This post is reserved to all news pertaining to Spore for the iPhone and other mobile gaming devices. Below you will find information, screens, previews, videos and more on the game. It will be updated often, so keep checking back!
Overview Video
Gameplay Videos
Articles/Previews
There are about 35 levels (the EA rep said each takes around 3-5 minutes to “beat”), and every five levels, you’re presented with a cavern to explore, like a maze to wander through. But we were fairly bored playing the game — while the accelerometer is a good time, your character doesn’t actually mean anything. There’s zero connection between this game and the full version of Spore — you can’t bring your characters out into the Spore world, or see any other characters from other players wandering the iPhone game. It’s completely standalone, and that makes it feel a little unconnected — who cares about this little creature you control when all he’ll ever be is a speck in a Petri dish?
I got to give it a whirl — a tilt?
Yes, a tilt, because iPhone Spore is played pretty much entirely through the accelerometer, which means you direct your swimmy blob by tilting the phone gently in various directions. It strikingly resembles playing flOw on the PS3 using the Sixaxis, as you navigate a vague creature through shifting layers trying to snap up other organisms.
You shape and color your creature using the touch screen. I’m a little concerned that for truly customizing and shaping your blob to work and work well, they’ll have to get the touch controls really spot-on, and that’s been a bit of an issue for me at times with some iPhone games. The build I saw for Spore on the iPhone was very early, and the producer told me that they’ll be focusing intently on toning that up.
We tried out Spore on all of the currently available platforms, and while the handheld/phone versions aren’t nearly as epic as the full version, Spore Origins on an iPod Touch was completely addictive. You steer your swimming organism by tilting the screen, which is relatively responsive, and has a loose, unpredictable feel that makes the relatively repetitive gameplay surprisingly intense. If your beast were running around, the tilt would feel wrong. But when you accidentally veer into another creature too big to eat, or can’t quite pull off the precision bank you were hoping for, it makes sense because you’re a freakish little creature undulating through a primordial soup, not a crack fighter pilot.
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