Visually impressive and immersive environments marred by a few annoying game-play issues.
The Good: First off, the artistry is great and the environments are mostly well designed. In fact, the world itself really seems to be the main focus of the game. There is also a lot of subtle humor here and -- if you are a Les Claypool fan (who wrote some of the some of the soundtrack) -- the music is pretty cool too. There is a definite sense of immersion here, where thorough exploration of the levels is both necessary and visually rewarding. The combat system is pretty fun since the weapons are all very creative and entertaining to use. There are also numerous mini-games that break up some of the potential monotony of the typical platformer. Though, as I've played this game, its clear that the focus is far more about exploration than combat.
The Mediocre: Some of the puzzles seem to suffer a bit from the "do random things until something happens" syndrome. Though in context, this isn't too bad, since exploration is key to the game anyhow. The movement might also be a bit slow for some people, but I found it quite reasonable and just more relaxed. Others might also find that the "infinite re-spawn" system ultimately makes the combat fairly un-challenging.
The Bad: This is where the game's delivery seems a bit rushed. My first and foremost issue involves the camera control. Though manually looking around is critical to the overall game, the "automatic" camera movement can make some areas of the game frustrating because it often just feels a bit random. Additionally, the infamous "invisible wall" effect appears occasionally and several areas of the game suffer from frame-rate issues. Though not severe, these things do detract from any overall sense of "polish" in any modern game in my opinion.
Anyway, if you are interested in a slower paced "experiential" game with lots of places to look around, then I'd highly recommend picking up Spore Wars. If you're looking for a more solid, faster, and highly polished run/jump/shoot platformer with lots of clever puzzles, you may be a bit disappointed. Given just a little more refinement I could have easily given this game an 8+, but the technical/game-play issues are enough to warrant a slight score reduction in an otherwise light and entertaining game that, if nothing else, is just fun to look at.