I loved Spore when it came out. Refreshing, intuitive, and for all ages (yes, I actually enjoy when a game manages to do that and still have me like playing it). This new expansion will add a lot more depth to the space stage of the game (as if it didn't actually have enough depth already).

The most massive change is basically how planets work. In the original game, you could fly from planet to planet, from star to star, around the galaxy. You could fly all the way down to the planetary level and interact with creatures and buildings and things while in your ship, but you couldn't actually land on the planet. Well, in this expansion that's exactly what you'll do: land on the planet and explore it. A lot more detail has been added to each planet, and a whole new "adventure creator" will allow your spacefaring creature to take on challenges or missions on the planets that are fully customizable and sharable through the Spore universe like the rest of their content. You can customize the terrain, climate, infrastructure, and all sorts of other business on your planets, then create missions and associated goals, like interacting with or killing creatures, collecting things, exploring terrain, and a lot more.

This expansion seems very LittleBigPlanet-ish to me. Essentially you're creating custom Spore levels to share and challenge other players. Which is, to put it in short, a completely badass idea.

There's also a lot more equipment for spacefaring creatures that can be attached in the outfit section of the game, from jump-jets (letting them make large leaps over terrain, for example) to special stealth helmets (that let you cloak) to great big laser guns (duh). The size and amount of these objects will obviously affect how well they perform, and you only have a certain number of outfit points to spend on these things so balance is always important, unless you want to make a creature MADE OF GUNS that just shoots anything in a five mile radius. And you know what? If that's the way you want to do it, Spore has totally got your back.

The creation tools look robust enough that you could construct a really fun and interesting story if you put a lot of time into the creation bit. The editing tools are just as dynamic as the rest of the game, so if you have Spore or are even sort of interested in it, you can get stoked up for Galactic Adventures' release this Spring.