Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania is the second expansion pack to original Zoo Tycoon game. The first, Dinosaur Digs, was nice enough, but it only added bigger animals to manage. To be exact, you were given dinosaur eggs which you could hatch and create exhibits with living dinosaurs. To make Zoo Tycoon even more various, the focus now goes to building a successful water park, full of aquatic creatures and sea-themed buildings.

Marine Mania features ten new scenarios and over 20 new animals, from giant squid to jellyfish to orcas, dolphins and sharks. Here is a full list of animals: Arctic Jellyfish, Beluga, Bluefin Tuna, Bottlenose Dolphin, Elephant Seal, Giant Pacific Octopus, Giant Squid, Manta Ray, Great Baracuda, Great White Shark, Green Moray Eel, Green Sea Turtle, Hammerhead Shark, Harbor Porpoise, Humpback Whale, Mermaid, Narwhal, Orca, Pacific Walrus, Shortfin Mako Shark, Southern Sea Otter, Sperm Whale, Swordfish, Tiger Shark, West Indian Manatee. In addition, Marine Mania includes a collection of new eye candy and themed objects such as popcorn vendors, boat rentals, and Kneemo's Sub Shop, with the best submarine sandwiches around.

The game plays pretty much the same as previous Zoo Tycoon game the most significant difference is that Marine animals are kept in Exhibit tanks. By linking an animal's habitat to a show tank, and scheduling shows (much like the exhibits in Zoo Tycoon), you can have marine specialists train the animals to wow the crowd with various tricks and antics. You will also be able to invest in filters to keep your tanks clean (you have to hire an extra maintenance guy handy in order to replace the filter pads).

Marine Mania expansion features new scenarios, some new zoo animals, new exhibit types, and the entire Dinosaur Digs expansion, but it didn't add anything new to gameplay. If you have small child or children, Marine mania may be well worth the purchase, because not only do you get the one expansion, you get a full two expansion packs (of course, if you have not picked up Dinosaur Digs yet). Download playable demo (84MB).

Minimum System Requirements
PII 233 MHz or higher, 64 MB of RAM (128 MB required for Windows XP), 500 MB of available hard disk space, 150 MB of available hard disk space for a cache file, 4× CD-ROM, Super VGA video display with 4 MB of VRAM, Original Zoo Tycoon game installed