Saw an ad in Wal-Mart for the Creature Creator right near the front door. I was really surprised to see that sort of coverage from Wal-Mart for a pre-release item.

What's the point of this? Is it to populate Maxis' exchange with creature designs? Because as a teaser, it's pretty frustrating to never go beyond this into the game.

So why was it released?

Okay I just counted the actual amounts:

8 out of 40 mouths
10 out of 40 eyes
3 out of 12 arms
3 out of 12 legs
7 out of 28 hands
8 out of 32 feet
6 out of 24 weapons
10 out of 40 details

And we know nothing about the vehicle and building designers. There is also no part of the starting amoeba creator.

Well, as limited as it is, be careful because it has that all important Sims feature...

The one where you just start piddling around with something and 5 minutes turns into 2 hours in a blink of an eye.

yup, demo of the creator tool was leaked - I've been having fun here http://www.pissheadnerds.com/news.php?readmore=119

And youtube has exploded with monsters sporting hormonal problems in the genitalia!

Can we all agree not to post the butt sex monster video here?

EDIT: I guess not, Chumpy.

Makes sense that Chumpy would post that horrible abomination.

There are people with way too much free time on their hands...

That's not the only thing on their hands...

The F*ck Slug is adorable.

I believe that the community is supposed to take care of this, at least to a degree. If you see something inappropriate you flag it, it's reviewed, and if that user keeps making stupid crap they can no longer upload stuff. I may be missing a step in there somewhere as that doesn't seem to account for the possibility of someone creating the Reticulated C*ckmongler and a 5-year-old being the first user to see it.

NSFW language but still amusing Robin Williams playing Spore.

I've played with it a little today. It gets a resounding "Meh" in my book. Yeah it's fun for 5 minutes to make a creature, then I want to move on. This may have actually turned me off from the game.

That might be my problem too. Maybe a compressed 3 stage vertical slice with a limited creature demo might pull me back in. Everything sounds great on paper, but the execution generally leaves something to be desired for me.

This isn't stirring my God-needs, it's just a 3-D sketch book.

The thing is that there are point costs for different pieces and there is a complexity meter at the upper right of the screen. Im sure you will have to do things with simpler creatures to gain money to buy parts. I'm also positive that the player will have to spend time with the game in order to make more complex creatures. (more limbs, more and different types of weapons or mouths)

Another interesting element is in the Details section. Some of the parts add to sneak. So there will be a sneak element to the game and it is mentioned that attacks from sneaking will have bonuses. (no I'm not confused and talking about AoC here!)

Also, don't forget this is the 2nd or 3rd stage of the game. There is the amoeba creation and development stage before this. And there is the vehicle and architecture stages. It also looks like there are weapons in the tribal stage and who knows if we can make those too. (if so, unlimited coolness!)

I am also waiting to see if they will have a creature export so that I can take my creatures into Maya, 3dsmax or Lightwave. (textured would be a major plus but not necessary)

Here are a few creatures I've created in the last few days.

Mossy Rastabear

Samurai Terrapin

Wattle Newt

MGS4's Screaming Mantis

And my favourite:
The Sascrotch

I love this thing. It's got my ten bucks easy.