“It’s blasphemy, brilliance or both to take the entire evolution of a species — from a single-celled animalcule in a drop of water to a space-faring, galaxy-exploring sentient being — and turn it into a video game.”

So says Time, who have bestowed upon Spore, the game/toy about evolution from the mind of Will Wright, with the honour of being called 2008’s greatest invention. They continue the praise:

“But that’s exactly what Will Wright has done. Wright is the man who created The Sims, a game about everyday life in suburbia, but apparently he found the vast panorama of human experience too confining, because he then spent seven years creating Spore, in which players design their own life-form and then manage every aspect of its progress through the centuries, from savagery to civilization.”

You can check out the rest of the greatest invention list over here.