SimAnimals Africa is a cute animal simulation game for kids. The animals and settings are colorful and well-animated, and the gameplay is easy and accessible. However, ultimately there isn't enough to do in the game to keep kids playing for very long once the game's missions are ended.

The premise is promising, and everything is presented in a kid-friendly atmosphere of cute animals frolicking around the various natural habitats. At the beginning of the game, a short tutorial leads players through the controls and menus. This tutorial also explains the main theme of the game, which is to keep all the animals happy and satisfied while maintaining the environment.

The first scenario is a savannah populated with meerkats, elephants and anteaters. The main goal is to make friends with the three types of animals and keep them happy. This is accomplished by shaking the plants to drop seeds for new plants or to release bugs, and then feeding them to the animals. The seeds can also be planted for new plants, which is important to maintain the food supply.

There are also different special types of plants that act as powerups of a sort, adding special abilities to the animals. However, these powerups aren't very useful nor interesting, as they mostly affect the animal's needs or wants in minor ways.

As the main goals are to keep the animals happy and make them friends, players will spend most of their time shaking the plants to collect bugs and seeds. The controls are touch-screen based for object interaction and menu options. The stylus is used to manipulate the animals and plants by touching and dragging. Plants and animals can be picked up and moved around, the animals can be petted, and the plants shaken for seed dispersion.

The controls work well, but the screen is very crowded with all the animals and plants. Trying to select one object is sometimes difficult, especially when trying to catch the spiders. Many times an animal will be picked up inadvertently. The happiness level is shown by a menu bar on the bottom; once the bar is filled the level is complete and players can choose another habitat location. Meeting this goal can be a bit tedious, as players will have to shake a lot of plants and move a lot of animals to make their animals happy.

SimAnimals Africa is a nice enough game for kids, but despite a decent interface and cute animals the gameplay itself isn't varied enough or long enough. Once the habitats have been visited and their respective goals met, the replay value isn't enough to keep kids' interest for very long. The habitats aren't very large, either, and players will get tired of scrolling around the little environments crowded with animals.

A nice enough game for younger players on the DS, but one that is best used for short play-times.

Gameplay: 7.0
The gameplay is fun enough at first, but will soon become a bit tiring due to a lack of variety and shortness of the overall mission. The controls and interface work nicely and as expected, though, and the game is easy to learn and play.

Graphics: 7.5
Everything looks good, and the animals move around smoothly. There isn't a whole lot going on beside the animals moving around, though.

Sound: 7.0
The music and sound effects are fitting for the African theme.

Difficulty: Easy
The game is easy to learn, which is good for younger players. The interface is intuitive and accessible.

Concept: 7.0
There isn't a whole lot that is new, but the presentation is good.

Overall: 7.0
SimAnimals Africa is an average simulation game for kids, which could have been better with more variety or more interaction with the environment. Larger levels would have helped, as well. After awhile, shaking the same plants in the same areas gets a bit boring. The controls work well, and the interface is easy and intuitive. Hopefully, the next edition in this series will feature more variety and length of play.