O Zoo Le Mio
This review will not go into mechanics of the game, which have been covered in other places, but will be a point of view on other aspects of the game. Note: I'm referring to the Zoch version (O Zoo Le Mio) and NOT to ZooSim, which can be less good in some aspect (i.e. components).

Components: great. You have a square box, great sturdy cardboard tiles that seem make of wood, lots of wooden round token that symbolize money, meeples of the same color of the zoo animals (very important IMHO), lots of little wooden benches, and three trees. I glued the 4 houses to prevend opening/closing them every time I play. Overall price/component vote: 9 - for this price it's very difficult to do better (I think in Europe you get O Zoo for 14.45 euro).

Rules: simple and effective, the mechanics are smooth and clever. Easy to explain. Warning point of the rules: the 1st and 2nd to have the best attraction (1 meeple/2 meeple thing); adiacent tiles rule (combined attractions). The rules are in german and in english, the rulebook is in full color with plenty of images. Vote: 8

Theme: is present and it doesn't feel "tacked on". It really seem to have a zoo under your hands, and you will blame those little bastard meeples that flee you zoo to go seeing the newest attraction of you opponent. At the end of your session you'll look at your zoo, with benches, trees, meeples and you'll be pleased. The name of the game, by the way, is awful, expecially for our italians ears. Vote: 8.5

Scales: I tried only in 2 players, and I think it's better with 3 or more. But the blind bidding and the draw resolving mechanism guarantee a very good experience even in two players, so I feel it scales very well. Obviously it's not a perfect two player game like Carcassonne: the Castle, but it's feasable with great results. Warning: there's an evident runaway leader problem with two players, where one becomes richer than the other, so maybe a variant could be a solution (maybe in the first year, the player who gets less point gets twice the money for his tiles instead of 1 money x 1 tile.) Vote: 7.5

Overall: 8.3 (rounded). It costs only 15 euro if you're in Europe, and a little more (20?) in the US. If you're searching for a game that is a valid alternative to Carcassonne, Carcassonne the Castle, Lost Cities, etc. and that has a great theme and components, scales well from 2 to 4 players, get O Zoo Le Mio, now!