Electronic Arts and Maxis released the eagerly awaited Spore Creature Creator this week, a virtual tease offering players a glimpse into Will Wright's next brainchild title Spore.

According to EA, more than 250,000 Spore creatures already inhabit Spore.com's Sporepedia since the Creature Creator hit the streets. Both a demo and a full version of the Spore Creature Creator is available, however the demo only features 25 percent of the retail version. Although the Spore Creature Creator is a stand-alone product, Maxis assures creators that their beasts will easily migrate into the full Spore game when released this fall. Until then, the widely popular Spore Creature Creator is exceeding EA's and Maxis' expectations.

"The response to the Spore Creature Creator has been overwhelming," said Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer of Spore at Maxis, in a press statement. "The creativity and passion that the community is putting into their creatures is spectacular. The development team has spent the last 24 hours checking out the amazing creations racing in from all corners of the globe - with peak volume hitting more than 1,000 creatures being shared a minute."

Tom's Games took a test drive with the Spore Creature Creator, purchasing a digital copy through EA's Web site. Despite the positive statements by the company, the experience did not kick off well, and upon digging through the official Spore forum , many consumers purchasing the Creature Creator had similar issues. The problem stems around EA's downloading software client, loading immediately after the Spore Creature Creator starts. The problem was that the client shut down the game after Maxis' splash screen, thus many gamers could not even get into the actual meat of the Creature Creator. Although the EA Download Client warns that many games will cease to function if removed, uninstallation was the only way to get the Spore Creature Creator to work. Obviously, this issue will not arise with the physical copy purchased at your local retail outlet.

Once inside the game, the Spore Creature Creator allows the player to use his/her imagination with a full set of tools. A featureless blob floats gracefully above a pedestal, and upon moving the mouse over this formless entity, you can clearly see the dim highlight of a backbone. Players can manipulate this spine to properly shape the basis of the creature, extending it out, curving it into a "C" shape or whatever the creator desires. Right clicking the mouse also allows the player to pan around this creature, allowing full creative viewpoints.

Once the base body has a suitable shape, the Creature Creator offers seven groups of body parts: mouths, eyes & senses, arms & legs, graspers (hands), feet, weapons and then details. The "Mouths" section offers forty different types of options ranging from typical dinosaur-like muzzles to the flesh-crawling circular opening lined with teeth (Saginaughty). Placing items on the blob are rather easy, moving it to the base body in a drag-and-drop fashion, and then sliding them around on its "skin." You can add more than just one item as well; your creature may require two mouths or ten eyeballs; it's completely up to you. As for the "Weapons" aspect of the item selection, these 24 bone-like appendages vary in style, ranging from the standard antler-type protrusion to a strange pinwheel with sharp edges. The "Details" section offers forty odd items as well, ranging from feathers to wings to strange charms.

While creating the Spore creatures is a lot of fun, there is an obvious strategy in doing so as well. Each item placed on the body carries certain attributes. For example, the Mackne features a Charm of +2 whereas the Rammer features a +2 Charge, +1 Charm and +1 Health. Thus, the end result gives your creature special abilities unlike any other. For the creature we created in this article, a purple winged beast named "Bubbaloo" even your mother could love, it has a health meter of 40 along with Level 2 Sing, Level 4 Strike, Level 2 Sneak and so on. These factors make you wonder how they will play out in the full-blown version of Spore. Will these creatures act like Pokemon? We definitely look forward to finding out.

Next, players can choose between 36 different pre-generated paint jobs for their creation, or hit the "Partial Styles" section and generate their own skin, altering the base, the coat and other details. Once the creature is complete, gamers can hit the Test Drive button and check out 24 emotes including Laugh, Swoon, Ta-Dah, Sumo, Raver Punh, Hippity Hop, Roar, Call and more. Gamers can also take pictures of their creation and upload it to their personal MySpore page, or capture movies and upload those directly to YouTube within the game. You can also capture an animated avatar in GIF format, switch between three stage backgrounds, and activate three additional clones (hatchlings) for your creature to interact with.

Lastly, the Spore Creature Creator includes a section called Sporepedia, a place where you can view all of your creations as well as Maxis-generated beasts and those created by your friends. You can also check out your MySpore Page within the Sporepedia area containing updated news and events, as well as the Spore Catalog featuring the retail versions hitting the PC, Mac and Nintendo DS. Spore is scheduled to ship on Sept. 7 in North America.

Graphically, Spore is reminiscent of The Sims, relying on character style rather than sporting heavy visuals. Spore creatures spring to life and offer only a glimpse into Will Wright's creative mind, something to be realized when the full game ships on September 7th. There's a certain charm about the Spore creatures upon watching their emotes or how they just behave standing in place on the stage. Their reaction to a new offspring is especially adorable, and would make an entertaining screensaver if such a feature existed. There's no doubt that Spore will appeal to every gamer much like Will Wright's former creation, The Sims.

Currently you can download the free Spore Creature Creator from the official Spore Website. The full version of the Spore Creature Creator can be purchased online as well for $9.99, or you can head to your local retail outlet and pick up a physical copy. Check out all the Spore videos by heading over to YouTube.

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