Will Wright was still there for Spore, so everything he touched was not gold. It’s supposed to be a whole universe and it’s barely a simulation of anything, somehow he forgot to design a game around it.
And now he’s hopped on the Blockchain/NFT train…
Spore was alright for the time. It looks like they cut a lot to get it over the line but it was a good concept and ok-ish.
I don’t think “for the time” is that relevant here. My major problem with it is how shallow it is. All 5 phases are so repetitive, with so little variations and so little to do.
The only good things about it were the editors, those were impressive, especially the creature editor. But it’s just cosmetic, mechanics are so poor almost nothing emerges from it. It’s quite disappointing for designers that have been major actors of the simulation genre forever.