Reviews – Spore Creatures (DS)

Spore Creatures is a charming game, and is nothing like its PC counterpart, but that’s not necessarily a bad or good thing. By itself, Spore Creatures is actually not bad. However, since the game carries the “Spore” moniker, comparisons and criticisms can’t be avoided.

Designer Will Wright’s Spore is an evolutionary journey across planets. Spore Creatures is nothing more than an action RPG with Spore trappings. The famed creature creator is also present, although severely limited. Environments are also in 3D but the creatures and flora are paper-thin 2D sprites. It’s fortunate that despite technical limitations, Spore Creatures carry a distinctive, cartoony charm.

“Evolution” in Spore Creatures is a combination of leveling up and changing body parts. These body parts act like RPG equipment—each arm or leg comes with a corresponding stat that affects the creature’s overall capabilities. Combat is done by slashing the stylus across an enemy, while magic is renamed “bio-powers,” which grant powers like healing or flame breath.

These bio-powers that come with certain limbs are very important because they could mean success or failure in certain missions. As a result, the evolution of the creature feels forced (i.e. linear) because it’s the only way to progress.

Aside from combat, Spore Creatures come with a social element that allows the creature to befriend other critters. This is done by sending out a friendly creature call, which brings up a smiley above the potential friend’s head. After doing a series of dragging and rubbing, a rhythm minigame is initiated. If the player is successful, the target critter becomes a friend. This social element adds a little depth to Spore Creature’s action RPG gameplay.

Unfortunately, Spore Creature comes with several flaws that dampen the experience. In addition to the game’s linearity, the stylus controls are quite inaccurate. Selecting anything in the environment becomes rather difficult, while the camera doesn’t provide a good look at the environment. Blame it on the automatic zoom-in feature and awkward button mapping that requires players to interact with the environment using the stylus, move the creature using the directional buttons, and move the camera left or right using the shoulder buttons.

There’s a problem: how does one manipulate the shoulder buttons when the left hand is holding the directional pad, while the right hand is holding the stylus?

Not even the stylized, attractive visuals or the adorable audio can save Spore Creatures from evolving into bargain bin material. The combat RPG elements aren’t particularly special, the creature creator is severely limited, and the controls are poor. Spore Creatures deserves to stay at the bottom half of the food chain.

5/10

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