I totally agree that the previous stages are really just to teach you about the space stage which is a shame, e.g last night I got through to the Space stage in less than 3 hours, but I think the Space stage is very clever, I see this as a prelude Spore 2 which when fully developed should be a cracker. it’s a good game it’s just a bit easy to fly straight through it too quickly. I think you have to take the time to spend a lot of time fully developing you species.
Like most games if there was more too it this could have been one of the best games of all time, but because EA wanted to get it out it’s been watered down alot. I like it because it’s different no the usual rubbish that touted out every 6 months