I closed the game out. Opened it back up and loaded my save game. I'm still unable to collect any spores. Am I screwed with having a buggy save that wont let me collect any spores (which is just awesome since we can only have one save file, thanks to the rigid checkpoint saving system) or is there a workaround for this?
If theres no workaround, I'd be tempted to set the game aside and play something else until this is fixed, because it makes me feel like I'm getting screwed out of a major selling point of the game if I finish without being able to buy any new suit upgrades.