Star Control Influences in Spore?
I’ve been reading a bunch of articles about Spore and I noticed that there are a bunch that mention Star Control because of its space stage. The space stage involves creating a ship, exploring various regions of the galaxy, forming alliances and making new enemies.
Some loyal fans have taken the time to create alien races from Star Control, make them in the Spore Creature Creator and upload a video of it on YouTube.
Here are some quotes I found while reading about Spore:
"Its main phase, the space age, is just a modern (and to a large extent, mediocre) version of old classics like Starflight, Star Control 2 or Alien Legacy."
"Spore's fifth phase borrows heavily from games like Star Control 2 ‐‐ which is still better in various aspects like diplomacy, fitting out your spaceship and a good mix of story line and free exploration. We suggest you look out for the still maintained open source version, 'The Ur‐Quan Masters'."
‐ Jörg Langer, "Spore reviewed", GamersGlobal.com
"Starting as a cell, we watched as a meteor crashed into our randomly generated land and we emerged. We were cute, a little blue with a beak and some little tentacles. The perspective is top down and, in our mind, we reminisced about Star Control before moving on."
‐ Scoop, "Live from E3", UGO.com
"It has the 'just‐one‐more' aspect more fiercely than any other game I've played. More than Star Control, more than Sim City, and even more than Civilization."
‐ Lawrence Sonntag, "Review ‐ Spore (PC ‐ Windows)", GamersAreFun.com
"After the strangely hurried pace of the first four stages, the Space stage (see 1990's Star Control) brings Spore to a screeching halt..."
‐ Gary Hodges, "Alas, Spore Isn’t the Leap You’ve Been Led to Believe", VilliageVoice.com
"Try the classic exploration and action game called Star Control II. The open‐source tribute, The Ur‐Quan Masters, is the full game."
‐ Darren Gladstone, "Casual Friday: Why Spore Won't Work", PCWorld.com
"The chief failing of Spore is that it's trying to be five games, each one a shallow and cutdown equivalent of another game..."
‐ Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, "Zero Punctuation: Spore", EscapistMagazine.com
What all these quotes have in common is that the space stage reminded them of Star Control II, and it does not make Spore any better than it. Spore is a good simulation game and Star Control II still stands on its own as an amazing action adventure game. This is an example that no game has been made that can replace the Star Control universe established by Toys for Bob.
It’s interesting that Star Control is being mentioned in Spore reviews. There are more people who know about Star Control than I thought. These people may not be hardcore Star Control fans, and yet they reviewed Spore and found a way to compare it to Star Control II. All this time, I thought the only references to Star Control were in the Star Control races that people made with the Creature Creator and I was surprised when I found multiple reviews comparing Spore to Star Control. I honestly did not see it coming. I’m not bashing Spore in any way. With all the hype, Will Wright interviews, DRM controversy, release dates being pushed, Spore was the game that made some people think about Star Control in the year 2008. I take this as a sign that Star Control still maintains the strong cult-following that it’s been known for since the first game and that the people supporting TFB’s desire to make a new Star Control game feels a bit larger now. Thanks to everyone above who took the time to mention Star Control in their articles.
