gods i wish their habitat was actually savannas... but those weenie meerkats basically won't even come out of the burrow if it's not over 95 degrees, so i guess the climate required for savannas wouldn't work for them. definitely a more interesting visual choice for a video game than endless sand covered by dry thorny things, though.
however, foraging CAN definitely be kind of tedious, so that's a realistic point for the game, even if it's not the most desirable one. do they find food every time they try? in the field it's all about digging lots of holes in the hopes of finding a juicy larva or a crunchy solifuge, but the success rate (depending on the meerkat) is generally kind of low, so it's another case where reality would suck to simulate and i hope for the sake of the players that they don't have to follow them around interminably while they dig holes that yield nothing or while they just inhale a bunch of ants off the surface because they're too lazy to dig. but!! the scorpions CAN be bigger than the meerkats, especially with pups!
if anyone has simanimals africa, how does this compare? i like all of the different animals in SAA, but i get kind of anxious (pretty pathetic, huh?) about actually playing the game because i'm always worrying that all my animals are going to leave me if i'm not going full speed with the stylus trying to keep everything watered and everyone fed.
really good review.

the ds is definitely the best platform for those of us who prefer the more off-the-beaten-track kinds of games like feenie/hotel dusk/art style series/korg/etc... plus it still has its fair share of excellent more 'gamey' games, like BIS, MMvDK, mariokart, GTA, etc - so i guess the whole metacritic analysis methodology is kind of geared towards gaming in the mainstream, so if, in their eyes, ds/wii are the worst platforms... meh.