Review Surfing – Spore Creatures (DS)

A lot has been said about Spore, the new magnum opus of The Sims-creator Will Wright. And just like The Sims, the main PC game of EA’s new franchise has given birth to spin-offs. In Spore’s case, EA has spawned Spore Creatures for the Nintendo DS. Is Spore Creatures as good as its PC cousin? If one were to compare each game by virtue of capability, of course the answer is no.

Of course, there are other factors that come into play, which is why we’ve decided to have a look at what the other critics have to say:

Destructoid: (40%) Spore Creatures, unable to come close to the scale of its parent game with the limitations of the DS, is instead an action/RPG. Players are cast into the role of a freshly spawned creature which has just emerged from the water to dry land. When the sole other survivor of the evolutionary process is captured by a highly-advanced creature with goals of galactic conquest, the player must embark on a quest to rescue it.

GameSpot: (65%) Spore Creatures for the DS isn’t the far-reaching trek through evolution you may have expected–but don’t take that as a reason to totally dismiss this charming title. It’s still a cute adventure across multiple planets, and it features a pared-down version of the creature creation tool that helped make the PC release such a success.

IGN: (78%) Spore Creatures isn’t intended as a replacement for the core PC Spore experience — it’s meant to compliment that design with a unique experience that lifts many of the core elements. And for the most part it succeeds in that task: this is a fun, involved, albeit more linear DS experience with a few quirks that get in the way, but even with those quirks it’s great to experience a game on the more limited handheld with a similar sense of creativity that PC gamers will have in Spore.

So is Spore Creatures a shameless cash-in or charming complement? Ultimately, it’s what you decide. We’d love to hear what you think about the game.

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