EA’s Latest iPhone Goodies: Spore Origins and Scrabble Bonjour

by Emily Balistrieri on August 17, 2008 at 11:36 am

EA was showing off four iPhone games yesterday at their Studio Showcase, and while two of them (Tetris and Sudoku) are already available, the upgrade to Scrabble, Scrabble Bonjour, and Spore Origins are still forthcoming. Read on for our hands-on impressions.

Spore Origins

Honestly, I’m not sure why this is necessary, but here it is. Spore Origins is basically a version of the swimming around, eating things stage of Spore that uses both the tilt and touch mechanics of the iPhone. Tilting, of course, is used to control your swimming blob of a creature, and aim at anything smaller than you to gobble it up. You can also collect little power up orbs like poison, which sickens anything that tries to eat you.

The creature building is all touch based. Pinching the body to change it’s shape is pretty neat, and while it’s not anywhere near as exciting as the full creator, there are still lots of color and pattern options, horns, eyeballs, and things to unlock as you go. The iPhone title launches along with the full game on Sept 7th.

Scrabble Bonjour

For Scrabblers who already own the basic Scrabble title, Bonjour will just be a free upgrade, but it’ll be an awesome free upgrade, since it gives you the capability to play with a friend.

That’s pretty much the news, but let me also say that I really like the “Best Word” feature. Basically it let’s you totally cheat and have the computer pick your most point-packed move–three times per game. The most awesome part is that it alerts your opponent to the fact that you used it, so there is no way to feign awesomeness.

I wish the pop-up message had been a little snarkier, though. A missed opportunity for fun, there. Bonjour will be available sometime this fall.

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