Spore is all the rage right about now. The PC/Mac game came out to a range of media attention, from varied gameplay to DRM issues. EA is extending Spore’s reach by releasing Spore Origins for the iPhone. In this mobile version, you get a chance to make and evolve your creature, but only through the early stages of the game.
For an iPhone game, Spore Origins looks terrific. The graphics and textures are all done very well. Some of the cut-scenes will show some signs screen tearing, which is something I haven’t seen on the iPhone before. Sound-wise, Spore does a pretty good job. The background music is nice and the sound effects work well for the game. I’d recommend using headphones since the iPhone speaker isn’t the loudest and clearest.
In Spore Origins, you get to play through the early stages of it’s PC/Mac big brother. You’ll start off in the Primordial Ooze and have to grow your way into a bigger creature. Along the way, you’ll get evolution points where you can add offensive, defensive, perception or maneuvering items to your creature. You’ll also unlock new colors, patterns, etc. for further customization. If you like, you can use colors and patterns from a picture taken with your iPhone camera or anything in your Photo Library.
To play the game, you use the tilt controls of the iPhone to move around the world. You’re goal is to eat smaller creatures to boost your DNA meter to a certain level to complete each stage. Avoiding larger enemies is crucial, as they can eat you and cause damage, depleting your DNA meter. As you progress through the game, different enemies and obstacles are introduced to keep the gameplay fresh. Some levels require you to complete a maze and later levels have boss characters to defeat. If you’ve ever played fl0w, it’s very similar, but with a Spore twist. There is one major issue with the control of the game. Because you aren’t touching the screen, the iPhone doesn’t know it’s being used and will darken the screen and eventually lock, pausing the game. Hopefully EA can patch this so that the screen dimming issue disappears.
The Creature Creator options are minimal compared to the full PC/Mac version of the game. You can choose the color and pattern of your creature as well as manipulate the size and proportions if its body by pinching and stretching it on the screen. By playing further, you can unlock various items to evolve your creature, such as probes, shields, etc. For what Spore Origins offers in terms of gameplay, there are plenty of options available to you to control the look and feel of your creature. It would have been nice to included an option to export the creature to the full version of the game, but that wasn’t in the cards. You can have up to four different creatures on your iPhone.
Spore Origins provides a great deal of gameplay for $10 and is definitely a fun experience. I wish it would have expanded past the Creature phase, but that probably would have made the game too large and too expensive for mobile gaming. Well worth the purchase, just make sure to tap the screen every once in a while so it doesn’t darken on you.
Overall: 8 out of 10
