This week’s review was written by Philipp Geyer, who’s blog is currently under construction at http://nistur.chaosnet.org. Hopefully he’ll be writing more for us in future.

For my first guest post I’ve been asked to write about SuperTux, another Linux gaming classic. I could say here Super Mario Land and everyone would know what I was talking about. That would be a very short review and not highlighting some of the many good things about the game. To begin with, as with a lot of Linux games at the moment, SuperTux is a clone, it looks similar to Mario, it plays similar to Mario, it’s free. This is a game that is clearly designed to be played in the 5 minutes while the boss/teacher isn’t looking. It’s bright. It’s colourful. It’s fun.

The game plays the same as any other standard platform game. You play the part of Tux and you traverse a cold landscape being attacked by many different types of enemies, some resembling ice cubes, some snowballs and some robots, although what place they would have in the frozen Antarctic I shall never know. Controls are simple Left is left, Right is right, Down is duck, Space is Jump, Left Ctrl is fire. On top of this you can move the camera left and right with Delete/End. A nice feature if a little usefree.

Killing enemies actually makes you feel mean at some point, sure they’re dumb snowballs that just carry on walking until they hit a wall but when you jump on them and squash them they look so cute. Let’s do it again. When you get the Fire Flower the enemies suddenly provide much less of a problem, that is until you forget how slippery the floor is and end up diving head first off a platform to certain death.

Graphics and audio on the game are well done. Music is catchy and irritating. Graphics are clear and fit the style of the game very well. As it’s 2D it doesn’t show an awful lot of what Linux is capable of in terms of games, but is a great distraction when you need a break from doing work (or writing reviews!)

One of the best features of SuperTux, as with virtually any and every free native Linux game, the ease of creating levels. You need no specialist software and very little extra knowledge. SuperTux relies on a scripting language called Squirrel and loaded from plain text files. Guides and reference material is on the SuperTux Wiki. There is also a level editor for easier use if you so desire. Also the game has been ported to many different platforms, such as Windows, OSX, GP2X, Pocket PC, Nokia 770, Gamecube and even Dreamcast!

Over to you…

Have you played SuperTux?
Would you like to share a level you’ve made with us?
Are there similar games you’d recommend to those who enjoyed it?
Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.

For our first review at Games Kernel, we’re going to be looking at a version of the Linux gaming classic, Tux Racer.
Since Tux Racer was first released in 2000, it has had a fairly confusing history with several different versions (both commercial and free) being released. In this review we’ll be considering Extreme Tux Racer specifically, but in general the various different releases are all fairly similar. It’s based of Planet Penguin Racer, which was in turn based off the original Tux Racer, and is released under the GPL.

Extreme Tux Racer sees you guide Tux the penguin down a mountain, gathering as many herring as possible on route. You play through a series of cups comprising of several tracks, each requiring you to meet certain time and herring requirements to progress. You can control Tux’s left and right motion, as well as paddling in order to give a slight speed boost, and flapping to become briefly airborne.

Whilst the game isn’t hugely impressive in terms of graphics, there are some nice touches. The snow and ice of the course look good, and you leave a convincing trail behind you as you slide. The jingly music which at first is bright and cheery grows irritating after a while, but it can be disabled.

The game is simple to play, with a limited options and controls, but whilst the starting tracks are easy enough to appeal to small children, you are can add more challenging tracks. A limited number of courses can be downloaded from The Extreme Tux Racer Forums, but building your own tracks only requires an image editor - check out the ETR Wiki. If anyone does create a track, please feel free to link to it in the comments below so everyone can check it out.

So whilst I’d imagine most people have checked out Tux Racer at some point, if you haven’t yet go give it a try and leave us your feedback.