I have a savvy 10 year old and like most he enjoys games. Usually Totally Accurate Battle Simulator on Steam or Minecraft, Rocket League or Steep on PS4. He recently developed an interest in evolution after we tried the card game Evolution. Spore seems like a good next step and he’s keen and Steam has it for $20.
He’s been watching some vids on YouTube and says it, ‘Looks neat but hard’.
If you have experience with this would you buy this game for your 10 year old boy or nephew?
Well, giving him Spore might give him the mistaken impression that the game has anything at all to do with evolution.
I know I loved those kinds of games at that age.
I was 12 when SimCity was published, and SimEarth came out the following year. They hooked me. Spore is by the same people and have much of the same ideas, but has a more action/arcade spin to it.
I’d say “neat but hard” is probably accurate; my daughter just turned 9 and she’d struggle with some parts of the game, but if a kid was interested enough they’d probably get through it.
One review I read suggested “9+” as a recommended minimum age, so that seems about right.
The board game I mentioned doesn’t really either, but it’ll introduce a 10 year old to important concepts.
My kids, all clustered around 10, like playing Spore. The creature designer is still a lot of fun, as are a few of the different evolutionary stages.
I remember everyone kind of hating Spore. I think Spore ended up being more of city builder or civilization-type game that was really shallow. That game was 10 genres really.
What about something like the Pokemon-esque Cassette Beasts? It has nice art and a fun retro-music motif. You have evolution in the sense of combining and upgrading your dudes, like with Pokemon. It’s also on Steam at the same price point. I played it a few months ago when it hit GamePass. It’s really good.
Another option from the “You think that’s hard?” category is Rimworld.