Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania is the third expansion pack for Zoo Tycoon 2. The expansion focuses around marine animals, as did the Marine Mania expansion for the first Zoo Tycoon game.
Gameplay[]
Animal shows[]
Marine Mania introduces shows and an animal training minigame (more minigames were later introduced in Extinct Animals) which were previously not in the other expansions of the game. The player can train individual animals in the first-person, guest mode themselves or hire a trainer to train the animals.
The training minigame takes place in a training area, inside the animal's tank. The player uses a "training wand" to follow a tracer along a form which differs with the trick that is being taught. The training increases the animal's skill in that particular trick, as the animal becomes more skilled the training becomes more difficult. The difficulty of the training is increased by the form becoming narrower, the tracer moving more quickly and the addition of such obstacles as the player needing to press an arrow key or click the mouse at a certain point.
The shows take place in a tank adjacent to the animal's regular tank, accessible through a tank portal. The player choreographs the show by adding trick into the acts of the show. Tricks by different animals in the same act as each other takes place at roughly the same time.
Animals[]
Image | Animal | Biome | Conservation status | Star requirement | Performs in Shows |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Beluga | Tundra | Vulnerable | 0.5 | Yes |
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Blacktip Reef Shark | Lower Risk | 3 | No | |
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Blue Marlin | Pelagic | Lower Risk | 1 | No |
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Bottlenose Dolphin | Vulnerable | 3.5 | Yes | |
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California Sea Lion | Coastal | Lower Risk | 1.5 | Yes |
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False Killer Whale | Coastal | Lower Risk | 4 | Yes |
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Goblin Shark | Benthic | Lower Risk | 4 | No |
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Green Sea Turtle | Endangered | 1 | No | |
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Leatherback sea turtle | Pelagic | Critical | 2.5 | No |
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Narwhal | Tundra | Vulnerable | 3 | No |
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Manta Ray | Lower Risk | 0.5 | No | |
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Orca | Lower Risk | 5 | Yes | |
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Pacific Walrus | Tundra | Vulnerable | 4.5 | Yes |
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Rockhopper Penguin | Coastal | Vulnerable | 2 | No |
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Scalloped Hammerhead Shark | Pelagic | Low Risk | 3.5 | No |
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Sea Otter | Coastal | Endangered | 2.5 | Yes |
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Short-finned Pilot Whale | Pelagic | Lower Risk | 2 | Yes |
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West Indian Manatee | Vulnerable | 1.5 | No | |
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Whale Shark | Benthic | Vulnerable | 4.5 | No |
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White Shark | Benthic | Vulnerable | 5 | No |
Animals which can perform in shows must be trained first, either by the player playing minigames, or by hiring a trainer. Players are also able to swim with certain animals, by "riding" on them.
Animals can use either a tank or regular exhibit water. Animals like the rockhopper penguin or California sea lion, which live in coastal areas, require a combined land and water exhibit to remain happy. Animals which use land will generally accept either the rock or desert islands instead of normal land, and so may be kept in tanks or hybrid exhibits.
Polar bears and emperor penguins from the original Zoo Tycoon 2 were updated to swim underwater, while Nile crocodiles and American beavers were left as Blue Fang Games believed, contrary to scientific fact, that those two were incapable of doing so. In the following expansion, Extinct Animals, this was changed so the beaver and crocodile could now submerge.
Ambient Animals[]
These animals appear automatically in water that the player places, but are non-adoptable and cannot be moved (or eaten by inhabitants of tanks). The player can buy koi fish as a decoration (they are still alive) but they die quickly as they have no food or other biome modifications.
