Spore Creature Creator
EA/Maxis
PC or Mac
5 stars (out of 5)
Review by Simon Kemp
The Spore Creature Creator is an introduction to the world of Spore.
You might not have heard about Spore - it's not due to be released until September but it's already causing a lot of fuss.
It's being made by Maxis, best known for The Sims, and it's being touted as not only the next big thing but also being bigger and better than it's predecessor - quite a claim as The Sims is one of the most popular games of all time.
In Spore you will get to run your own world, as in many god games - the difference in Spore is that you start at cellular level and work your way up the evolution chain to space travel and the ability to explore other players' planets.
But none of this matters at the moment because, as I mentioned, the game's not out yet.
But as a teaser and trainer for the full game, Maxis has given us Spore Creature Creator.
These creatures can then be imported into the full game once you have reached a certain level.
It may not sound much - you can't do a lot with the creatures once you've finished them - but the process of creating your own little monster is incredibly addictive.
One of the main reasons is the ease of use of the control system. Everything can be achieved by simple drag-and-drop mouse controls.
You start with the torso of your creation, and then add arms, legs, etc to the joints.
You can lose hours tweaking the configuration and colour of your little monsters and then watch them run and jump in the Test Drive area.
At first, most of my creations were pretty standard two or four-legged beasts.
I made a pretty passable copy of Homer Simpson at one point, but once you start experimenting, it gets even more fun.
Once you are happy, you can record a video of your creature and upload it to YouTube.
You can take a screenshot and email it directly to a friend.
Or you can browse the Sporepedia - an online directory of other players creations, to which you can add your own offspring to show the world.
A quick look at the online gallery shows you that a lot of people have spent a lot of time with Spore Creature Creator.
More than a million creatures have been uploaded already, and the game has been out less than a month. If the full version of the game is as good as this taster, then it may well become even more popular than The Sims.
