Spore: Creatures

Darwin was a wise man who a long long time ago wondered about the origin of species. His pondering on this subject led him to conclude that nature was in a constant battle for survival, and only the fittest were to survive. Through evolution over the years, species could change and become better equipped to survive. Sadly, “Spore: Creatures”, the creation of the good folks at EA did not to evolve into a better game, but rather devolved into a much more boring repetitive game. It’s like 1999 Britney Spears evolving into 2008 Britney Spears. I don’t want any part of that…

Spore: Creatures (which is actually EA’s second “Spore” title on the iPhone) starts you out with a single celled organism. You start out sliming your way around sucking up little creatures for nourishment. As you eat these creatures, you gain points that will allow you to evolve into a big strong monster, but for now you’re just a wimpy little monster. You will also find piles of bones on the ground that will unlock new parts to add to your creature. Different mouths, legs, eyes, arms, fighting tools, etc. Basically, this is what you do for the entire game. You will meet other races of creatures as well who you can decide to either brutally ravage, or you can befriend by wandering through the map looking for random gifts to return to your new friends. Friends? More like gold diggers.

If you played the first Spore game, “Spore: Creations”, you’ll know exactly what to do in the second “Spore” game in the App Store, because it’s pretty much the same exact game, on land. Like how Speed 1 was on a bus, and Speed 2 was on a boat. The first time was enough, thank you.

[caption id="attachment_26139" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Boring screenshot, boring game."]

[/caption]

The gameplay is simple enough. You control your creature with the accelerometer, and you only touch the screen to interact with other characters or the environment. That’s pretty much the entire control scheme, and it works fairly well, though sometimes it is hard to maneuver. The graphics are very nice and the sound is fitting for the game. In fact those are probably the best parts of the game.

Because of just flat out boring and repetitive gameplay, it appears that the Spore franchise and EA may have some evolving to do before they carry on this franchise’s name. It was cute the first time, but it turned into something just oh so bleeeeeh. For $6.99, “Spore: Creatures” is a worse choice than week old leftovers.