This game never gets old :)

When I was 9 years old, I was stuck at my sister's friend's house, with nothing to do. Likewise, they plopped me in front of their computer and put this game up on the screen. They said I'd like it. They were right. I was addicted in the first 2 minutes of playing, which was how long it took me to figure out the game's controls. In my first zoo, I remember, I made a huge fence around the entire plot of land and put like, 50 penguins inside. :)

Basic Concept:The basic concept of this game is that you build a zoo (or several zoos). There are animals, staff members and visitors which you must all keep happy and alive. (It's harder than it sounds)

In this version of Zoo Tycoon, you can have normal land animals, marine animals, half-land-half-water animals, and dinosaurs. All of the animals, to be happy in your zoo, must have food, water, shelter, good enviroments, enough space, a mate, things to keep them entertained, a clean habitat, and enough privacy. Within those catagories, each animal has different requirements.
For example, Leopards and chimpanzees may want a lot of rainforest terrain while lions and African Elephants will want more Savannah terrain.
When buying animals, you choose the spiecies, the gender, and the name of each animal. Most animals are bought as adults, except for the dinos, which are bought as eggs and hatch and grow up from there. Depending on the type of animal, some animals will cost more than others.

You get to choose how much money your zoo starts out with (The less money=the more challenging). Every change you make to your zoo cost money. You earn money when people enter or buy food, drinks, and objects from your zoo.
You can buy animals from either the buy animals botton (self-explanitory) or from researching endangered animals until they are able to buy. You earn money when your endangered animals have babies, plus they attract more people to come to your zoo.

For the people, you can buy benches for them to sit on, paths for them to walk on, food stalls for them to eat from, restrooms for them to....well, you know....and other special buildings like bird cages, primate houses, gift shops, and other things for them to visit. With some marine animals, you can conduct trick shows for guests to watch.
For your zoo, you have to hire staff members, like zoo keepers to clean up after and feed animals, marine specialists for any marine animals, and scientists to take care of dinosaurs, plus janitors to clean up after the messiest animal of all-your guests. :)

Over time, animals grow up, people come and leave, animals have babies, animals die, animals get sick, fences break and animals can get eaten by other animals, and a whole bunch of other exciting stuff. Zoo Tycoon has me hooked. I love this game.

This game is rated E for Everyone. It is also fun for everyone-kids and adults alike.
I also like to think this game is a bit educational. It teaches you about different animals and their habitats, and different kids of foliage as well.

This game, in my opinion, is much better than it's sequel. I just thought I would throw that out there.