Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this is a good way to introduce kids to simulation games because this one is particularly easy to play. It's a good fit for ages 7 to 14, but there is a lot of waiting around for animals to arrive in the early scenarios. Encourage your kids to hang in there -- their animal hospital will get more popular and busier the longer they play.
Families can talk about the problems facing veterinarians of wild animals versus the problems encountered when dealing with pets. Who brings these wild animals to the hospital and what is their role in the National Game Reserves in Africa? Do you think this simulation game is realistic? Should you try to pet wild animals? How about playing games with them?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Jinny Gudmundsen
How cool would it be to work as a veterinarian in a national wildlife park in Africa and have a zebra as a patient? You can playing Viva-Media's PET VET 3D: WILD ANIMAL HOSPITAL.
This is an easy vet simulation game where you play as the veterinarian. Gamekeepers or others bring injured or sick animals to the clinic. You help the vet decide what is wrong with each animal by selecting which of the various medical instruments the veterinarian should use. After using an instrument, the vet shares her findings with you and then asks for you to make a diagnosis. Sometimes it's necessary to use many instruments before you can arrive at the correct diagnosis.
By playing through the game's progressively harder scenarios, you will cure meerkats, leopards, zebras, lions, elephants, aardvarks, and many other creatures with who come in with more than 100 illnesses.
Depending on the illness, the animal may need to stay at the clinic for a few days. As a consequence, you help the vet build enclosures and fill them with appropriate rocks, trees, sandpits, or watering holes. You nurture the animals while they are there by feeding, playing, petting, cleaning out their pens, and checking their health.
The vet has needs, too, and you have to make sure she eats, relaxes, researches, and sleeps. At times, it can get so busy that you will need to hire help.
This game is also a simple business simulation. Upkeep and expansion require cash. While it isn't difficult to make money by successfully treating the animals, it's a factor you need to pay attention to, and the amount of cash you have affects how quickly you can play through a scenario.
What the simulation does well is provide a fun environment to learn about the animals of Africa. For kids, this glimpse into an adult world of caring for animals can be quite engaging. Because players read books about each animal along with the vet, kids will learn about the habits and common illnesses of African animals. By practicing veterinary medicine alongside the virtual vet, you will learn to apply your knowledge to real-life situations. So, when an aardvark arrives with a swollen belly, you can correctly diagnose hook worms and administer a medicine that will rid the aardvark of the nasty parasite.
But this simulation isn't perfect. In the early scenarios, there's a lot of waiting for animals to arrive at your clinic, something that most kids don't do well. And while the animals are depicted in lifelike 3D, with the nifty ability to zoom close to them, there are many times when the graphics are ill suited to the situation. For example, whenever the veterinarian is supposed to examine an animal, she looks like she is examining air instead of looking closely at the animal. Or when she is supposed to place a bridle on a zebra, instead of slipping it over its head, she pokes it into its stomach.
For kids who have never played a simulation game, this is a good one to start with. It is easier to play than the excellent Zoo Tycoon series from Microsoft, but its simplicity also means that older kids may get bored. And while it contains a lot of good information about animals, some of its components are unrealistic, particularly the playing with wild animals. Only in this game will you find aardvarks willing to play a game of catch with a soccer ball.
Other good animal simulation are: Nintendogs and Fish Tycoon.
Reviewed: 06/25/2007
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Social BehaviorYou become a veterinarian and learn how to take care of wild animals. |
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Educational ValueExcellent way to learn about being a vet and about African animals. |
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