Review: Spore Origins

[EvilSpaghetti]

Spore Origins
Mobile Game Review

Title: Spore Origins
Developer: Maxim
Publisher: EA
Release Date: 09/08
Version: 1.0.0
Game Features:
Reviewed on: iPhone

256px-Sporemobile.jpg

Summary

Thrive in the tide pool as you guide your creature through its early evolution and shape its destiny. Customize your spore from a single-cell to a complex predator increasing its chance of survival as you rise through 18 interactive levels. Gather food in vivid undersea worlds filled with bizarre organisms, but be careful, you will need to avoid larger and more lethal creatures.

Review

Right-o this week Spore Origins iPhone is put to the test, only reason I’m reviewing the iPhone version is because well... I went and got myself one (not because I wanted one, I got it for free with my contract upgrade), I got the game early but I’m not saying how and there’s been a lot of hype surrounding this game, so does it live up to the hype.

Let’s get straight into the gameplay shall we? This game is quite simple, which actually works rather well, the concept of the game is that you must direct your spore over smaller creatures, eating them up to reap their DNA, you’ll notice on the screen there is a DNA strand, when you start collecting the DNA that you’ve collected from the other Spores that DNA strand will start to fill up, once that strand is full you’ll move on to the next stage. Of course the game isn’t going to be that easy, there are ‘enemies’ if you wish to call them that, basically if you get hit by them your heath will go deplete, at first you’ll find yourself running from these ‘enemies’ as you’re not yet evolved enough yet to fight back, but as you progress through the game you can add to your Spore making he/she/it able to fight back. Don’t worry all too much in the beginning, you are offered some help, throughout the stages there are temporary upgrades floating around such as; speed boosts, shields and a poison attack.
There is a slight RPG element to this game, after the first few stages you’ll start earning ‘Evolution Points’ which is basically money, which can be used to upgrade your Spore in any way you choose, be it by shape, colour, speed, defence or offence, it’s completely up to you what you do with your Spore, but the way you upgrade your spore will change the way you play the game.
The more DNA you have the more you unlock, being that I’m playing this on the iPhone, it has some nice little features which are shown off in the customization menu, so when you unlock a new item just touch it on the screen and drag it over to you spore wherever you want it to go. You can be quite strategic about when you place the items, be it a spike, place that on the front of your spore and you have a battering ram, or placing a few spikes around the sides of your Spore will help defend your Spore from incoming enemies attacking from the sides, this really makes the game a lot more fun and adds to the longevity of the game, but what I really, really liked about this game is the option to paint your spore with a photo, that’s right you can use and photo on your iPhone and use it to paint your Spore, it really makes the game that little be personal, I used this feature quite a bit during the game, hey, I even made a Spore with my face on it... I know sad, but it adds humour to the game, and sometimes that’s all a game needs to push it from being good to being great, with this feature you can even be creative, taking pictures of different textures from around your house or garden and using them to make some truly amazing looking Spores, kinda makes you what this game to be online to show off, or have a laugh seeing Spores with your friends heads on.
When it comes down to controls it’s all about using the iPhones tilt system, there is a short tutorial at the beginning of the game, but nothing too long, just getting you used to the tilt system, there are tiny slider bars on the left and bottom sides of the screen act as levels, showing you how tilting your phone around affects speed and turning, using the tilt system really makes the game that little bit more special and playable.
This game wasn’t aimed at people like me (The hardcore gamer) it was aimed more at the casual gamer, but saying that I really enjoyed the game, no not because of the tilt system, but because you can customize your Spore however you like, and without that Spore Origins would be a pretty average game, but because of the customization options the game is great.

Conclusion

Really then, this game is for the casual gamer. The game has great colourful graphics, and the sound isn’t half bad either, they really fit in well with the nature of the game; the customization keeps the game fresh and highly fun.

Screenshots

iphone-spore-origin.jpg

Graphics: 9/10
Bright, colourful graphics.

Sound: 8/10
Great sound effect and music.

Gameplay: 10/10
Amazing controls, fun, great customization options.

Story: 8/10
Works well.

Overall Score: 9.5 out of 10

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[apoteka]

im just playing it, it gets a bit boring after some time. but it seems this version is different

[JamesPoel]

Format: J2ME
Reviewed on: iPhone

....IPhone doesn't support J2ME.

[EvilSpaghetti]

Forgot to change that from the last review

thanks for reminding me

[EvilSpaghetti]

Please only talk about the review

http://forum.mobiles24.com/showthread.php?t=11182

[EvilSpaghetti]

*cough* only talk about review *cough*

[JamesPoel]

Forgot to change that from the last review

thanks for reminding me

Haha. not a problem!

[EvilSpaghetti]

Next review

The Fast and The Furious™ Streets 3D

[the_dead_man]

so the iphone version is different from the java version??

[EvilSpaghetti]

very much so