When our lives get chaotic—say, traffic snarls up, work becomes frantic, or our toddler decides he or she is going to strip naked and tear down a city street in the middle of winter—we tend to say, “Man! Life is a zoo!” As it so happens, we humans really have no idea what it’s like to live out the zoo life. ZooVale, an upcoming cross-platform social RPG, should give us a glimpse of what it’s like to live as part of an exotic menagerie—though you can still expect some inaccuracies, like animals that walk upright. Animals don’t walk upright. Not while we’re looking, anyway.

There is a land where the giants still dwell. Now that land is your land to do with as you please. As long as you're nice, of course! Giant Realms puts you in control of breeding, raising and training giants to inhabit a world you sculpt for them. It's pretty much your usual freemium game, but the colorful personalities and the fantastic artwork save it from a life of obscurity.

Backflip Studios has released more than its fair share of iOS games, but none have managed to be quite as big a hit as DragonVale.  This fantastical spin on free-to-play zoo gaming single-handedly birthed the dragon zoo genre, and to this day remains one of the top grossing games on the App Store.  So when we learned that Backflip was going to be delivering a new free-to-play zoo-style experience, but this time in the world of robots, we were pretty excited to see what would come of it.

Backflip Studios has released more than its fair share of iOS games, but none have managed to be quite as big a hit as DragonVale.  This fantastical spin on free-to-play zoo gaming single-handedly birthed the dragon zoo genre, and to this day remains of one the top grossing games on the App Store.  So when we learned that Backflip was going to be delivering a new free-to-play zoo-style experience, but this time in the world of robots, we were pretty excited to see what would come of it.

Developed by Backflip Studios, Gizmonauts is a social-sim that puts players in charge of a floating island filled with robots. You’ll build a variety of different “Bots”, assemble all sorts of buildings for them, and even pit them against one another in battle. Gamezebo’s quick start guide will provide you with detailed images, tips, information, and hints on how to play your best game.

Monster Quest is an action simulation game from GREE, where you are tasked with building a thriving habitat for monsters to grow and prosper. Making a place fit for dragons can be a bit of a daunting task but with Gamezebo’s quick start guide you’ll be off and running in no time.

Take a deep breath and steel yourself for a shock: the App Store has a new free-to-play zoo-building game. Yeah, it’s some pretty intense news, but if we all hang onto each other and pray, we’ll get through it somehow. Then again, you might actually consider loosening yourself from the grieving knot long enough to give Wonder Zoo—Animal Rescue a try. It’s not a remarkably original mobile zoo simulator, but it’s well put-together.

In every alternate reality and hidden world filled with impossible creatures, there’s always a single, universal rule: Catch ‘em and make ‘em fight each other. Monster Quest’s fantastical setting is no different. Okay, that’s not entirely true. There’s less of an emphasis on fighting and combat strategies and more of a focus on rounding out the beastiary. The fun here is in the fusion…but there might not be enough of it to go around.

Gameloft’s Wonder Zoo has you driving your jeep through amazing locations, rescuing stolen animals, restoring their health and bringing them home to a beautiful zoo oasis that you have built for them. Place fun buildings and décor, breed and crossbreed for rare animals and play along with your friends. Gamezebo’s quick start strategy guide will provide you with detailed images, tips, information, and hints on how to play your best game.

There are two important things to know about robot fighting: it’s awesome, and it’s expensive. The latter tends to take away from the former, of course, but there are ways around it. You could glue wheels to a blender and proclaim it a battling machine, for instance. If your imagination is not that vivid and/or you’d rather not disrespect the sacred bond between human and household appliance, Gizmonauts can help.