Metal Beetle Ltd. has announced a preview release of Space Exploration: Serpens Sector for all three operating systems, Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The developers would like to get feedback, at an early stage, from the public. An early preview allows the public to communicate with the developers and discuss the features they like and the features they do not care for.

Space Exploration: Serpens Sector is a role playing game based on Starflight and Star Control. The players character has to explore the long forgotten Serpens Sector. There hasn’t been humans in the Serpens Sector for a long time, of course until you enter the sector. The first release of the game will be free for everyone and each expansion pack will cost money.

Great way to hook people in, as long as the first game is good people will want to come back and pay for the expansions.

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We’ve seen very few great inertia driven cave-flying style games since the classic Thrust title for the BBC Micro. That all changes with the iPhone and iPod Touch release of RETRO by Big Head Games. This title brings the gravity and inertia and leaves your hands gripping the mobile device as if your life depended on it.

You’re goal is to navigate your tiny lunar landing craft around the caves and landscapes of mysterious planets trying to save people stranded on the planet. You control the game using the accelerometers within the Apple iPod Touch and iPhone and blast your way through space by touching the screen to fire the engines.

You’ll have 23 levels to play through, if your nerves can survive the ride. This game is hard but brings an almost unsatisfiable addiction which can only be satiated with more game play. After hours you’ll find your hands cramped and your eyes burning from staring at your tiny screen. You can play on Normal mode or Hard, there is no easy in this cave-flyer, you’re on your own.

The three variables that make this game a nail biter? Fuel, Shields and Time. You’re limited on fuel as you fly around the graphically satisfying environment trying to pickup all the lost lunar people, you’re limited in shields which take damage as you bump into walls due to mis-guided landings and navigation. You must rescue all the poor souls on the planet before time runs out and your space shuttle leaves; you’ll soon follow the estranged individuals into the abyss of loneliness.

A small beacon of light is all you have to guide your way. This light bulb floats ahead of you and gives you an indicator on your trajectory based on the current inertia. Once you’ve learned the lesson of the little guiding light, you’ll start to envision the projected outcome from over-acceleration or excessive gravity when falling with your engines off.

This game brings some serious challenges and the accelerometer adds its own unique controls to the game play. The full blown version, for a whopping .99 cents, gives you stages which feel long and challenging–you’ll find yourself replaying the sames stage many times until you perfect the stage.

Once you’ve been destroyed you can pickup where you left off at the last human you’ve saved with the same fuel and shields you had when you rescued the individual(s). The recovery points do not always offer a clear or possible way to solve the puzzle, especially if you rescued a straggler with almost no fuel in the tank. Sometimes it’s easier to restart the stage and try again at full fuel and shield levels.

There are strategic areas within the stages where you can refuel and fix your shields but they’re often in difficult to find areas near the bottom of ravines and caves. These refuel points are extremely important to capture in the higher difficulty levels. As the game gets more difficult you’ll find new environmental challenges and the requirement for saving more stranded people will rise; soon you’ll be collecting two to three at a time with a large burden on your shoulders but you can do it with practice.

Overall, this game has all the qualities of a great cave-flyer style game. It brings a new polish to the graphics while staying true to many qualities of the classic games of our past. The balance of fuel, shields and time make it a challenge to complete but feasible with practice as with any great game. For the price tag of .99 cents this is a hard bargain to pass up if you like this style game. The only gripe to be had is the button pushing on menu’s because they’re not as responsive as they should be, requiring you to continue pressing until it finally “feels” it.

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Lugaru was released for Windows and Linux. It is really strange to see games released for the Linux operating system. It is nice to see Linux getting some love from game developers. 

Lungaru has players controlling a rabbit, Turner, that is skilled in the martial arts and really mad that his villiage was wiped out. Turner wants revenge and he is out to find the people resposible for this tragedy. In Turner’s quest, he discovers some corrupt leaders in the rabbit republic.

Turner can choose to take out his enemies using his martial arts skills along with knives, swords, and staves or choose the less violent way and subdue them with stealth tactics. This allows players to play with their own playing style.

Lungaru sounds like an interesting game. I like the idea of different play styles being captured in one game. Players can run around and kill enemies right away or they can use their skills and be secretive. If Lunagaru sounds like an interesting game, head over to Lungaru and download a demo copy or purchase the game for $19.95.

