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Spore Origins (aka: Spore Mobile) is the mobile phone, N-Gage mobile gaming service and a iPod spin-off of Spore, and focuses on a single stage of the larger game's gameplay — the Cell Stage. The iPhone version takes advantage of the device's touch capabilities and a 3-axis accelerometer.

It is no longer available for purchase. The iOS version of the game is a 32-bit app, so it will not run on iOS 11 or later as support for 32-bit apps were removed.

Gameplay[]

The simplified game allows players to try to survive as a multicellular organism in a tide pool, with the ability to upgrade its creature as with the main game. It is very similar to Cell Stage in the original spore game.

Spore-origin-3

The Spore Origins cell editor

Unlike the full version of Spore, the main game is roughly an hour long, and divided into 18 separate sections, with the player attacking and eating other organisms while avoiding being eaten by superior ones. Movement is achieved by pressing the phone keys in ordinal directions; iPods use the touch wheel while iPhone players may use the accelerometer. However, a new update to Spore Origins was released which allowed owners of the 4th Generation iPod Nano to use the inbuilt accelerometer, just like the iPhone. Eating creatures is done by attacking with the mouth; group-eating combos can be achieved with the OK button or center button on the wheel. A section is completed after the player eats a certain amount of DNA material from other life forms.

Evolution Mode[]

The goal of Evolution mode is to complete all eighteen levels in the mobile version of the game, or thirty levels in the iOS version, evolving your cell along the way. After completing Evolution mode for the first time, survival mode will be unlocked.

The 18 (or 30 in iOS) levels are divided into 5 level areas. In the mobile version after completing each area you can add another part to your cell, while in the iOS version every three levels will unlock an upgrade point to be used in improving your cell's abilities.

  • Levels 1-3 (1-5): Primordial Ooze. Introduces food cells and basic enemies. (This area is unique as it is the editor tutorial. After Level 1 you may change your cell's color, after level 2 you may change its size and after level three you can also add parts.)
  • Levels 4-6 (6-10): Volcanic Trench.
  • Levels 7-9 (11-15): Murky Water. This area has limited visibility and includes a cell that emits a large radius of light around it.
  • Levels 10-12 (21-25): Deep Blue. This area has lots of ice that your cell can become frozen in. Introduces charging cells which will charge at you if they are close enough.
  • Levels 13-15 (16-20): Kelp Forest. Level 15 (or 20 in iOS) is a "Boss Battle" where a powerful cell must be killed to finish. This cell has body segments, that you must eat one by one.
  • Levels 16-18 (26-30): Sandy Beach. Levels 17 and 18 (or 29 and 30 in iOS) include "giant" cells which can be destroyed by tricking charging cells into charging into them to produce food. In level 18 this is the only source of food, except for an occasional small food cell after a few minutes of not killing the "giant" cells.

Cell Editor[]

Every three levels is followed by the Cell Editor, in which the player may add an upgrade to his organism in four categories: Perception, Defense, Offense, and Movement. The third upgrade in each category is a "Super Part". Here is a list of Parts:

Perception[]

Eye: Allows the cell to see inside bubbles.

Antenna: Points to nearby food.

Super Part: Lure: Attracts food.

Defense[]

Scales: Decreases damage caused to the cell by enemies.

Spike: Pops bubbles and damages enemies. Has a shorter cooldown time than Probe.

Super Part: Shell: Allows the player to temporarily hide in the shell and become invincible, but cannot move around.

Offense[]

Probe: Pops bubbles and damages enemies.

Mandible: Pops bubbles and damages enemies. Does more damage and has a shorter cooldown time than Probe and Spike.

Super Part: Electricity: Shock nearby cells.

Movement[]

Tail: Increases movement speed.

Fin: Increases movement and turning speed.

Super Part: Air Jet: Allows the player to temporarily outswim any cell.

Changes on Spore Origins[]

There are several changes in Spore Origins for iPhone and iPod Touch compared to the other versions of the app:

  • The player can create much more than 4 cells.
  • Survival mode is unlocked after the tenth level.
  • There are 30 levels instead of 18 (unlike the version of the iOS App shown in a video), and in each level area, there are 5 levels instead of 3.
  • There are Evolution Points that are obtained every 3 levels (you will get 2 for finding a ball in and completing level 15 on the first or second playthrough). These can be obtained and use for upgrading your cell.
  • The Kelp Forest area is switched with the Deep Blue area.
  • Photos can be used for the cell's body color.
  • There are 5 trophies that can be unlocked through the game.
  • Your cell can be edited after every level, at the replay menu if you die, and at any time in the My Creatures menu by pressing the "1" icon.

Arena Mode[]

In arena mode, you can battle two cells against each other. You do not control them, they fight for themselves. Each fight lasts for 2 minutes. If neither cell is dead after this time, the one with the most health remaining wins by default.

Arena mode appears to be broken with the collapse of the Spore EA Mobile site in 2013 or 2012, possibly earlier.

There are two types of fight: Battle and Quick Battle.

For "Battle" you select which two cells will battle. You can pick any cell you have completed evolution mode with as well as "random" where a completely random cell is generated. You also pick where the cells will battle. You can pick any of the areas featured in evolution mode. Each area will come with a small selection of the weaker enemies that appear in that area.

"Quick Battle" generates two random cells and randomly selects an area.

Survival Mode[]

In survival mode the goal is simply to complete as many levels as possible before you die. You begin with full health and it does not replenish between levels. In each level there is a DNA bar which is filled by eating pellets of food that appear one at a time on screen. Unlike other modes, the screen does not move and going off one side simply causes you to appear on the opposite side.

Enemies will appear from one side on the screen and attempt to attack your cell. Some move from one side to the other, occasionally firing spikes, other move randomly and others will home in on you. Contact with one of them causes a lot of damage.

  • Red: Follows player and shoots projectiles for a few seconds.
  • Blue: Come into screen and fire small projectiles before leaving.
  • Yellow/Green: Come in from sides of screen and follow player for a couple seconds.
  • Purple: Come in from sides and turn on a 90 degree angle.

There are also power-ups that appear on screen. They can be collected by touching them and used by pressing a button. You may only have one power-up at a time although several can be active at once. The available power-ups are:

  • Vortex: Pulls power-ups and food towards your cell.
  • Shrink: Shrinks your cell to the smallest size and increases speed.
  • Bomb: Destroys all enemy cells in the blast zone.
  • Shield: Prevents damage from the next enemy that touches you.
  • Clock: Slows down all enemies on screen.
  • Blades: Your cell becomes invulnerable and destroys enemies by touching them.
  • Lightning: Destroys nearby enemies.

Extras[]

On the mobile phone version, typing in "HATMAN" at the screen to select whether or not to allow sound will make a strange looking grey object with what appears to be a capital H and a hat (hence the password "hatman") to appear on screen. After entering the correct code, the player can skip levels in evolution mode by pressing right on the controls while at the level display screen, which will allow for quick and easy completion of the game.

Glitches[]

On and after the 24th March, 2011, many users started commenting about a serious glitch[1], causing their game to shut down after the first level. However, the game had been proven to still work on 3rd Generation iPods, and most users complained of it affecting their iPhone or iPad, making most users believe that the glitch only affected newer devices. There were no reports of this happening on any non-Apple devices. This problem was resolved in August 2011 with a new update.

References[]

1 Spore Origins Information Page

See Also[]

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