Spore Galactic Adventures

I recently picked up the Spore Galactic Adventures expansion, which I've been playing with my son, and it's just a whole lot of fun.

First of all, the new content has a ton of charm. The first few missions that I did -- one of which was a Shakespearian Romeo and Juliette adventure -- had great writing and the wholesome, bubblegum appeal that I've come to enjoy with Spore. And the new stuff works seamlessly within the existing game, and allows you to have greater enjoyment with those creations that you've labored over throughout all the other games you've run. You can take adventures just like missions in Space mode that actually put you down on a planet, and you get to walk around and look at stuff, going "Hey, I made that" or "Wow I totally fought those guys before" and "Stupid piplup creatures are here and throughout the entire galaxy!" And if you get tired of the dynamic adventures in Space mode, you can always create your own using the amazing tools that come with the game.

I can't say enough about the new tool sets. Using the tools, you can create your own adventures and terraform the planets where your adventure is set. But they are the most full-featured and easy-to-use tools I've ever encountered. I've played with Maxis tools for a long time, ever since the SimCity 3000 days, and these in Galactic Adventures are just unmatched. When I was terraforming, I was just awed by the options and the ease of use, I literally uttered out loud "I can't believe how good this is."

For example, as sort of a test, I created an adventure with some direction for Alex. You start with your captain, placing that placeholder creature anywhere on the planet. I spawned a tank vehicle, something I'd created before in a previous game, and set a goal on that vehicle that directed the player to destroy it. I experimented with various ways of destruction, but ended up placing a number of bombs (which I put on a respawn timer just in case) that the player could lob at the tank. Because the tank had a high HP value that one bomb wouldn't knock to 0 in one shot, I just edited its health, and voila, one shot one kill.

I then created a small enemy base, again using buildings that I'd created in previous games, and required the player to seek out a key (hidden under the tank they should have destroyed) to open the gate that allowed access to the base. I terraformed a ramp into a formerly impassable hill that allowed a path into the base. Hidden past patrolling guards (that I'd created in past games, that I set in "aggressive" behavior and enemy detection ranges for and determined their patrol path) was another key, that opened a gate to where captive and adorable Pikachu creatures were held. Once you opened the gate, the Pikachus were freed, and your mission was over.

Throughout the process, I was able to customize character movement, behavior, and speech, object properties, music, environments, terrain, vehicles, buildings, ambient objects, and mission goals. With Spore Galactic Adventures, Spore finally has that possibility of being the "everything game" where you can use your own creations to recreate any other game experience, from GTA to Legend of Zelda to Pong or whatever, and other original things completely up to your imagination.

It's my hope that the online community will continue to develop good adventures, similar to what the LittleBigPlanet online has become, a constant source of innovative and charming game experiences. Galactic Adventures has definitely given the game that potential.