Customer Reviews

Kolibri

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

released in 1995,Kolibri is one of the most rarest and weirdest animal-related games, if not the oddest animal-related game, in all of gaming history! we've seen hedgehogs, opposums, turtles, geckos, dolphins, heck we'd thought we'd seen it all; well meet kolibri, the HUMMING BIRD! and to top it off kolibri is a "shmup"/shoot 'em up!!

i know, i know, who comes up with this stuff right? hee hee you can thank the creators (novotrade) of ecco the dolphin for this. unlike ecco the dolphin which was a sort of puzzle game and not at all a shooter, although he had a sonar-attack, this game is a pure shooter with some new innovations added! also, an exclusive for the sega 32x, and might i add one of the top 5 32x games of about the weak 35+ game library...

graphics: 5 out of 5
am i being generous? is this game that great looking? by today's standards it is acceptable-good. in 1995 however, it was pushing the graphical limits of the sega genesis to the max. the backgrounds are extremely serene and give you a sense that u are watching the "nature channel". i've never seen any other game on the 32x that has this much art packed into it. every single level has gorgeous backgrounds that are multi-layered and plenty of scrolling, left-right AND up-down. the levels are also very expanse, so there's plenty of that beauty to explore. kolibri is just a small spec amongst all that background glory, but does a great job at standing out by being so darn colorful and zipping all around the screen! if you want to showcase the graphics of the 32x, this is definately a title you've got to have! note, some people think this could have been done on the genesis without the add-on, but to those i say, put this game side by side with the best looking genesis games and you'll see this games is ahead in terms of graphics; plus if the genesis could produce games this pretty, then why didn't it?

game play: 4.5 out of 5
just shy of perfection, this game is addictive once u're in the zone. it could take a while to get accustomed to such a game, especially with the lack of instruction and sheer weirdness of it all, but once u get a good run going, it's going to be hard to put the pad down! especially if ur into shooters, since this isn't the typical shooter. now for the innovation i spoke of; nothing grandios, but something different and new, even today. on most shooters you are on a set path/rail and can't ever go back. not here the are plenty of levels that are free to explore and feel like a maze! this would sound annoying for a shooter, but it's not! the game is quite intuitive, so though you'll be like, "where am i?" , but you will never get lost or lose sight of your objective. there are PLENTY of secrets scattered throughout many levels, and even has checkpoints which are needed. i'm not doing all that over hee...kolibri has a wonderful array of weapons, or powers shall we say, and weapon-upgrades, that come in handy for specific enemies or portions of levels. and he even changes colors with the acquisition of every new weapon! there are even a couple of platforming elements such as escaping a large boulder before it crushes you and a couple of tight spots that require timing and patience since these levels aren't on rails. i would have given it a perfect score if the game featured REAL boss fights instead of just up'ing the intensity at the very end. also more weapons would have been nice. pro, the game does feature a password system, since a password is given to you at the start of each stage.

controls: 4 out of 5
i really can't complain all that much about the controls. the programmers knew the games limitations and got around them by the use of certain weapons, so i never had any problems. this game has rapid fire( just press+hold the fire button) and while shooting you can not face the other direction. you can get around this; in the options you can change this, but i stick with the default setting, i find it works great! Kolibri also has a nifty "rush"/"dash" button where he can escape near death/close call situations, and reminds me of how a bird reacts in real life. another thing a humming bird is the perfect choice for such a game because it's the only bird on earth that can fly backwards, as is done in the game. you can't shoot 360*, but like i said you can get around this with the use of specific weapons/guns/powers hee hee. with newer technology i would've given the controls a perfect score, but it is an older game, and does a great job!!

sound/music: 4 out of 5
i gotta say it has a decent soundtrack with a sort of ambience to it. mostsega games had great music that sounded bad lol, thus in this case, it doesn't sound bad at all. in fact, with weapons such as laser-ray, that on games like arrow flash (genesis), normally sound like trash and irritate the crap outta most folk, they made it not so much pleasing, but tolerable... what i most enjoyed about the games sound is how it played tricks on me. i heard crickets chirping and actually thought it was coming from outside!! just more of that ambience i told you about...and there are some sweet melodies on this game to accompany it's unique style of game. not a perfect score because they could've added more bird sounds and on that "dash" move i mentioned, it would've been nice to hear like wings fluttering or something like that. all around very enjoyable sounds!

now on a final note i'd like to add that this game has virtually NO story line, in game, so you'll have to refer to the manual for that. i could careless for the story, i'm a laser shooting humming bird lol. and when you beat the game (SPOILER ALERT)

all that is said is "YOU SAVED THE WORLD" that's it!

if you have a 32x don't waste your time with the rest of the garbage on it, and get youself a worthy title. prices start around $20 and is worth every penny!