Spore Hero Arena
By Alex Porter,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Create a creature and battle others to save the galaxy.
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Spore Hero Arena
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What’s It About?
Players start SPORE HERO ARENA by using the Creature Creator to build a custom character that includes legs, mouth, eyes, horns, tails, and body shape. In the single player story, your creature crash land's on a strange planet. From there, you must travel to different planets collecting ship parts and piece of blue meteor, a special substance that will help save the galaxy. You'll also battle other, evil characters who have been effected by bits of red metor. Along the way, you must upgrade and \"evolve\" your creature to complete missions, win battles, and collect items. These upgrades include special fighting powers such as fire-spitting, whirlwind spinning attacks, and others. In the Multiplayer mode, you can either fight one friend using local wireless or up to 3 others who own the game using Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. You can also trade creatures.
Is It Any Good?
At the core of Spore Hero Arena is the Creature Creator, the tool that lets you upgrade and customize your character. This system works remarkably well for a handheld format and makes for nearly limitless creations. The battles, set in arenas similar to boxing rings, are less well designed and can be a little frustrating; opponents overpower your creature easily, and the small-screen/mediocre graphics, make characters' moves difficult to follow at times. Fortunately, the Wi-Fi battling and trading characters plus unique character building make for a good (though not great) experience.
Online interaction: Online interaction involves battling friends or strangers via WiFi matching or direct connection to other DS handhelds. Players can also access the Sporepedia to see and trade creatures with others.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how creatures are all unique and different. As with real animals and humans, Spore Hero Arena is full of different races and species. What similarities and differences between our world and Spore's do you notice?
Is playing a creature you've created and customized more fun than playing a pre-made character? Do you feel more attached to an avatar that you created?
Game Details
- Platform: Nintendo DS
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Release date: October 6, 2009
- Genre: Action/Adventure
- ESRB rating: E for Mild Fantasy Violence
- Last updated: August 31, 2016
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