Planet Zoo: Console Edition - Deluxe Edition

Planet Zoo is, ironically, a relatively toothless park building game. It doesn't have the delicious chaos of the Jurassic World Evolution games or the thrills of building your own rollercoaster and then hoping it'll stay on the tracks in Planet Coaster. But it's a pleasant and charming game. There's an airy joy in creating a peaceful home for animals to live in, and the earnest conservationist slant of Planet Zoo is hard to fault.

As much as Planet Zoo: Console Edition may seem complicated, those who are willing to learn its main mechanics will be facing not only a great simulator, but also a game that uses its concept to introduce important topics about environmental awareness.

Planet Zoo: Console Edition provides for the needs of console regemers to have their own digital zoo. In 2019 it was the turn of the PC gamers, but now people with a PlayStation 5 and an Xbox series can also get started. The control on the console works great, but it still works just a little better on a PC. The tutorial is clear enough to start your zoo afterwards. There are lots of possibilities and maybe it is just a bit too much at times. Yet you will be able to enjoy this endlessly if this genre lies.

I’m very conflicted on Planet Zoo: Console Edition because the core game and systems are absolutely outstanding and among the best in the genre, but I couldn’t help constantly thinking, “I bet this is a much better experience on PC.”

Overall I liked my time playing Planet Zoo and I'm glad to have gotten to experience it. The setup is excellent and Frontier Development put a lot of care into the game. However, in practice, this visually fantastic game didn't do as well with the gameplay mechanics. The variety of content combined with the mechanics almost shot itself in the foot. There is so much going on and even during the tutorial there is no way to revisit support/guidance and ends up becoming more frustrating than fun. The graphics and audio of Planet Zoo are also amazing and designed and run very well, especially in busy zoos. It is so easy to stop and simply watch the animals in their habitats. The cliché British characters, soundtrack and sounds were fantastic and worked well with the intended ambience of the game. And with so much content and options there are many hours of gameplay and so many zoos to build and see.

Frontier brings their most in-depth building sim to consoles, wart(hog)s and all.

After an incredible run on PC, Planet Zoo is now available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S thanks to its Console Edition. A wider number of players now have the opportunity to enjoy a very rich simulator where complexity, beauty and, above all, love for animals reign.

Planet Zoo: Console Edition offers the same enjoyable park building as its PC forerunner, and though it's a slightly slower experience, Frontier have done an excellent job translating the detailed park building to controller.

Planet Zoo: Console Edition does not completely pull off the PC-to-console transition from a control standpoint, leading to bouts of frustration. But it has enough charm and depth that will make it difficult for genre fans to ignore.

There are quite a few zoo sims out there, ranging from pixel art constructions to Planet Zoo, which is definitely the ultimate game in the genre. For those without the requisite PC, the PS5 port does a generally outstanding job of translating the Planet Zoo experience to console. It’s genuinely educational, engaging, and addictive fun. I wish the new edition was just a bit more generous with content at launch, but there’s plenty there to work with. Animal and sim lovers should rejoice, Planet Zoo has arrived on consoles at last.