Geh, I too just got the game and took it for a spin.
I don't understand why people keep laying on the praise on its space mode. It's clunky, cumbersome, terrible, horrid, disgusting, fetid, painful, and quite honestly, incensing.
It's like in order to enjoy the space mode, you need to completely turn a blind eye to the incomparably bad space based combat controls (and logic) and how the enemy somehow magically teleports an army of ships into your worlds out of nowhere every 5 minutes while your mystical genius race can only build one... ONE... ship. Then we've got the fact that it's so hard to tell height differences, or aim, or do anything remotely useful towards blasting something moving at the speed of light.
Explain to me, how is that fair? Why only one ship? Seriously. Every other race can build a gazillion space ships but you? Even those bloody slug creatures who somehow achieved sentience can do it but my awesome space-raptors can't?
Then we've got the fact that the only advantage your ship has over the enemy is that it has more hp. And the fact that your only planetary defenses are like tofu mixed with hydrochloric acid. And the fact that the diplomacy in the game is so simplistic. Or the mind-numblingly boring task of transferring spice from one bloody mound of mud in space to the other. Or the stupidly tedious task of transporting stuff from one place to the other. Or the absurd travel system. Or the fact that you, for some strange reason, can't decide what armaments to put on your ship initially (not that it would have mattered anyway since the weapon system in Spore is ridiculous).
Really, what was Maxis thinking?
I mean, sure, if there was some way to turn off the godawful space combat and make everyone peaceniks, space mode would certainly be more interesting. For about 30 minutes until the appeal of grinding plant terraforming begins to fade away.
I've been spoiled by Dwarf Fortress.