Review of Spore Creature Creator
Maxis and EA Games Brought us the Sims Now Get Ready for Spore
The Spore Creature Creator comes in a free trial version as well as the complete full edition for about ten dollars. The free trial version is examined in detail within this review.
For those readers unfamiliar with the upcoming game, Spore is made by EA Games and Maxis, the same creators that brought us brilliant, addictive time-wasters like the Sims 2. Much like the Sims franchise, Spore is not an action game or a role-playing game, it is a game that thrives on creation and imagination. With Spore, EA Games and Maxis present a game that takes god-simulation to the Big Bang level. In Spore a player becomes god over an entire species and galaxy, guiding them through stages of evolution and civilization.
The actual Spore game will be released later this year, in fall 2008. It will appear, according to the Spore official website, in September. A version of the Spore game will also come out on the Nintendo DS and even on the iPhone.
The Spore Creature Creator
The free trial of the Spore Creature Creator is simple to operate. The Creature Creator begins by setting the player up with a gelatinous, 3-D blob. With the touch of the cursor the gelatinous blob highlights itself and flashes a maneuverable spine. The player can manipulate their animal’s body about as it defies gravity and hovers over its own personal stage. Or, if you prefer, load a premade monster and toy with it before venturing out to make your own.
Players assemble their creatures using lists of displayed parts. A menu filled with mouths appears, complete with pincers, mandibles, and crocodile snouts. In other menus players pick out legs and arms. Creature shapes are limited in the free trial of the Spore Creature Creator, but there is enough variety that the animals won’t look alike. Without buying the complete Creature Creator the player is unable to pick herbivore or omnivore mouths, only a selection of meat-eating mouths. Most parts of the creatures are adjustable. Snouts can be extended; legs and arms stretched out and bent.
After reaching some level of satisfaction with your creature, it’s time to paint it and test it. The paint tool is a little slow in the free trial, but manipulating the available colors and patterns allows the player’s creations to stand out in their own style. In the test portion of the Creature Creator you can watch your critter dance and mime a few moods. It can also roar and sing and punch. You can pop in a few baby prototypes to run around with your creature. If left alone without instructions from the player the creatures wiggle and fidget. As you command the adult to roar or sing the babies will mimic the action.
The Drawbacks
The Creature Creator was released by Maxis and EA Games with one clear purpose in mind, and that was to stir up excitement for the game. Their attempt is successful. With the free trial only a few hours of experimenting with creatures gets frustrating and repetitive. It’s cute to see the babies screaming with a new critter, but with all the effort that a player puts into designing their creatures it is only natural to want to see the animals in action. Will the creature that you’ve spent three hours creating survive in a fight against someone else’s monster? Until the real Spore game arrives this fall no one knows.
