If you've been to a computer game store recently, you may have noticed a trend: There are a surprising number of new PC games with the word "tycoon" in their titles. Then again, one of the most consistently successful PC games in the last two years has been the strategy management game RollerCoaster Tycoon--which might explain all the other "tycoon" games. The latest of these is Microsoft's Zoo Tycoon, which lets you build a zoo full of animal exhibits, then invite lots of paying guests who'll visit, buy snacks and drinks, and generally support the zoo as a business. And while it may not be the next RollerCoaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon is a mostly enjoyable strategy game that's suitable for all ages, and it's a game that parents can play with their children.

Use the right terrain to make your animals happy.

Zoo Tycoon's basic premise is simple: You start with what's more or less an empty lot, then build several exhibits to house animals. The game features about 40 different animals out of the box, and Microsoft will make more available for download on its Web site in the future. The best way to make these exhibits is to customize them around the preferences of each animal, so that each will be as happy as possible. For instance, lions prefer savanna terrain, so your best bet for a lion exhibit is a savanna prairie filled with high grass.

The game features handy hints and status menus that let you determine exactly what will make your animals happy. When you've built your exhibits, you can start bringing in guests who pay admission fees and generally prefer watching happy, healthy, well-fed animals. You also build snack and drink stands for your guests and hire staff members who tend to the animals, act as tour guides, or maintain the grounds. And you can spend extra cash on research, which will eventually let you purchase new items for your exhibits, improve your staff's abilities, make new animals available for adoption, and buy more advanced buildings and structures, such as the reptile house or petting zoo.

Sometimes you can't see the moose for the trees.

Accomplishing these goals in Zoo Tycoon is relatively easy to do overall, despite the game's few but sometimes irritating visual flaws. The game lets you build a small or large exhibit with different terrain types and fence it in quickly and easily. Unfortunately, you can sometimes make small mistakes, since the game doesn't let you get a very close look at your zoo--Zoo Tycoon only features two "zoom" perspectives, a far-out view and a really far-out view. You might have similar problems when you're building an exhibit for an animal that likes lots of foliage, since large trees can obscure your view of the exhibit, despite the fact that the game also lets you rotate your view. You'll want to place heavy foliage along the edges of your exhibit rather than right in the middle, so that both you and your zoo's guests can see clearly into your exhibit, but unfortunately, doing this for animals that can climb (like chimpanzees and apes) may let them escape. What's more, your animals will eventually trample the terrain in their exhibits, which decreases their overall happiness. You can fix this by replacing the terrain, but actually finding it in the game's far-out view, especially through trees, can sometimes be more difficult than it should be.