Yes, Wildlife Tycoon: Venture Africa is a "tycoon" game--but quite different from others of the genre. The objective isn't to build a business, but a balanced ecosystem. For example, one level's objective is to have some number of lions in play--but to get that many, you have to build up your zebra population so there's enough prey to support your lions. And to support that many zebra, you need to plant enough bushes to sustain them.
Yet it also isn't a hard-core simulation in the style of Sim Life (and thank goodness); it's a simple, straightforward game with pleasantly animated African wildlife, and a tutorial system that anyone who can read (and this is a good game for kids) will find good and sufficient. Contrariwise, it's a tougher game to win, even on "Easy" setting, than most casual games (many of which can be won by a monkey clicking randomly).
What do you do in the game? Plant things to support your herbivores; place breeding pairs of animals, and hope there's enough food and water to support them. Summon rainclouds to fill dry waterholes, to establish a new environment to sustain your populations. To do these things, you need "jewels" (a game conceit--if the term offends you, call 'em "ecopoints"), which you gain by hitting intermediary objectives--some number of animals of different types. So as with a traditional tycoon, it's a "builder" game, where your initial deployments produce resources to let you expand further, but here, you're building up your animal populations, rather than literal buildings.
Good, clean fun--and perhaps even a bit of educational value.
A nominee for both the Independent Game Festival and Slamdance, by the way.