Image | Animal | Biome 1 | Biome 2 | Biome 3 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Blenny | Coastal | Reef | ||
Capelin | Reef | Tundra | ||
Rock crab | Benthic | Coastal | Tundra | |
Herring | Coastal | Pelagic | Tundra | |
Moon jellyfish | Coastal | Reef | ||
Lionfish | Coastal | Reef | ||
Atlantic mackerel | Coastal | Pelagic | ||
Remora | Coastal | Pelagic | Reef | |
Spadefish | Benthic | Coastal | ||
Powder blue tang | Reef |
Animal Houses[]
Aquarium with Tropical fish[]
Animal | Picture |
---|---|
Blue fish | N\A |
Lemon Tropical Fish | N\A |
Little Red Fish | N\A |
Aquarium with Jellyfish[]
Animal | Picture |
---|---|
blue jellyfish | N\A |
red-orange jellyfish | N\A |
Touch Pool[]
Animal | Picture |
---|---|
Horseshoe Crab | |
Sea Cucumber | |
Sea Star | |
Conch |
Objects animals[]
Animal | Object | Picture |
---|---|---|
Arctic Cod | Live Food | ![]() |
Blue Whale | Blue Whale Hall | |
Koi | Koi | |
Yellowfin Tuna | Live Food | ![]() |
Unidentified seal | Prey Dummy | ![]() |
Biomes[]
Four new biomes have been added with the expansion, in addition to the other ten from the original game:
Besides this, the method of biome layout has been altered, enabling players to filter rocks, plants and trees while laying down the terrain. The game also allows the player to build mixed tank-land exhibits, also called hybrid tanks. This way, animals like the walrus can come onto land to rest, and go back into the water later, while allowing guests to view the animals both above ground and in the water. Players can now dive underwater in "guest mode".
It is worthy of note that all of the new animals go into either the above categories or the tundra biome.
Regional Changes[]
In the American version of Marine Mania, the cover art depicts a walrus on a glacier behind the orca, while the European version artwork has no walrus on a glacier and several people looking behind the tank have been removed as well.
Demo[]
- Main article: Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania Demo.

Demo screen for Marine Mania.
A demo for Marine Mania was released in collaboration with Perdue Farms that was both physically and available to download for free on the Zoo Tycoon 2 website. Included in this demo was a custom map to demonstrate the new tank building and marine show mechanics. This map could be played on in either Sandbox Mode or Campaign Mode. The Campaign Mode for this map is short, starting with a tutorial and ending with the player needing to have 8 animals (of which may be any combination of the Bottlenose Dolphin, Rockhopper Penguin, Green Sea Turtle, and Orca) and $2,000 in marine show donations.
Trivia[]
- Marine Mania was the first expansion to fully use Blue Fang's proprietary .bfb file format for its model files instead of the .nif format that was the default for the Gamebryo engine Zoo Tycoon 2 was developed with. As .bfb files could not be opened by any 3D modeling software at the time, this left the model assets for Marine Mania and Extinct Animals inaccessible until the file format was eventually reverse-engineered for Blender.
- However, the Marine Mania demo and beta version still retained its .nif assets, allowing some designing teams to access them to use for their own creations.
Gallery[]
For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania.
External Links[]
Zoo Tycoon |
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Zoo Tycoon ā¢ Dinosaur Digs ā¢ Marine Mania ā¢ Endangered Species Theme Pack ā¢ Complete Collection |
Zoo Tycoon 2 |
Zoo Tycoon 2 ā¢ Endangered Species ā¢ African Adventure ā¢ Zookeeper Collection ā¢ Dino Danger Pack ā¢ Marine Mania ā¢ Extinct Animals ā¢ Ultimate Collection |
Zoo Tycoon (Xbox) |
Zoo Tycoon (Xbox) ā¢ Ultimate Animal Collection |
Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game |
Zoo Tycoon: The Board Game ā¢ New Shores ā¢ Additional Species Pack |
Spinoffs |
Zoo Tycoon Card Flip Game ā¢ Zoo Tycoon 2: Mobile ā¢ Zoo Tycoon 2: Marine Mania Mobile ā¢ Zoo Tycoon DS ā¢ Zoo Tycoon 2 DS ā¢ Zoo Tycoon Friends |