I'm pretty sure I singlehandedly killed my family's laptop in 2009 because of this game. I played this game probably 15-20 times (from Cell Stage to Space Stage) because when you only have a few games as a kid, you play them, over and over again. One of the games I'm most nostalgic for, Spore was really innovative for the time (before I realized it). It was developed with lofty expectations but it was kneecapped by the hardware and programming capabilities of the time. Not it's fault but you can tell that they developers really wanted to make something special.

The game being over 10 years old now doesn't always run perfectly on newer hardware but the game is still a blast to play years later. Creating a little single celled creature and making them into a race a aliens ready to expand (i.e: conquer) their empire across the universe. It is still very fun and I really wish that we can get a Spore remake sometime in the future. Now, not all stages are created equal. By pure fun levels I think Creature and Tribal Stage are the best with Cell, Space, and Civilization still fun but not the highlight of the game.

I actually used to share the install CD that I had for this game with my friends and we would all compare and contrast our creations with each other. I must've spent over 50 hours just creating random starships, creatures, and tribal armor patterns for my playthroughs. I wrote my own backstory for all of my creations. It made 11-year-old Jared create his own little universe and it introduced me to worldbuilding. It was just a ton of fun and it helped make me into a very creative person.

Rise, grind, nuke the opposition
11/10 idea
7/10 execution due to executive decision making and tech constraints