Napalm Riot

From the makers of the groundbreaking Sims series, Maxis presents Spore, their latest unprecedented simulation game, slated to release in the US on September 7th of 2008.

In the Spore universe players will begin as multicellular organisms called protean microbes in the cell stage, like an amoeba for instance. From this stage you will be able to progress through four other stages including creature, tribe, civilization, and space. Each stage is largely different from the next and each provides different types of game play. In the creature stage one can expect to compete in an ecosystem with other species, both herbivores and carnivores, while trying to mate for the survival of your hand crafted species.

Speaking of hand crafting your own species, in both the cellular stage and the creature stage, the player has direct control over evolution. After an egg is laid or mating has occurred, the player is prompted into the creature editor, where you are given direct control over the appearance of your creature. The possibilities within this editor are endless, whether you want a triped herbivore with a bird's beak or a ten legged giant insect creature, the choice is yours. Below is a picture of a creature created by the development team, and the other screenshot shows the creature editor in action.




After you advance from these two stages your creatures become smart and you advance to the tribal stage. In the tribal stage you command a handful of your creatures, however since you've past the creature stage you can no longer edit your creatures appearance and functionalities associated with their body structure. However in the tribal stage you can begin building structures while your creatures learn to create tools. In this stage you can even interact with other tribes as well. The screenshot below shows a group of tribal creatures.



In the civilization stage you begin building cities. This is the stage where you can really begin your quest for domination. The climax of this stage is highlighted by the domination of an entire world, where you will have several cities like the one depicted below.



Finally the last stage of the game and probably the most vast part is the space stage. In this stage you can travel not only between worlds, and solar systems, but constellations, until you've conquered the galaxy. In this mode you can explore foreign worlds, observe and tamper with unintelligent lifeforms or either destroy or make peace with the intelligent ones. The truly amazing aspect of Spore is that the game takes the creatures and civilizations created by other players around the world and plants them in your game to create a sense biodiversity without having to create thousands of creatures yourself. But note that even though these creatures are imported from other player's databases, they are computer controlled. Nonetheless, several screenshots of the space stage are depicted below.




Excited yet? Well if you really cannot wait until September for the release of this game, Maxis is releasing a limited and full version of the creature editor on June 17th. The limited version will be available free at the Spore Website, which contains 25% of the available creature parts of the full version which will be purchasable for $9.95.

The mere concept of Spore sets unprecedented goals for the game which will undoubtedly come together and create another utterly addicting god-like simulation game by Maxis. For more information about Spore you can visit the Spore Website or watch the 2006 E3 Demo or even watch Robin Williams create a creature in the Creature Editor.


-FuzzyLovePanda