Wild Park Manager

Genre: Management Simulation

Players: 1

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Review:

Without a doubt the most prolific developer and publisher of Management Simulation games on Nintendo Switch is Kairosoft, who specializes in games with a retro-style isometric pixel art style, often with the word “Story” in the title. As of this writing, Kairosoft has released 61 games on Nintendo Switch, most of them Management Simulations.

After their earlier games, Kairosoft had established a few templates for their Simulation games that later games would largely follow. Game Dev Story established a Simulation-style game more focused on managing employee time and focus, Hot Springs Story established a Simulation style in line with Theme Park Simulators where you try to cater to guests’ tastes to maximize attendance and income, and Epic Astro Story established a Simulation style akin to games like Sim City, where you’re building out a town or settlement. And then there’s a template that has you managing not employees but members of a sports team, something we first saw in Grand Prix Story.

Wild Park Manager originally released on mobile devices in 2017, then a port to Nintendo Switch in 2021, then to PC and PlayStation 4 in 2023. And this is one of the “cater to guests” sort of Kairosoft games, with players building and managing a sorta’ free-range petting zoo of sorts while also digging up the grounds for resources.

Yeah, this game strays pretty far from anything that logically makes sense for anything that would even remotely resemble a real-world business, and if you find yourself asking how to build the park so the birds don’t just fly off and the squirrels don’t bite guests trying to pet them, or wondering why you’re digging up the landscaping looking for buried treasure, you’re probably better off just accepting that this game’s world lives by a different set of rules than out own.

However, once you do that, I think you’ll likely to find that this is a pretty fun, if bizarre, Zoo-style Management Simulation and its quirks add personality more than anything. The one issue I’d point to here is that “inviting” a new animal to settle in your park is a roll of the dice – you may get an animal you already have, or something new, or they might outright turn their nose up at your park. I can see this being frustrating for players who have their heart set on a specific animal.

As for the presentation, as I mentioned above, this game makes use of Kairosoft’s signature presentation style using simple retro-styled pixel art visuals, paired with forgettable chiptune music and simple sound effects. Apart from the music, everything about this presentation is really endearing, though by this point we’ve seen more or less the same thing in numerous other Kairosoft games.

Overall, Wild Park Manager is an unusual but enjoyable Management Simulation. It takes a bit of getting used to its quirks, and even then it’s disappointing that there are a few things you would want to do that you can’t. But overall, I think this is worth a look for anyone who enjoys this genre.

tl;dr – Wild Park Manager is a Management Simulation where players manage a sort of open-range petting zoo of sorts. It’s an odd take on the genre and it will take a bit of time to get a feel for this game’s approach to the genre, but once you do I think you’ll find this is mostly a fun and original take on the genre that’s worth trying out.

Grade: B-

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