Spore 'Cell Phase' flOwts into view

by James Ransom-Wiley { May 20th 2008 at 2:30PM }

click to magnify

EA today passed out some new media of Spore's first stage, the "Cell Phase," a top-down 2D minigame that looks a lot like flOw (but, you know, maybe, actually ... fun). Perhaps not coincidentally, flOw's original designer Jenova Chen was briefly employed by Maxis, suggesting that Spore's Cell Phase may be a direct evolution of Chen's elegant Flash-based creation. Like its predecessor, Cell Phase features a player-driven microorganism, a little fish in the primordial ooze, which can be designated as herbivore, carnivore or omnivore before crashing into the ocean by way of immaculate meteor. The primary objective is to eat -- and not be eaten -- as you "earn DNA" and collect parts to enhance your creature's abilities (read: grow legs and get on to the good parts). Everybody's gotta start somewhere, eh?

Don't miss the Cell Phase trailer posted after the break!

Gallery: Spore: Cell Phase

Tags: breakingnews, cell-phase, ea, maxis, spore, will-wright

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

samfish @ May 20th 2008 2:34PM

"a top-down 2D minigame that looks a lot like flOw (but, you know, maybe, actually ... fun)."

Whoa shit! Hit the decks!

Trickob @ May 20th 2008 2:38PM

lol, I thought the same thing

PojoMofo @ May 20th 2008 2:38PM

ah, I always considered flOw more of a tech demo anyways. It is mildly entertainling but I wouldnt classify is as "fun" either

Trickob @ May 20th 2008 2:35PM

I hope the government bans this game for not encouraging an "Intelligent Design" theory.

"OH SNAP"
"OH NO HE DI'N'T!"

SkreeHunter @ May 20th 2008 5:03PM

Not encouraging intelligent design my ass! This is is nothing BUT intelligent design. Unless YOU designed it.

chispito @ May 20th 2008 4:05PM

I am voting you down as much for the stupid, years-late catch phrases as I am for your attempt to make this somehow political/religious.

colin @ May 20th 2008 6:04PM

i vote you up because ...

1: the first person who voted you down doesn't get it
2: that probably inspired more who don't get it to vote you down
3: the catch-phrases are old and unnecessary, but i don't think you were trying to make this political/religious, just for laughs.

Trickob @ May 20th 2008 6:42PM

Colin, you are my god of Intelligence!

colin @ May 20th 2008 7:29PM

The bottlenose dolphin (class mammalia) and tiger shark (class chondrichthyes) each have a dorsal fin and are both quick and precise swimmers. A dorsal fin aids in these traits. Which of the following best explains why both species exhibit this trait despite being vastly different in taxonomic specification?

A) Selective Breeding
B) Genetic Drift
C) Convergent Evolution
D) Intelligent Design

PojoMofo @ May 20th 2008 2:35PM

I dont know if im more interested in LBP or Spore, but I am really liking some of the innovation that is starting to happen from a gameplay point of view.

Prof_Chaos @ May 20th 2008 2:53PM

Both look suitably awesome. My problem is I'm just not creative enough to fully enjoy these games, though I'll probably buy both.

Fernando Rocker @ May 20th 2008 2:39PM

Any news about the Wii version?

Jeff @ May 20th 2008 3:32PM

It will have worse graphics and less content than the other versions. And waggle.

Not really news, though, eh?

ugg.tryptophan @ May 20th 2008 7:02PM

waggle is good, yes?

Blazur @ May 20th 2008 10:20PM

The Wii version will undoubtedly be inferior. You're a sucker for not opting for the PC version.

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ May 21st 2008 4:11AM

Hoping that the PC version doesn't get any sort of bullshit DRM scheme.

born2kill @ May 20th 2008 2:49PM

This doesnt look fun either. Least its colorful :o\

The_Punisher @ May 20th 2008 2:50PM

Why does the music sound like it's from PixelJunk Monsters?

rTwelve @ May 20th 2008 5:07PM

It sounds more like the God Mode theme from SimCity 4.

I hope someone else knows what I'm talking about :/

The_Punisher @ May 20th 2008 5:23PM

LMAO, not rly (as in i have no idea wut ur talking about xD)

farfisa @ May 20th 2008 3:29PM

EA: "Hey, this game plays a bit like that flOw game, so we might be open to a lawsuit. So should we hire this Chen guy, or just crush him in court with our army of vampire lawyers?"
EA: "Hire him, then crush him."
EA: "HA ha aha HA."
EA: "Hey wait... who am I talking to?"
Jenova Chen: "I think I'm going to go now."

GenBanks @ May 20th 2008 6:57PM

lmao, haha :D

Blazur @ May 20th 2008 3:52PM

Looks nice. Oh, and that music is straight out of Sim City 4.

Kevin @ May 20th 2008 7:01PM

the music is "procedurally generated" (yay lingo *BANG* *SPLAT*)

pxagent @ May 20th 2008 4:32PM

The cell eating feature was mentioned at GDC initially back when Wright first announced the existence of spore - he referred to it as a pacman mechanism.

This was before flOw came out.

By the by, Chen also did a mentorship at EA before he released flOw as his senior thesis at USC and likely saw these mechanics as he was creating flOw. So really, we don't know who ripped off who. Don't jump to conclusions so quickly.