Yesterday, the long awaited Spore was finally released here in the US.

Spore, a product of Sims mastermind Will Wright, has been in development for some 8 years with the public knowing about the game for about the last 3-4 years. The lengthy development time along with multiple release-date delays built up a huge amount of anticipation for the game.

Spore is a multi-genre “massively single-player online game” developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. It allows a player to control the evolution of a species from its beginnings as a unicellular organism, through development as an intelligent and social creature, to interstellar exploration as a spacefaring culture. It has drawn wide attention for its massive scope, and its use of open-ended gameplay and procedural generation. (Wikipedia)

In addition to the game itself, there is also an extensive online database of all the creatures users have created called Sporepedia. It currently has over 8.4 million user-created creatures. (If you have a Spore account and are logged in, feel free to check out my Spore profile.)

My initial impression of the game is that it is incredibly addictive and fun. There are a slew of complexities that make the game a different experience for every player and helps keep the game fresh. I’ve been playing the game on my MacBook Pro (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, 3GB RAM). Initially the framerate on the game felt really slow so after reducing some of the graphic settings in the game everything felt incredibly smooth. It was a bit of a letdown that the game wouldn’t run at full graphic capacity on my MBP. I’ll be doing a full, in-depth review in the coming weeks on game play and performance.

Spore Origins

Last week, Spore Origins for regular iPods was released. And now, 5 days later, Spore Origins for the iPhone/iPod touch has been released and is available for purchase in the iTunes App Store for $9.99.

Spore Origins is essentially just the Cell Phase of the regular Spore game that consists of you, as a microbe, swimming around eating other creatures. You then upgrade/evolve your creature as you gain more DNA.

Overall gameplay is really smooth and the tilt control works better than I thought it would. It’s not an incredibly complex game but it’s still a lot of fun.

Have you played Spore or Spore Origins? What has been your initial impression as far as performance and game play goes?

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All of the gaming love seems to have been directed at iPhone and iPod touch users for the past few months so it’s only fair that “regular” iPod owners get a piece of the pie.

Tricky Software has released Spore Origins. It’s currently only available for iPod nano (3rd generation), iPod classic and iPod (5th generation).

Using a simple single-finger control (via the click-wheel), you can navigate around 18 levels in six different worlds. The same premiss of the full Spore game applies here in that as you complete levels, you can evolve your creature to be stronger and faster.

The game is available in the iTunes store for $4.99.

Tricky Software is working on getting Spore Origins developed for iPhone/iPod touch and hopes to have it available in the coming weeks (no word yet on pricing).

The full Spore game is scheduled to be released in a matter of days on September 7th.

If you give Spore Origins a go, let us know!

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I’m looking forward to Spore. Although I don’t always purchase the Special edition copies, I will be purchasing this edition. Spore Galactic Edition has a lot of extras that you cannot find in the regular game.

• Making of Spore DVD
• How to Build a Better Being DVD from the National Geographic Channel
• The Art of Spore hardback mini-book
• Fold-out Spore poster
• 100-page Galactic Handbook

I’m looking forward to all the extras that will be included I’m really looking forward to the Making of Spore DVD along with How to Build a Better Being. The latter would be handy right now. Last week, EA has created additional excitement for this upcoming game by releasing The Spore Creature Creator. It is available for Mac and Windows users. There is a free version or you can purchase the full copy that unlocks all creatures for $9.95.

I downloaded my copy last week. You’ll find the same tools in the Creature Creator that will be available when the game is released. Spore Creature Creator has its on channel on you tube. Although I knew it was going to be popular I had no idea it would take off as it has. The Spore Creature Creator was released last week and over one million creature designs have been created since it was released. The Spore Creature Creator allows users to create and share their creations on YouTube.

I enjoy open-ended gameplay. The Elder Scroll series definitely falls into this category, and I could spend hours wandering around that massive environment. I’m looking forward to Spore because it’s massive and will give me the in-game freedom I crave. Spore is being developed by Maxis and is being designed by Will Wright. It’s hard to place Spore under one genre since there are so many stages to the game. Will Wright has called it “a multi-genre massively single-player online game.”

In Spore, you have the ability to control the evolution of a species from the beginnings as an unicellular organism through development as an intelligent social creature. There are five phases to the game; Cell, Creature, Tribal, Civilization, and Space. According to some reports the first four phases should take between 10-15 hours to complete. That’s a lot of game time! It’s going to take me a while before I’m able to travel to space. I don’t have a lot of time for gaming.

Spore will also be available for mobile phones. The game will be simplified and will give players the chance to try to survive as a multicellular organism swimming in a tide pool. Unlike the full version of the game the mobile game will be about an hour long. The iPhone version will use the device’s touch capabilities and 3-axis accelerometer.

Spore Galactic Edition will be released simultaneously for Mac and Windows. Europe will receive it on September 5, 2008. It will be available in North America on September 7, 2008. The cost will be $79.99.

Are you planning on purchasing Spore or Spore Galactic Edition? Is so let us know by leaving a note in the comment section.

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Spore, the game of origin, evolution, and life, is now officially slated to released simultaneously with its PC counterpart.

Spore has had a number of release date delays and its future with the Mac platform was initially uncertain. It being one of the most anticipated games of the decade makes this a huge announcement for Mac users who are interested in the game.

Used in previous EA Mac games, TransGaming’s Cider Portability Engine will also be used in the Mac version of Spore.

No word yet on an actual date…just “later this year”.

Hat tip: TUAW

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