Game Play: Spore Creature Creator

I got a quick sneak peak at the Spore Creature Creator last night, which is apparently now available in trial format for the public. You can see that I made myself busy by creating a disturbing little thing with teeth that I then promptly sent to myself.

It's an interesting little insight into the much hyped game and I will admit it's slightly addictive at first playing with spines and legs as though they were putty. For the most part the generation works without a hitch, although if you try something truly funky in terms of shapes or sizes you'll notice the occasional shearing of the model during animations. Once you've created your beast, your choices are pretty much sharing it with the rest of the world or taking it for a small test run where you can play various animations with it.

When Spore hits, these creatures are to be fully compatible with the game.

My only real caveat is that while this is a fun little toy when it's free, I'm not entirely sure it's worth ten bucks to own. The difference between the trial and retail version is about 75% more creature parts, I guess, but considering that there's not a lot to do with the creatures until Spore hits - I'm just not sure I'd see the point. Maybe if I could send creatures over to a co-workers computer for a good fistfight or something...

The trial is available for PC and Mac, so at the very least it's a decent look into the much anticipated title.