It allows you to design a creature and develop it over time.  You begin as a simple critter swimming around in water, grow onto land and into tribes, and eventually even become a space-faring civilization that travels the galaxy.

All the while you make choices about your creature’s disposition.  My creature, the ‘Croctaw’ (pictured), is a hyper-aggressive, hyper-carnivore, war-mongering species that normally devours all other species that get in its way.  It was a survival strategy that worked.

Except for once, that is.  And the situation called for something drastic and different for dealing with the neighboring creature.  You see, they didn’t taste very good, so diplomacy was the only option (unpleasant of an option as it was).

At least the other 99% of the creatures my Croctaw empire have encountered are quite delicious.  Plus, I’m sure the Croctaw themselves (being some combination of crawdad, lobster, and crocodile) are probably quite delicious.  Lucky for them that they are the dominant species.

SPORE has been fun, and now the Croctaw have been flying around the galaxy conquering all.  The game is definitely worth trying.