SAN FRANCISCO--Today at GDC, we finally got our hands on the DS version of Maxis' highly anticipated game Spore. Although a DS version of spore was hinted at almost two years ago, this is the first time we've actually managed to see and play the portable Spore Creatures for ourselves. We also managed to wrangle Jason Haber, producer on the project for Maxis.

　　The first thing you'll notice about Spore Creatures is that it's a close graphical cousin to its PC relative. Although the models are obviously less detailed on the DS, the art design is very similar. Unfortunately, the full gamut of the PC experience won't be coming to Spore Creatures. The PC version of Spore will feature five evolutionary phases, from tiny bacteria to spacefaring civilizations, but Spore Creatures will focus specifically on the creature phase of the game, where you take control of a dinosaurlike creature as you make your way through a storyline and attempt to evolve yourself into something fiercer and better capable of defeating your foes.

　　We hopped into a saved game that put us in command of an early and relatively unevolved creature who didn't have very many distinguishing features. After navigating along a path, however, we picked up a mouth, which we were then able to tack onto our creature via the creature editor, which is accessible any time your creature is visiting a nest, which acts as something like a home base.

　　The creature editor is fairly straightforward. As your creature levels up (there'll be 30 levels in all), you'll gain more body points, which can be spent on a variety of body parts. Each body part will have a different characteristic, governing your social, attack, or defensive capabilities. You can focus on a single characteristic, if you like, or attempt to make a balance of all three. Attack and defense capabilities will obviously help your creature become more fearsome in combat, while the social characteristic will apparently help you become more appealing when dealing with other nonhostile creatures.

　　The creature editor gives you a pretty good number of customization options for your creature. You're not plugging body parts into equipment slots or anything; you can drag them where you want them, rotate and scale them, and even add paint jobs to the various parts, if you like. The body parts that you're able to apply will become more elaborate as you progress, allowing you to shift your creature from a mere blob to a more fearsome, Trogdor-esque creation. The number of body parts and customization options are fairly intense, as we saw when Jason scrolled through his saved games, which featured numerous creatures of various shapes, colors, and sizes.

　　Although we didn't get a huge amount of time to explore the gameworld, we're told that there will be a set storyline that you follow along with your creature, which apparently can involve a fair amount of creature-on-creature combat. In addition, there will definitely be an online component to the game, although it seems like this might be restricted to sending your creatures to your friends, where they will appear in their games and be controlled by artificial intelligence. It's not head-to-head play, but at least you'll be able to beat up on your friends' creatures in spirit. We're also told that some of the designers' creatures may make their way into the Wi-Fi network, so you may find yourself befriending one of Will Wright's creations at some point in your creature's career.

　　Although Spore Creatures is still half a year away from seeing release, it already looks like it's well on its way to being a unique gameplay experience for the DS. We'll keep an eye on the game as it approaches its September release date, so stay tuned to GameSpot for more information.