I get it, on the bottom end of the spectrum in the budget casual space you’re not often going to see things steeped in inspiration, blood, sweat, and tears. That said, that fact doesn’t necessarily excuse cases where the effort behind titles feels phoned in at best. 

I get it that with puzzle games in particular, that the joy and challenge are primarily driven by the intricacies of the challenges themselves, and that as you release new versions using that same puzzle template you’ve built there may or may not be major changes in the visuals, or the substance of the presentation. I’ve played and enjoyed pretty much every version of the Picross S series and others like it, for instance, even though fundamentally not much necessarily changes between them. The thing is, in most cases these are series who are at the top of their subgenres’ respective piles, and that does make a difference.

In the case of Fit My Zoo we’re not in the same boat though, as it really feels like a pretty low-effort re-skinning of Fit My Cat, which is pretty well an identical game through and through. Sure, you could argue that perhaps some people prefer zoo animals, or dogs, or whatever, so it’s fine. But when you bring another title like Cats Organized Neatly into the picture, I think the discussion changes. Comparing it to these others is like night and day. Its art style is far more distinctive and charming, it features far more variety in its “pieces”, and it conveys a sense of care in its design far more thoroughly.

I don’t mean to knock just this game specifically, and perhaps it’s odd or inappropriate to use its review to editorialize a bit about the bigger picture. All the same, this is a trend I’ve seen in several areas where you have some developers who are determined to share an honest vision with hand-crafted care, and others who more feel like they’re going through the motions looking to cash in. Maybe I’ve got it wrong, and this isn’t a pretty cynical cash-in put together with as little effort as possible, but it certainly feels that way.