Description:
Electronic Arts and Maxis want Spore to be a Sims-style juggernaught. Released last weekend into retail to much anticipation and fanfare, the evolutionary game spearheaded by gaming luminary Will Wright is now available for a multitude of screens, including the iPhone and iPod Touch. (There are versions available for the regular iPod and mobile, too.) Rather than attempt to squeeze the biological arc of an entire species from single cell to space colonists into an unmanageable package, EA Mobile has instead zeroed in on Spore's first phase. This tide pool simulator lets you touch and tilt a itty-bitty spore in the primordial sou
Electronic Arts and Maxis want Spore to be a Sims-style juggernaught. Released last weekend into retail to much anticipation and fanfare, the evolutionary game spearheaded by gaming luminary Will Wright is now available for a multitude of screens, including the iPhone and iPod Touch. (There are versions available for the regular iPod and mobile, too.) Rather than attempt to squeeze the biological arc of an entire species from single cell to space colonists into an unmanageable package, EA Mobile has instead zeroed in on Spore's first phase. This tide pool simulator lets you touch and tilt a itty-bitty spore in the primordial soup, gathering up enough DNA to eventually leave the waters behind a seek out new life on land.
Subtitled Origins, Spore for the iPhone is a casual game to the core. If you've played Feeding Frenzy on the PC or on Xbox Live Arcade, you know how to play Spore. You must direct your spore over smaller creatures, gobbling them up to harvest DNA. Once you fill out a DNA strand, you move on to the next stage. You can increase your DNA bounties by racking up quick bite combos. Swimming into a field of food and then bouncing around the tiny meals like a pinball is the best way to maximize your intake and speed the evolutionary process. There is often extra food inside air bubbles that can be popped with spikes or by pushing them into creatures with spikes and pincers.
Getting hit by the other creatures decreases your heart meter in the upper-right corner of the screen. At first, you must flee from all enemies. But as you evolve, you add features to your creature so it can fight back or at least mount some kind of defense. There are symbiotes floating around the stages that offer temporary boosts to speed, a small shield, or a poison attack if anything touches you. These are good quick fixes, but nothing beats more permanent solutions to dealing with the local fauna.
After completing a few stages, you start earning Evolution Points that are spent on biological upgrades. In these evolutionary cycles, you can change the shape and color of your Spore, as well as add appendages for speed, offense, and defense when you start earning Evolution Points. These latter add-ons are not cosmetic. Darwin's theory of "survival of the fittest" is in full effect here with other creatures aiming to prove their might. Evolving your spore lets you decide how you want to play the game. You can go for speed and cornering skills, concentrating your prowess on avoiding danger and speedily swallowing dinner. Or you can turn your spore into a lethal machine, adding spikes and pincers so nothing is safe from your single-celled wrath. Shells and plating add defense so your spore can withstand hits from other beasts. Adding extra eyes and sensory inputs lets you chain up food from greater distances and see inside the air bubbles.
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Release date: 9 September 2008
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