Hands on with iPhone version of Spore Origins

Game makers have long been talking about iPhone as an evolution for mobile gaming, but only EA Mobile has taken that literally. Spore Origins promises to evolve onto iPhone with an intriguing design that brings biological theory to accelerometer-based play in one of the most exciting titles for the platform yet.

Starting in the primordial ooze, you guide a microorganism through the prehistorical goop using the accelerometer. Tilts of the phone instruct your creature to move in the respective direction. In the first level, tilting the phone in the general direction of food is all you need to do. A meter in the left corner informs you of your progress through the level, which is naturally determined by how many miniature creatures you've swallowed.

The moment you've engulfed enough food to fill the progress bar, the level ends and your creature evolves. Before moving to the next level, you've given an opportunity to customize your life form from an array of additions. New coloring, appendages, and other organic odds and ends let you personalize your being. One cool feature even allows you to pull pictures from your phone and paste them over specific parts of your creature. Bizarre, but entertaining nonetheless. Finish evolving, save the animal, and then its off to the next level.

In the second level, which still had us wading through prehistoric waters, our growing species had to contend with predators. Collecting food necessary for evolution meant evading the snapping mandibles of beasts looking for a meal themselves. Being much smaller, it was easy to speed out of reach; however, it also made our little guy an prime target for predators who eyed it for bite-sized snack.

As you evolve through each level, you can equip your creature with new parts that enable defensive measures or even attack capabilities. Additionally, there are helpful items within the environments that can be used to stave off predators. Air bubbles in the ooze, for instance, could be pushed around to block predatory attacks. Even better, special bonus items randomized for each level activate shields, speed boosts, and more.

Spore Origins only covers part of the evolutionary cycle, taking you through seven iterations of the biological process. For each iteration you'll complete eight levels, evolving with each step. Literally.

EA Mobile promises achievements to chronicle your evolutionary triumphs, although we weren't able to unlock any in our briefly hands-on. We'll have a full review for you in early September when the game hits the App Store.