My favorite thing about Spore is what other people have done with it. For instance, paging through the stuff made by Robin Burkinshaw, a student of game design in the UK, almost makes me want to play Spore again. You can see his Spore creations here. Be sure to have a look at the Whatever Next spaceship while you're there. Bravo, Mr. Burkinshaw.

Fortunately, Burkinshaw's creativity isn't limited to Spore. He just made a videogame tribute to a piece of music:

'Rest to Reset' by Trash80 (creator of the soundtrack to Darwinia) is one of my favourite pieces of music. This game is intended to support that music, with everything that happens in the game happening in response to something in the music. Like an interactive music video. Or like Audiosurf, but sculpted just for this one track.

You control a spacecraft, as it launches from a planet and ventures on its first journey into space. It turns out space isn't terribly friendly to you.

It's worth taking the three minutes to download and play Burkinshaw's weirdly moody and even slightly disturbing Reset, just to get a sense for how clever people can do clever things with the medium. And let me know if you find out what happens after the breathable air runs out.