Spore Hero

Spore Hero
Spore Hero
Developer(s)	EA Montreal
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Designer(s)	Jean-François Roy
Composer(s)	Winifred Phillips
Platform(s)	Wii
Release	NA: October 6, 2009; AU: October 8, 2009; UK: October 9, 2009;
Genre(s)	Life simulation
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Spore Hero is 2009 action-adventure game developed by EA Montreal and published by Electronic Arts. It is a Nintendo Wii spin-off of Spore in which the players focus on creativity and evolution using the controls of the Wii. The game was released in October 2009.

Development

A Wii spinoff of the game had been mentioned by Will Wright several times, such as in his October 26, 2007, interview with The Guardian.^[4]^[5] Eventually, a spin-off under the title "Spore Hero", an adventure game built ground up for the Wii with a heavier focus on evolution, was announced as part of the 2009 lineup along with "Spore Hero Arena" and "Spore Galactic Adventures""^[6] Concept art for the game was created by Mathieu Latour-Duhaime.^[7]

The first details of Spore Hero began to emerge when MTV's Totilo had an interview with designer Lucy Bradshaw.^[8] In it she said that the team was taking a look at Wii Motion Plus for better motion sensitivity. On May 12, EA sent out their official press release for Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena.^[9] Several previews began to emerge later.^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13] At an event in Los Angeles, GameSpot got another look at Spore Hero.^[14] IGN and Gamezone also posted previews as part of their pre-E3 lineup.^[15]^[16] Spore Hero was on show at E3 2009^[17]^[18] and at Comic-Con.^[19] In late July, Maxis conducted an interview with several of the major fansites.^[20] During it they revealed that one of the choices they made during development was to focus on the story-line of the game. This focus meant that they had to detract from the game's online capabilities.

Gameplay

The protagonist of the game is the player, a blue creature from an egg inside a blue crystal meteor that crashed on the planet, along with other blue meteors that the player can destroy in order to gain blue meteor shards for evolving the player's character. The antagonist is a red creature named Zarkhathor, whose egg was inside a red crystal meteor. The player must do quests, fight, sing, dance, and pose with other creatures that are in "tribes" in order to earn creature parts, as well as dig creature parts up from dead creature carcasses that the player uses to evolve themselves in order for the game to progress. The main objective of the game is to go through five different stages, Mushroom Valley, The Ancient Grounds, Moonlit Stoneway, Moonlit Caverns, and Mushroom Grove, with The Ancient Grounds acting as a nexus between these stages. The player must find at least five different special creature parts for the ancient guardian, a statue of a creature that comes to life after all five parts are put on the creature. After the statue comes to life, it destroys the barrier between The Ancient Grounds and Creature Beach, the final stage of the game. In creature beach, the player has a final showdown with Zarkhathor after receiving a special part from the Ancient Guardian that allows the creature to shoot blue crystals out of its body at the enemy. The player enters the mouth of a gigantic octopus-like creature with a large, gaping mouth and a single eye, with many long tentacles going into and out of the ground of Creature beach. After beating Zarkathor, the player gets to edit the Zarkathor creature to "not be a threat" anymore. After going back to the Ancient Grounds, the player learns that the ability that the special part they received has will no longer work.

Reception

IGN rated Spore Hero 6.1 out of 10 in its review.^[21] Game Informer rated the game a 7/10.^[22]

References

^ Capone, Anthony (September 24, 2009). "Updated Australian Release List - 25/09/09". PALGN. Archived from the original on September 27, 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
^ Sporedum (September 19, 2009). "Spore Hero Arena and Spore Hero Release Dates". Sporedum. Archived from the original on April 21, 2013. Retrieved September 19, 2009.
^ Purchese, Robert (August 17, 2009). "EA dates Spore Wii, DS". Eurogamer. Retrieved July 26, 2024.
^ Johnson, Bobbie (October 26, 2007). "Q&A: Will Wright, creator of the Sims". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on April 26, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2008.
^ Oli Welsh (February 13, 2008). "Europe is Priority for Spore". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on January 25, 2022. Retrieved March 1, 2006.
^ Kotaku (January 22, 2009). "Four New Spore Titles Unveiled For DS, Wii, PC". Kotaku. Archived from the original on January 24, 2009. Retrieved January 22, 2009.
^ "Mathieu Latour-Duhaime: Concept art Spore Hero 2008". February 25, 2010. Archived from the original on March 6, 2023. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
^ "New Details About EA's Wii-Exclusive 'Spore: Hero'". Multiplayerblog.mtv.com. Archived from the original on February 24, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ "Spore Franchise Evolves to Nintendo Platforms – EA News". Ea.com. May 12, 2009. Archived from the original on March 8, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ Daemon Hatfield (May 12, 2009). "Pre-E3 2009: Spore Hero Hands-on – Wii Preview at IGN". Au.wii.ign.com. Archived from the original on September 30, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ Tong, Sophia (October 7, 2009). "Spore Hero First Look – Wii Previews at GameSpot". Au.gamespot.com. Archived from the original on July 12, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ "Spore Hero First Look Preview for Wii". VideoGamer.com. October 8, 2009. Archived from the original on February 25, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ Reahard, Jef. "Joystiq". Gamedaily.com. Archived from the original on January 11, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ Tong, Sophia (October 7, 2009). "Spore Hero Updated Impressions – Wii Previews at GameSpot". Au.gamespot.com. Archived from the original on July 8, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ Daemon Hatfield (May 26, 2009). "Pre-E3: Spore Hero Update – Wii Preview at IGN". Au.wii.ign.com. Archived from the original on September 30, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ [1] Archived May 29, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
^ "E309 Media | Be A Hero With Spore – DS/Wii at C3 News". Cubed3.com. Archived from the original on March 23, 2012. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ Spore Hero Archived April 21, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, sporedum.net
^ Sophia Tong, GameSpot (July 22, 2009). "Spore Hero Hands-On – Wii News at GameSpot". Comic-con.gamespot.com. Archived from the original on October 6, 2011. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ "Sporedum.net". Sporedum.net. Archived from the original on September 8, 2009. Retrieved October 20, 2011.
^ Harris, Craig (October 9, 2009). "Spore Hero Review". ign.com. Archived from the original on September 20, 2018. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
^ "Spore Hero - Nintendo Wii - www.GameInformer.com". Game Informer. Archived from the original on April 26, 2012. Retrieved December 2, 2009.