Will Wright-Lite: Spore Creatures Reviewed

When Spore was first announced, we were nearly overcome with anticipation. The game looked to combine our youthful drawings of imagined monsters with Will Wright’s carefully crafted game design. Last February, it was revealed that the Nintendo DS would receive its own unique game, a slightly scaled back version developed by Foundation 9. Spore Creatures would follow a design document created by Maxis that would expand the adventure elements of the game.

After spending time with Spore Creatures, the game is not what we expected. With the exception of monster creation, the game lacks open-endedness. From the moment our creature hatched from a sea egg, and climbed onto land, he was sent on a series of dull, linear RPG-lite quests. While the gameplay does expand marginally later, by that time we grew disinterested by the early hand-holding in the title.

One of the first activities required of the player is befriending a fellow monster, with is initiated by touching the ‘talk’ icon on the bottom of the screen. If an A.I. character is willing to communicate, they will release rising smile icons, which the player needs to rub against the newly discovered beast. After a few repetitions of this, a flower icon may appear that opens a dance mini-game. Here, players must tap one of several flowers, in time to emerging seeds, Elite Beat Agents style. Often, both the rubbing and dance mini-games must be completed multiple times before a monster will befriend you. Once a beast friends you, you may invite him/her to your two creature entourage.

Other monsters will not respond to communication and are immediacy hostile. If this happens, players are immediately sent to combat mode. Sadly, this is underwhelming; players may use a bio unit to drain enemies of hit points from afar, or touch them to imitate an attack. Perhaps, the developers wanted to keep combat real-time and interactive, but a more strategic battle system would keep this activity interesting after the first few encounters. Strategy is only minimally used when making the decision as to what body parts the player should affix.

The one high point of Spore Creatures was monster creation. As players perform quests, they are rewarded with body parts for one of the seven areas of customization- heads, mouths, arms, legs, bodies, tails, and backs. This aspect of the game offers a comparable, albeit, understandably downsized approximation of the PC creature creator. Players can paint, size and rotate all parts, and animate surprisingly well. Once out of the creation lab, all monsters are drawn in a 2D Paper Mario fashion, and looking quite nice. Overall, this game seems reach for a Phantom Hourglass aesthetic, with plenty of bright green grasses, and azure waters.

Overall, Creatures seems to be aimed at the tween set, which may be tuned into the Spore hype, but could be overwhelmed by all the customization. While adults may find some interest in the portable title, we think they’d be much happier with the complexity with the PC version of the game.

Final Grade: C+

About Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

34 comments

  1. Wow, kind of disappointing

  2. Wow, I would have thought this would be much better.

  3. Joystiq said the same thing. too repetitive.

  4. I have been eagerly anticipating this title, esp. when Will Wright said the DS was his new love.

    A friend got the game thorough questionable means, and I begged him to try it. After about an hour or play, my hopes for this game disappeared. It was just ok, and didnt have any of the charm of other sim/WW titles. I gave him his DS back and looked in shock!

    Still I know the PC/MAC game we all hope and want it to be. Let’s just hope EA doesn’t expansion pack this one to death too.

  5. It will still sell on name alone.

  6. I heard this was going to be for the kiddies.

  7. Wow, I guess I’m going to cancel my pre-order.

  8. I thought it would turn out like this.

  9. So Spore is a bore?

  10. The creatures in the screenshots look ugly.

    I would hope for at least a ‘B’

  11. Maybe Maxis should have spent a bit more time with this one, besides telling F9 what to make.

  12. Thanks for the review. It sound uninspiring. Like pokemon with a creation feature tacked on.

  13. Metacritic has two score 90 and a 50. Wow!

    “Maxis has instead opted to turn Spore Creatures into a frustratingly linear and repetitive action-adventure.”

    Sound like your review.

  14. Wow, I can’t believe this game is getting pummeled. Spore is supposed to rock.

  15. Everyone seems to say it’s repetitive.

  16. Spore=overrated. The creator creator has me interested for about 30 minutes. Then I never played again.

  17. How did they screw this up? Give me someones head on a DS screen.

  18. Great going EA. Way to screw up a surefire thing.

  19. I expected better. Much better.

  20. C+ ? Really a C+ ???

  21. I think the game is more suited for a 3d system like the PSP.

  22. What did Tidegear think of it?

  23. Combat should be very fun; if its not this game fails.

  24. I remember who one the designers saying this was very open ended. You could be a carrot and play the game. Thats not the case anymore?

  25. I wonder if the Viva Pinta DS game will be better.

  26. Viva Pinata is golden; I’m sure it will be better.

  27. I will hope the PC version will be good.

  28. Will, why have you forsaken us DS owners?

  29. I hear Viva Pinata for the DS is much better

  30. Ouch. I’m kind of disappointed in the direction Maxis has taken recently, I guess supposedly due to EA for the most part. I wonder if Wright had his hand in the DS iteration as much as he did the PC version?

  31. I read somewhere that Wright had minimal input on this version. It shows.

    Despite reading this review, I bought a copy. Completely linear and very boring. Returned it three days later for store credit.

  32. I’ll get back to you. I dig the PC version for sure but it doesn’t blow me away. I’ll probably try the DS version sometime soon as it’s quite different.

  33. Compared to the PC version I’m kind of disappointed, I will have a go at playing this myself if i can rent it.

    With all due respect,

    ~Monty Kensicle