Tofu Hero Gaming

Title: Spore Creatures
Platform: Nintendo DS
Genre: Life Simulation
Release Date: 5 September 2008
Developer: Foundation 9
Publisher: EA Games
Rating: PEGI 7+

WHAT IS… Spore Creatures?

Spore Creatures is a portable spin off of one of this year’s most eagerly anticipated titles. Spore Creatures works in a very similar way to Spore as you have a creature which you can customize in literally hundreds of ways to make almost anything you can imagine. However this is a spin off from Spore, not a portable version. In Spore you create a creature and evolve it from a single cell and from there make an entire civilization which will span the galaxy – in this version you are locked within the creature stage and following a storyline as opposed to just trying to evolve and progress onto the next evolutionary stage.

GRAPHICS 7/10

The game uses 3D graphics for the world and 2D spites for the creatures. This does fit the game quite well as we all know the Nintendo DS isn’t the most powerful of systems so using Paper Mario style 2D creatures makes perfect sense given the huge amount of customization that the player is allowed. However, some of the environments are a bit bland and simply seem to be a case of this level has a flat green floor, the next level has a flat, brown floor, the one after that has a bit of green and a bit of brown. There doesn’t seem to have been enough time taken on the environments as they were obviously spending all their time creating new parts for your creatures. Also it is worth noting that given the small size of the screen it does get quite hard to see some of the parts and after a little bit of levelling up you end up get a cluttered mass of body parts with no real sense of what exactly the creature is.

+ Nice and inventive variety of creatures and creature parts
- Bland and repetitive environments
- Low resolution means parts are hard to distinguish

STORY 7/10

The story line generally takes you on a linear path through the game in a quest to save your friend from Aliens. Along the way you will meet and interact with lots of different creatures in a number of fun and interesting ways. There’s not really a great deal to say about the story as whilst it is there one there it is quite thin, all you really need to know is you are trying to rescue your friend and in order to do so you must evolve by carrying out various tasks and socialising or fighting other creatures. It is also quite long as there are many events thrown in which almost seem to simply be an arbitrary lengthening device.

+ Very clear and concise and fairly long storyline.
- Seems to have been unnecessary lengthened at various points throughout.
- Story is very thin and revolves around one single event.

LONGEVITY 10/10

This is a very long game and contains an awful lot of content, if you are inventive enough you can play through this game several times in several different ways by selecting different parts for your creature. This of course means that there is quite a fair bit of replay value as you could play through once by fighting your way through with a carnivore then replaying the game with a friendly and loveable herbivore creature meaning you will have to go through entirely being a social animal and gaining other creatures to help you on your quest. Also the game features badges, which are essentially an achievement system which gives you rewards for doing things like completing all the goals on a planet or walking through hundreds of bushes which allow you access to cheats and new parts unlocked with badge points.

+ Everyone loves an achievement system
+ Plenty of replayability
+ Lots of things to unlock
+ Replaying does not get boring

GAMEPLAY 7/10

The game uses the touchscreen to control most of its actions. This does mean that many of the games actions do end up being reduced to frantically rubbing on the touchscreen to do pretty much anything. There are some variations on this such as a social minigame where you have to tap in a rhythm in order to do a dance in an effort to befriend a creature. Fighting works in a very similar way in that in order to attack you draw a line across the creature you are fighting to attack them. Whilst there is good use of the touchscreen it is pretty much always used in a similar way as you are either tapping the screen or rubbing frantically on the screen to do pretty much anything.

+ Good use of the touchscreen
- Many gameplay elements are repeated for many situations

FUN 8/10

There are just so many parts of this game which contribute to the overall fun factor. Creating your own creature is fun as is the social and fighting aspect of the game. There is so much to do, which whilst it can be repetitive it is not tedious and as there are badges to collect as well as literally hundreds of creature parts over plenty of areas this will keep you going for a very long time.

+ Lots of different elements come together to make it fun
+ A lot of different and fun things to do

OVERALL 7.8/10 

This is a fun game with many parts that come together to make it really a good game. The fun and longevity comes together to make sure that you will be playing this title for many months to come.

BETTER THAN: The Sims 2 (DS)

WORSE THAN: Spore (PC)