Disco Zoo

Gameplay

Using pixelated graphics seen in other NimbleBit games such as Pocket Trains and Pocket Planes, the game puts the player in charge of a virtual zoo. The user starts with a small collection of farm animals, and must rescue more animals to expand the zoo. New exhibits are constructed when a player rescues an animal for the first time; thereafter, additional instances of that animal will be added to the same exhibit.

The game contains 10 different regions: Farm, Outback, Savanna, Northern, Polar, Jungle, Jurassic, Ice Age, Moon and City. Each region has 6 different animals that can be collected. 3 of these will be "Common", 2 will be "Rare", and one will be "Mythical". Most animals, excluding Moon animals and mythical animals, are real-life animals. Most "Mythical" animals are taken from common stories or myths, such as the Yeti being the Polar Mythical animal, or Sasquatch as the Northern Mythical creature.

Animals are rescued as part of a mini-game. The user must select a region to rescue from, then press "Start Rescue". A blank 5x5 grid will appear. At the top, the animals which can be rescued will appear. Different animals have different patterns of grid tiles; revealing all the tiles occupied by an animal rescues that animal. Players are given a limited number of tile flips for each grid, so care must be taken to avoid unnecessarily turning over tiles. The tiles the player chose not to flip are revealed at the end of the mini-game.

Animals each have unique pens, and each pen can hold up to 25 of a single creature. After this, rescued animals of that type must be released, as the maximum amount of that creature is already in the zoo exhibit. The player is rewarded with coins, the game's primary currency, for releasing animals. Trophies can be earned when specified amounts of each animal are released.

Players can use the game's other currency, "Discobux", to hold a disco party in the zoo at any time, which keeps animals awake and doubles the amount of coins received from exhibits; additionally, a disco ball appears at the top of the screen, disco music plays, and both zoo patrons and animals dance for the duration of the party. When a disco is not in progress, animals are subject to falling asleep after a specified time, after which they will not earn coins until the user wakes them up. Short discos will happen for free if a trophy is earned from releasing set numbers of animals. Players can choose to hold parties for one minute, one hour, or eight hours, depending on the amount of Discobux they choose to spend.

Reception

Disco Zoo has been received fairly well by critics. Metacritic gave an aggregated score of 70/100 based on 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Touch Arcade rated it 4 out of 5 stars, noting it "perfectly fits on the App Store shelves next to Tiny Tower, Nimble Quest and their other titles". PCMag also rated it 4/5, saying the game has "a quirky theme, lots of gameplay, and a heaping of adorableness". Pocket Gamer gave it 6/10, calling it an "artfully constructed free-to-play time [...] spinner." However, USGamer only rated it 1.5/5, with its overall conclusion being "a polished title with a couple of nice ideas completely undermined by boring mechanics and obtrusive, game-breaking monetization."