Spore Galactic Adventures (Windows)

The first expansion pack to Electronic Arts' popular evolution simulation, Spore, is now available. SPORE GALACTIC ADVENTURES adds a lot of content to the Space portion of the original game (which is required to play this add-on), including many story-based adventures and the ability to create and share your own playable missions (including collecting, combat, and exploring objectives). Players turn their advanced creature into Space Captains (and decorate them with more than 30 new items), battle intergalactic monsters in arenas, and show off their rank on a global Creature Card that shows their accomplishments and medals to the online world.

If you've been playing Spore for months and feel like it needs a shot in the arm, then you'll find Spore Galactic Adventures successfully blends in mission-based game-play (complementing the open-ended sandbox play in the original game) as you beam down to the planet surface to tackle these goals. Along with more combat, puzzles and racing elements, it's fun to create and share custom-made goals on Spore.com. New creature accessories also add to the appeal, especially for those who like to tweak the look of their space captains. But the $30 price tag seems high for an expansion pack, particularly when the full Spore game is just $10 more. While a good add-on pack, its value seems for appropriate at $20 (if not less). That said, this add-on disc proves to be a clever addendum for fans of the franchise.

Online interaction: You can create and then share your own playable missions. Plus your accomplishments can be shared with the rest of the world through your global Creature Card.