Spore Origins (also known as Spore Mobile) is the mobile device spin-off of Spore, and focuses on a single phase of the larger game's gameplay - the cell phase.

Spore Origins
Developer(s)Babaroga, Tricky Software
Publisher(s)Electronic Arts
Producer(s)Andreja Djokovic
Composer(s)Jason Coffman
Platform(s)iPhone, iPod (5th generation iPod classic, 3rd and 4th generation iPod nano, 1st and 2nd generation iPod Touch),[3] N-Gage,[4] Windows Mobile, Vu
ReleaseiPod:
August 25, 2008[1]
Mobile/iPhone:
September 5, 2008[2]
N-Gage:
May 19, 2009
Genre(s)Action
Mode(s)Single player, multiplayer

Gameplay edit

 
Gameplay screenshot.

The simplified game allows players to try to survive as a multicellular organism in a tide pool, with the ability to upgrade its creature as with the main game. The basic gameplay is similar to Flow.[5] Flow designer Jenova Chen attributed Will Wright's first demo of Spore as inspiration.[citation needed]

Unlike the full version of Spore, the main game is roughly an hour long, and divided into 18 separate sections, or 30 sections in the iPhone and iPod touch version, with the player attacking and eating other organisms while avoiding being eaten by superior ones.

On some devices, movement is achieved by pressing the phone keys in ordinal directions. Other devices also support touching the screen to move the creature. Certain iPod devices use the click wheel as an input method, and users of the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPod Nano may use the accelerometer. Creatures are eaten by attacking with the mouth (if the creature has one); group-eating combos can be achieved with the OK button or center button on the wheel.[5] A section is completed after the player eats a certain amount of DNA material from other life forms.

Every three levels is followed by the creature editor, in which the player may add an upgrade to their organism in four categories: perception, attack, defense, and movement. The 3rd upgrade in each category is a "superpart".[5] The player also unlocks a mode called "Survival", in which the player is on a single screen collecting pellets while dodging creatures.

Issues edit

The iPod classic had lockup issues which took place on the game's initial loading screen on 1.0.x and 1.1.x software.[6] The bugs were fixed and the game was re-released on August 31, 2008.

Reception edit

Awards edit

During the 12th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences awarded Spore Origins with "Cellular Game of the Year".[7]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "EA's Spore Arrives For iPod First". MacRumors.com. 25 August 2008.
  2. ^ "EA Mobile Announces More iPhone Games in Development: MONOPOLY, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 09 and Need for Speed Undercover". Electronic Arts. 2008-09-05.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ "Official Spore Origins site". Electronic Arts. Archived from the original on 2008-09-08. Retrieved 2008-09-06.
  4. ^ "Spore Origins for N-Gage". N-Gage blog. Archived from the original on September 23, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
  5. ^ a b c 1Up Spore Mobile preview Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ Charles Starrett (2008-08-26). "Lockup bug hits EA iPod game Spore Origins". iLounge. Archived from the original on 2008-09-01. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
  7. ^ "D.I.C.E. Awards By Video Game Details Spore Origins". interactive.org. Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 16 November 2023.

External links edit