Why the Resurgence of Spore-Inspired Games Has Given Rise to an Exciting New Roguelike Shooter

Recently, it seems there’s been a curious resurgence of interest in games inspired by the 2008 title Spore, which was widely deemed a disappointment upon its release. Following a brief mention in November, I encountered Everything is Crab in December—an ingenious roguelike that taps into some of Spore’s unfulfilled potential. Now, I’m diving into Pathogenic, another title that successfully navigates this territory. After all these years, one of EA’s most eccentric experiments appears to be captivating players once again.

While Everything is Crab reinterprets Spore’s creature stage, Pathogenic, as its name suggests, takes on the cell stage. It doesn’t replicate the original experience exactly; instead of guiding a simple single-celled organism through primordial ooze, players assume the role of a microscopic parasite infiltrating a human host. However, it retains the core concepts of evolution and customization, yielding some notably impressive results.

The gameplay unfolds as a twin-stick shooter, where my parasite’s flexible