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While we’ve had some casual gaming forums for awhile, and a few folks have utilized them, we’ve re-designed them to be a lot easier to use, with more real-estate for posting. This required a clearing of the old forums which was okay as many of the posts were old and stale anyway.

We’ve cut down on the topics to keep it focused and added a forum for game developers to promote games they’ve created. The forum is called Pimp My Game and we’re hoping you will. We’re not sure why, but Casual Gamer Chick has attracted plenty of great independent developers who ask us to review their games. We love great independent games because it gives Casual Gamer Chick a chance to see the creative and innovative minds of “the little guys” of the industry.

What people don’t realize is those same “little guys” build the foundation for casual games and show us the direction of the future in this industry. The first video game looks and acts much like today’s casual games because we’ve focused on what works without barriers of politics and stock tickers. Please take advantage of our new forum as a launching point for free advertising and links to your projects.

You may also hop over to the forums to discuss the latest XBLA games, PC games, Macintosh OS X games and all the others. Have fun, chat, spread the word and game casually.

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The following games are available from Game Du Jour this week. The games are all offered a significant price cut, which is represented by the percentage after the game name.

Monday January 26 Starship Ranger 40%

Your mother planet is under attack by extraterrestrials invaders. Enemy aircrafts bomb the Earth. You are the last hope for the human race. The best starship is prepared and well equipped. Your mission is rather complex. The number of ETs is great, they are very dangerous and aggressive but the most perilous are their bosses. All your skill and deftness will be necessary to win this intergalactic war. To control your starship you can use keyboard, mouse or joystick. Don’t forget to fill up using special fuel stations.

Tuesday January 27 Uplink 50%

High tech computer crime and industrial espionage on the Internet of 2010. You play an Uplink Agent who makes a living by performing jobs for major corporations. Your tasks involve hacking into rival computer systems, stealing research data, sabotaging other companies, laundering money, erasing evidence, or framing innocent people. You use the money you earn to upgrade your computer systems, and to buy new software and tools.

Wednesday January 28 Darwinia 50%

A virtual theme park, running inside a computer network built by a computer genius named Dr Sepulveda. Darwinia is populated by a sentient evolving life form called the Darwinians. They are the product of a decades worth of research into genetic algorithms. Unfortunately, the systems of Darwinia have been overrun by an evil red Viral Infection.

Thursday January 29 Defcon 50%

A stunning multiplayer simulation of global thermonuclear war. Take on the role of a General hidden deep within an underground bunker. Compete against the computer or online against your friends for total world domination. Start by launching battleships, subs and bombers in order to decimate your opponents defences. Scramble together your alliances but remember only one can stand victorious.

Friday January 30 Multiwinia 50%

Long ago a computer scientist called Dr Sepulveda created a beautiful digital world existing entirely within a computer network of his own invention. This world was called Darwinia and it was inhabited by a peaceful, law-abiding digital life-form called the Darwinians. As the years wore on the Darwinians became ever more aggressive. They divided into factions, squabbling over Darwinia’s limited natural resources. Tribes began to roam the fractal voids hell bent on each other’s destruction, drunk on power and unswerving in the pursuit of world supremacy.

Saturday January SpringWorld Challenge 50%

A game for Windows where you try to complete different challenges. All of the objects that you can drive or fly in SpringWorld Challenge are built with springs and point masses. This makes them very “bouncy” and also destructible in many different ways. Fortunately, the objects are equipped with advanced regeneration capabilities which you can use by pressing and holding the CTRL key down on your keyboard.

Sunday January Agent Chewer 40%

The monsters invented and developed a terrible jumping-biting semi-atomic bomb and threaten to destroy PacLand if its inhabitants will not send them tribute – a 500-ton piece of cheese. The best super secret Agent Chewer is dispatched to find the monsters. He is so secret that even he does not know that he is a secret agent. So hunting for monsters begins, Agent Chewer follows in the track of monsters that leave a lot of cheese bits. His purpose is to find and neutralize their terrible creation – semi-atomic bomb.

If you see a game you like, head over to Game du Jour on the right day and pick up the game dirt cheap.