14 DAY TRIAL // With the beloved Steve Irwin on the cover, this game has to be good - an homage to the great crocodile hunter, a guy that brought happiness, joy and a lot of brave deeds to our homes. Australia Zoo Animal Links will be released on the 14th of March by JoWood Productions and has a recommended retail price of ?9.99 (about $20).
Even though this game is being presented like the "next big thing", it is nothing but a casual title, so those expecting a somewhat hardcore game experience or some brave battles with crocodiles (in order to save them, of course) might be a little disappointed. Still, you will get to race against the clock to stop the Australia Zoo animals from becoming extinct - everything in a match 3 puzzle type of game (or so it seems from the only screenshot we saw).
There are also three different game modes and the same number of difficulty levels, but these have not been detailed whatsoever, so we can only hope they will bring a bit of diversity. Having in mind that we will only have 20 levels of gameplay, diversity is something we would really, really need. Still, JoWood promises that the game allows advanced replayability.
Australia Zoo Animal Links also allows players to unlock animals around the map that are found at Australia Zoo (the real one). This is some kind of an educational feature this game comes with, since every unlocked animal will give you information and pictures to educate you on that particular animal.
As always, it is up to you to decide if this game is worth playing. It seems that some casual game sites already offer free trials of it, so if you search for it really well, you will most likely find it. At least for what Steve Irwin was and did for this world you should give it a try and see if you can get something good out of it, even though it's only a casual title.