplay: 2/10
Replay Value: 3/10

Overall
Animals is the mother lode of all encyclopedia/games. This game has TONS of information of almost every animal on the face of the planet. This could be a pretty informative and fun research source. But as a video game, this game is dull, ugly, and boring. But hey, at least there's a pretty picture of a cheetah on the cover.

Overall Rating: 3/10

This review was brought to you by:
--C.B.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 05/22/01, Updated 08/02/01