Jeff Green of 1up writes: Spore Creatures, the Nintendo DS version of Spore, may be scaled back a few million degrees from the insane scope of the PC version, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have an ambition all its own. Think along the lines of Pokémon meets Nintendogs meets Drawn to Life, and, well, you probably have a totally wrong picture in your head. But it's close enough.
Spore Creatures, as the name makes clear, focuses entirely on the PC version's "creature phase" -- in which you create a primitive creature from scratch, and watch how it evolves and survives. Characters are 2D and are more simplified than on the PC, but still lend themselves to creative inspiration. You'll initially have 20 points to spend, which you can use any way you like amongst the different categories -- body, arms, legs, mouth, eyes and tail -- and then adjust and rotate as you please. Parts will have different values associated with them -- such as high defense for a long tail -- and as your creature levels up, you'll get more points which will let you buy ever more powerful parts. You'll have 10 save slots for creatures you create or that you've traded with friends or with folks over Nintendo's Wi-Fi network.
Insidegamer.nl: If Darwin had been a game developer, he would develop Spore Creatures .. In this game you explore with your homemade Spore being the wonderful world and try to evolve.
"Now it has become apparent that for all EA's reputation destroying efforts to ensure punters bought Spore, they may have actually acted to entice gamers to pirate the game. Forced between a choice of downloading the game for free, or effectively renting it from EA, punters voted with their clicking finger." - gameplayer reports
That picture is kinda wrong, considering the amount of illegal downloads of games like Spore I think we ('we' being gamers in general) are screwing the DRM up the backside, not the other way around.
Nice image, I didn't buy Spore and I'm glad because above DRM the game was hugely overrated.
Hugely overrated would probably be an understatement.
Gosh, that game was disappointing.
That game really needed more game to it. Creation stuff was great but it should have been secondary to game play not first.
About writes: "A spin-off from Will Wright's massive world-builder, Spore Creatures for the DS keeps the creature creating but loses all the awe of Spore. With a seemingly random storyline and a dull fighting mechanic, this is a weak interpretation of one of the biggest games of the year."
Pros
* Spore Creatures has a lovely, comic book-like aesthetic that plays with 2D and 3D.
* Adding wacky body parts to your creature is fun -- for a time.
* The DS's WiFi connection lets you show off particularly crazy creatures.
Cons
* Boiling down a huge, open game like Spore into a tiny adventure just doesn't work.
* Storyline feels random and tacked on.
* The fighting mechanic (i.e. scribbling on the screen with your stylus) is boringly simple.
