Introduction
In this review we visit another game in the Spore franchise, this is a spin-off that has mostly disappeared from the massive list of DS games that are available now. There are not even guides or walkthroughs available for Spore Hero Arena but I am fixing that. This entry for Spore focuses mostly on a story and on making your creature the strongest of all in the galaxy! You will need to fly to different worlds to enter arenas where you will fight with other species. Evolution is limited more than in the PC version of Spore but creating is still the main focus of this Spore entry. Using good parts will give you more power, when you increase the size of your parts in the creation screen you will grow more powerful. In this game you get to name your species, your name will be mentioned in the game. I have called my creation was called mutator! I bet everyone is wondering why this game fell off the wagon?
What did I think of Spore Hero Arena before playing?
I knew there were two entries for the DS but I have never played them, I decided to put this entry of Spore in the weekly poll and it emerged victoriously.
I decided to not review the other spore game yet but maybe I will do that in the future.
I started of course by watching footage of Spore Hero Arena, this was more difficult than I had anticipated. There is barely any footage on the internet but I emerged victoriously and found an old trailer of Spore Hero Arena.
The footage looked exactly like I had expected, Spore in DS graphics! The combat looked a bit off but I was intrigued.
This game could never beat the original Spore but it looked like a fun journey!
Without further ado I booted up the game and started creating my creature, There might be a small chance that I put the mouth of my creation on the wrong side of his body.
When making a new file for the video review this happened again, this must be my fate, to live with my mouth on the wrong side.
Luckily I could fix the problem once I was on board my ship!
I rate Spore Hero Arena with a 6.0 before playing.
It looked like a mediocre Spore spin-off but it seemed enjoyable. Creation was not scrapped and it was clear the game was battle-based.
I was wondering if I would find more parts on my journey!
Story
You start the story by creating a new creature and a crash landing on a weird planet, you will encounter master Yeedo here. He will tell you a terrible tale of his past where he forged championship medals from a red evil rock. Everyone who has a championship medal becomes pure evil but for some reason you are immune. You are the chosen creature to collect all the championship medals and rid the galaxy of this evil!
Can you lead your creature to victory in all these battles and collect the championship medals and save the galaxy? Can you learn the secret behind why your creature is immune to the evil influence of the red championship medals?
I rate the story of Spore Hero Arena with a 6,0
The story was pretty decent but nothing too special, it has nothing that has not been used before. The cutscenes take form in a comic book which I could appreciate a lot! For the story you will travel to other planets which was also a nice touch, there were more planets than I had expected but they were also smaller than I had anticipated. The story cut-scenes are shaking, this annoyed me a lot.
Gameplay
The most important thing is, of course, creating your creature, depending on the parts that you use your creature will become stronger and gain certain stats. It might be wise to invest in stats that you are going to use. Mutator had very strong claws, this gave Mutator maximum power in the end when smashing things but he was weak when biting. You will, of course, be met with a complex meter, when it is full you will need to stop creating or change your creature. How do you get parts though? You can explore every planet, there will be parts hidden on the planet. It is wise to look good in every nook and cranny! You can gain even stronger parts by completing special challenges but where do you find these special challenges? On every planet you will need to collect four blue meteorite fragments, to obtain these blue meteorite fragments you will need to complete a challenge. Completing this challenge will also give you more DNA points. DNA points are needed for adding more parts to your creature. After you have completed this challenge you can try a new challenge at the same creature. Completing the second challenge will grant you a strong part for your creature. You can also obtain bio powers, what are bio powers you ask?
Every creature can equip up to three bio powers, one is used for attacking one creature. The second biopower is used for multiple targets. The third biopower is used for a general area or to buff yourself. Spore Hero Arena battles are mostly spore creatures that are sumo wrestling! Most of the battles consist of you trying to push the opponent of the map, some of the challenges might make a difference to this battle style. I have had to capture eggs or even play king of the hill!
