The iTunes Store recently notified customers who have purchased Spore Origins for the iPod that it has been updated with a new version that supports the accelerometer feature of the new fourth-generation iPod nano.
Spore Origins for iPod runs on third and fourth-generation iPod nanos, iPod classics and fifth-generation iPods. It costs $4.99 and was released for the iPod shortly before its debut on the iPhone or the Mac and PC. It’s based on the already-popular game from the maker of Sim City and The Sims in which you create life and evolve it. Spore Origins focuses on the first stage of life, when you raise a microscopic lifeform in a pool of primordial ooze.
The fourth-generation iPod nano is the first nano model to support accelerometer controls similar to the iPhone and iPod touch — it has a long screen, and when it’s held sideways, you can view album art using Cover Flow, shake the device to shuffle your music and view photos in landscape orientation. It also sports a built-in game called Maze that utilizes the accelerometer for controls.
The update to Spore Origins, free for users who have already purchased the game, leverages the accelerometer controls to enable you to control your creature by tilting the iPod nano.
Although anyone who has purchased Spore Origins for iPod should find the free updated version in their iTunes Store download queue, only fourth-gen iPod nano users will get the new accelerometer feature.