Super Kiwi 64 Review - High Flying Bird

Super Kiwi 64

Super Kiwi 64 is, unsurprisingly, a collectathon platformer inspired by the classic games of that genre on the N64 and PS1. Each level tasks you with collecting a certain number of gears that are scattered around the level as well as with finding six gems that are either hidden in hard to reach areas or only spawn when you've done some tasks around the map. It technically isn't free of enemies, but it might as well be, and I'm not sure that it's even possible to die or take damage. Although a few of the gems are tricky to activate, it's a very relaxed experience.

It won't surprise anyone familiar with the Toree games that this cheap, short, N64-inspired platformer with a bird mascot was developed by the same developer as those cheap, short, N64-inspired platformers with a bird mascot. SK64, though, is far less difficult and doesn't have any boss fights hiding at the end. This is just a collectathon with essentially no story, pretty good music, and graphics that would've been good 25 years ago.

That said, while it might not set out to do very much, it's very good at what it does. Kiwi is satisfying to control thanks to a dive motion that also functions as an attack and a wall jump, and the levels have plenty of creative uses for your movement. There are four worlds with two levels each, and they all have their own gimmicks and mechanical tricks that keep them from feeling same-y. Just like with Toree, there's far more variety here than you'd expect from a 45 minute game.

This is an absolute steal at $3. It's fun for its whole runtime, has some neat secrets for anyone looking for a little more, and a few of the gems are particularly satisfying to solve. That said, I doubt this is going to be anyone's new favorite platformer simply because there's so little of it and it's so easy that there's not much incentive to keep playing after you've seen the bonus codes. I love that Siactro has found a successful niche creating these short retro platformers, but I hope that someday we'll get a full-sized game. I think that could be something quite special.

Rating: 80%

Time to beat: 45 minutes for everything.

MSRP: $3

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