Spore is a PC game that sort of mocks the Sims of old, but is much more appealing to young boys, and some girls, than the Sims. With Spore you get to create your personality, but the personality is a creature, and you start from a single, well, spore and build up to a more complex creature over time.
The first level of the game is very basic and would be boring if not for the fact that you are creating a creature that will grow and become something much more awesome. But it all starts with the single organism in level one. You get to choose your organism and some personality traits such as whether your Spore is a meat-eater or a vegetarian.
As you move through the lower levels of the game you find body parts for your creature as well as more personality traits. You don’t have to take or use them all, in fact some might go against the personality you want for your Spore. If you decided to be a meat-eating warrior then you might not want to sing and dance and charm your enemies, although this would be most unexpected.
You are able to pick up friends and followers as you travel around looking for your body and personality parts. Your loyal followers can be ordered to do things to help you in your quest and in your battles.
When you get to the later levels, you stop building your creature and start building a city. You get to design and build your modes of transportation, to include land, air and sea. You can build your town hall and other cities. Your followers will then become residents of the city and no longer your loyal army, or whatever you used them for. But at this point you have an entire city to run, so no matter.
You definitely want to be online when you play Spore so that you can have access to other people’s creations in Sporepedia. You can use theirs and share yours, and even watch as they are being made and used. There are other features of the game, too, that work only when you are logged in.
Spore was released September 7, 2008 by EA Games and has an ESRB rating of Everyone 10+. Spore is certain to be a favorite for your preteen boy, but be careful because the game is so fun and addicting that he might not be able to get to it because the adults in the family are having so much fun playing Spore.
Credit for the above images goes to www.spore.com