Spore Origins gives a whole new meaning to the word ‘cellphone’. In this heavily devolved, 2D version of the PC game, you are responsible for guiding a single-celled creature through the primordial ooze, munching on smaller organisms and steering clear of anything with bigger teeth.

Like its fully-grown ancestor, the Spore Origins requires you to gather up DNA to power evolutionary transformations that give you the ability to consume tougher prey, see further afield or fend off your protozoic rivals.

Symbiotes give you special powers, such as increased speed or shields, while getting caught by larger beasties sucks your life power – run out of hearts and you’ve reached an evolutionary dead end and will have to retake the level.

Although each level introduces new creatures sporting new powers to contend with, the essentials of running either towards something tasty or away from something nasty can become monotonous, especially when an unlucky sequence of clashes bounces your health down to nothing in a few seconds flat.

There’s also an arena mode where you get to view (without participating in) a 3D battle between your spore and a rival virus.

While the gameplay gets a little boring, the graphics and sound effects are first class. It’s tempting to follow a new creature just to see what it gets up to – even if it often ends with you as a snack for something toothier.

Spore Origins feel like just that: the earlier, shorter (there are only 18 levels), dumber game which gave birth to Spore itself. To play it after tackling the sophisticated, delightful and universe-spanning desktop game is just disappointing. The germ of the idea is good, then, but this bacterium needs to evolve significantly before it becomes something to be sniffed at.

Details
Price: £6
Rating: 3+
Size: 3MB
DOWNLOAD Spore Origins

Check out our Spore Origins review image gallery: