Animal Kingdom Explorers makes Orlando's Sahara go social on April 9

Disney has put its game face on for the social games races in 2012. On the heels of a major announcement with mobile social game maker DeNA, Disney Social Games (also known as Playdom) has revealed that Animal Kingdom Explorers is slated to release on April 9.

In Animal Kingdom Explorers, players save the natural world's wildlife from being poached and rendered extinct by finding them in hidden-object scenes. Players can then purchase found animals to add them to their very own wildlife preserves. This is Playdom's third hidden-object game on Facebook, so we wonder whether will that fact will adversely affect the game.

"We're taking the players someplace new, we're giving them a new decorative space, we're adding new mechanics. I've been working in the games industry for, I dunno, 14 years now, and that sort of differentiation, novelty is critical to serving your existing audience," Animal Kingdom Explorers creative director Eric Todd told us recently. "Players don't really want to play the same thing again, they want to play something new. And that's exactly what we're reaching for with The Animal Kingdom."

That said, the first Facebook game branded around a theme park does present a relatively new theme to hidden-object games: hidden animals. (And yes, we imagine that camouflage will play a role in later levels.) We can likely expect more Animal Kingdom Explorers news come Earth Day, April 22, which is also when Disney's Chimpanzees conveniently hits theaters.

Are you excited about the release of Animal Kingdom Explorers on Facebook? Have you grown tired of hidden-object games yet? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.