Planet Zoo comes to console in March and it plays brilliantly

Hot off the heels of Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Gate Daemonhunters making the jump to console, Frontier Developments' much more serene Planet Zoo is making the same jump this year.

Planet Zoo: Console Edition will see the 2019 title hop the enclosure and land on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on March 26. We were able to visit Frontier earlier this month to go hands-on with an early build.

Planet Zoo: Console Edition could be an excellent port

As you can imagine, Planet Zoo: Console Edition is much the same as what players have been enjoying over the last four years, remapped to console controllers.

Through a series of tabbed menus and shortcuts, it translates pretty impressively, too. After a quick guided tour of Goodwin House, the game's initial zoo, I was intuitively relocating animals, placing food stalls, and even terraforming with ease.

Naturally, it's not going to ever be quite as easy as moving a mouse and clicking, but I was impressed at how quickly I was able to adapt - even as someone who hasn't played the game on PC. In fact, I was even able to zoom right in and pop some guests' balloons just to be a nuisance.

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As with any management sim, there also needs to be some degree of chaos, and I was pleased to see a lion escape to terrify my guests. The dangers of working with animals, eh?

Speaking of animals, they all looked fantastic in the preview build I played, even if my fear of snakes kept me mainly focussed on the furrier denizens of my zoo.

In terms of what's new, Planet Zoo: Console Edition has four years of free updates from the PC version added, too, making it a great place to start. Frontier Workshop is also supported, allowing players to download just about anything from other zoos.

Planet Zoo: Console Edition will arrive for £39.99, but the Deluxe Edition includes 16 additional animals and two new scenarios for Southeast Asian rainforests and rich wetlands. It'll see you back £49.99.

You can also pick up the Ultimate Edition which adds 14 DLC updates in the Season Pass for £99.99.