Zoo Vet: Endangered Animals
© 2007 Legacy Games
The follow-up to Zoo Vet (CTR, 2004) features 20 rare animals, of the variety you normally see behind bars in zoos. In the game, children take the role of the vet as they use a real-looking operating room to help sick creatures. Hints are available from the zoo staff to help beginners. For example, there's an eagle with a broken wing, and you have to examine the broken bone, cut it open, set it using a pin and then close up the incision so the bird can fly again. The animals include a lion, elephant, a polar bear, otter, tortoise, zebra and a crocodile that has ingested pennies tossed into his enclosure. Like the 2005 title, real vets contributed cases. Once cured, children can visit the animals in their cages, or play on the zoo’s office computer where they'll find videos, news on conservation cases, a memory game, a trivia test, a word search and a jigsaw puzzle. The only drawback: once the cases are solved, they're solved, so this game has limited replay value. But the process is an excellent exercise in deductive reasoning.
$20, Windows
Teaches: science, medicine, veterinary science
CTR Rating: 88%