Well it’s been hyped to death and back, part of it, the Creature Creator has been released early and it has allowed fans to create beautiful phantasms, hideous chimeras... and then there are the penis monsters. Even some celebrities have tried their hand in bringing a spore creature to life. But now it’s almost here. September 7 is the official release date for Spore, for both PC and MAC. Will it live up to its hype?

Editor reviews generally say yes! With a metacritic.com score of 88, and reviews generally positive, it seems that Spore will be a game at the very least worthy of your attention.

According to CNET, “Spore isn't as much a deep game as it is a broad one, culling elements from multiple genres and stripping them down to their simplest forms”. The game is divided into five stages, each one a game in itself, of which the notorious Creature Creator is only a small one.

It begins with a cellular stage (a version of this part of the game is also available for mobile phones) which plays much like Pacman, and your microscopic creature must munch up other microbes for their DNA and more upgrades. This phase is very short however, and the next part is the now familiar creature creator where the possibilities are almost endless in customizing your beastie. Not only is your result uploaded to the Spore servers where they can be encountered later on other planets by other players in the next stage, but you can stea.... draw inspiration from the creatures of other players when making your own.

The next stage is the tribal stage, which plays like a simplified RPG reminiscent of Wow, it is here where you encounter other creatures which are actually player-created content, which you can fight or charm, to ensure the survival of your tribe. You sometimes encounter Epic versions of these creatures which are gargantuan in size. If you do, pray it isn’t one of the Penis monsters...

The fourth stage resembles Civilization in that your species has reached the development stage of civilized cities, and you must develop them into a culture that conquers your planet.

If this is achieved you enter the fifth and final stage which is the “main event” of Spore, the Space stage. By far the longest, this pits you against other opponents, who although are controlled by AI, they are again species created by other players. Ultimately your species can expand through the entire galaxy

Spore has a bit of everything; it is many games in one. Neither is greatly detailed, but they are linked together beautifully, creating a unique play experience. But what really shines about it is the user-created content giving players an opportunity to express their creativity and interact in new ways.

It is refreshing to see this new, fun concept, one that takes advantage of the power of the Internet in a gaming industry that seems altogether too stuck in a rut.