When you have completed a planet and defeated the champion you will gain a red medal, this will add 20 DNA points to your inventory. Simply completing a planet will not allow you to visit another planet though. You will need to collect a battery on every planet. You can explore all the planets freely, there are some random quests that you can complete for new parts. If you are low on health you can find some food, herbivores can find berries and carnivores can kill small insects for meat. You can also accept a challenge to regain all your health. When you lose all your health you will get beamed back to your ship. On your ship you can choose a planet, to fly to the planet you need to draw a line from your current planet to the planet that you want to visit. You will get a clear screen on what you still need to collect on the planet that you are going to visit.
I rate the Spore Hero Arena gameplay with a 6.5.
The gameplay was pretty fun and it made me chuckle, even if it is a game that mostly fell off the bandwagon it is still enjoyable. I liked the gameplay but it was pretty confusing at times. Some of the challenges were tough and I disliked the complex meter but I was able to create the creature that I wanted! Mutator was very glad about his three legs and his four arms! The controls might be a bit difficult but I was able to adjust to the controls after a bit of playtime. At the end of the video review when I was done with Spore Hero Arena I learned you can adjust the controls.
Sound and Graphics
The graphics were exactly what you would expect from an older Nintendo DS game, it looked chunky and square exactly the way that I like my DS graphics!
The sound was a bit sluggish and tuned out between challenges but the sound was good and funny. I sincerely enjoyed the sound.
I rate the Spore Hero Arena sound and graphics with a 6.5
I don’t have much to add about the sound and graphics, they are mediocre but it did fit the spore theme.
What did I think of Spore Hero Arena after playing?
The game was much shorter than I had expected but that is usually the case with DS games when it is not a role-playing game.
I had an enjoyable time completing the story and sumo wrestling other spore creatures out of the arena!
I liked how I could keep evolving Mutator to grow stronger and stronger to beat the champions of the galaxy.
I did not expect cut scenes, this was a nice surprise when I saw comic book cutscenes but the cutscenes shake too much.
There were more planets than I had expected and they all had a different feeling, a good thing to know is that on the Lilypad planet you can destroy the debris when you are big. This will make it disappear when you are smaller again.
It was hard to sometimes figure out where to go next but when I finally found what I was looking for it seemed obvious.
I rate Spore Hero Arena after playing with a 7.0
The game is enjoyable and I would certainly not put it away because of the many bad reviews that are flying around the internet. The game is indeed something different than Spore but you still get to make your own creature.
If you like Spore you might also like Spore Hero Arena! Get ready for some sumo wrestling!
My personal rating of Spore Hero Arena
I enjoyed playing this game a lot, it was a bit frustrating when it was not clear what to do but I was able to figure most things out. They are more obvious than you might expect, this resulted in some DUH moments!
The story was fun to play through and creating my creature Mutator was fun. Fighting the complex meter was a bit annoying but I eventually emerged victoriously!
My personal rating of Spore Hero Arena is a 7.0
Pros and Cons
Pros
– You can create your own creation and use it for some sumo wrestling!
– The game has a decent story to keep you motivated for exploring new planets.
– You can collect new parts on each planet to keep evolving your creature.
– The sound does tune out but it is fun to listen to.
– Some of the challenges are indeed challenging but fun!
– the graphics are exactly what you would have expected from an older Nintendo DS game.
Cons
– There is a complex meter that stops you from making insane things.
– The creator is more limited compared to the real Spore on the PC- The game is fairly short and can be completed within 5 hours.
– You might need some time to get used to the controls
– It is impossible to complete the game 100% as you will always miss three parts, in the end, you will end up with 91% completed.
– Multiplayer support has been offline since 2014 for Spore Hero Arena.
I would recommend this game to anyone that loves Spore. The game has its fair shares of pros and cons but don’t let that stop you from having an enjoyable time with Spore Hero Arena.
The final rating of Spore Hero Arena is …drumroll…
6.4
Leave your own thoughts about this game in the comments!
I hope you enjoyed reading this review, I hope to see you in the next review!
