Back in August of this year, all I could think about was Will Wright’s soon to be released “masterpiece” Spore. Delay after delay. Hype on top of hype compounded. I didn’t think any game could live up to that kind of media attention and you know what? It DIDN’T live up to the hype, not by a long shot. Blaze through the game yourself a few times and you’ll realize that creature creation really is Spore’s only saving grace, because the actual gameplay taking place between creating/customizing is so NOT fun that even little kids would rather go outside to play.

Did that stop Spore from nabbing an 85 on MetaCritic? Nope. Spore is the highest rated snooze fest of 2008 and EA has announced that even more Spore “bore your kids into doing their chores” goodness is on its way.

Find out the latest on Spore, the Creepy & Cute Parts Pack and the Space stage pack after the jump!

I’m sure I’ve ruffled the feathers of a few Spore fans already, so let me make something crystal clear. Evolving your creature from a single celled organism all the way up to a space traveling uber species is cool. I loved making my own creature, customizing my vehicles and buildings. Unfortunately, the variations are not endless and once you’ve made your billionth creature and uploaded them, what are you left with? Combat between creatures is lame in the extreme. Exploration? Yawn. You get the picture.

How is EA going to up the stakes? More body parts! Now you can enjoy the only thing that Spore does well a little while longer. The Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, available November 18th, will add over 100 new creature parts. Accessed through the Creature Creator, the pack will include components for the body as well as new paint options, animations and backgrounds. The pack can be used with Spore proper and with the retail version of the Spore Creature Creator (which is all you really want anyway).

Spore’s first expansion, dubbed “the Space Stage pack”, will arrive sometime during the Spring of 2009. The expansion grants space fairing races the ability to teleport to far away worlds and take part in new missions. Ok, that is sorta cool, but here is what may turn the PMPB hater train around. The expansion will add the Adventure Creator, allowing gamers to build and share their own missions! Wow, a game focused on customization is actually adding the ability to customize more than just your creature, vehicles and buildings?! It did seem weird that you could customize all your stuff yet not have the ability to use any of that cool stuff in an ACTUALLY entertaining level.  Now this expansion is what Spore SHOULD have been in the first place!

Is it too little to late? Reviews for Spore were high, but now that almost two months has gone by, with titles like LBP on the way and other AAA titles looking to capture gamers hearts and wallets, is anyone even looking forward to more Spore’ish goodness? I know I’d be hard pressed to put down a game like LBP in order to play Spore now and by Spring 2009 I’ll have so many great games to play I can’t help but think Spore’s chance to hook gamers on the replayability tip has already come and gone thanks to a limited game that SHOULD have come with level creation from the get go.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go play some more Spore…I mean watch grass grow…I have trouble telling the difference sometimes.

Source: MetaCritic & GameSpot

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