Google has taken the wraps off Chimera Painter, a web-based tool that lets anyone generate terrifying cryptozoological entities in an interface that looks like MS Paint by way of Diablo. Why, you ask?

In the run-up to the launch of “Spore,” the latest creation from “The Sims” creator Will Wright, Electronic Arts has released “Spore Creature Creator,” a sort of prequel to the full game, which is set ...