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Kolibri
Platform: Sega 32X

Unsung Gems celebrates the innovative and the oddities, and few games are as innovative and odd as Kolibri. Kolibri for the Sega 32X stars Kolibri, a hummingbird who quite literally owns evil by blowing them away. That’s right… this week, UG features a hummingbird shmup.



In 1995, Novotrade - the geniuses behind the Ecco the Dolphin series - strayed away from their aquatic mammal icon to create this WTF game. Kolibri takes place in a world where a Good Crystal is destroyed by an Evil Crystal, but not before the Good Crystal gives our star hummingbird the power to shoot energy from his beak. This energy (which manifests into the form of lasers, missiles, bombs, and so on) is used to fight off the Evil Crystal’s evil critters, including evil wasps, evil spiders, and even evil frogs.

Kolibri plays very similarly to Ecco the Dolphin. The levels are huge and entirely open, which is different from the generally linear, narrow levels of most other shoot’em-ups. You must fly Kolibri around the various stages and destroy all enemies (and eliminate some pollution while you’re at it) to return good to the land so your fellow hummingbirds can live peacefully once again.

The icing on the already delicious cake is the combination of stunning 2D graphics and perfectly suitable music. Every stage has a wonderfully drawn backdrop that contains forests, mountains, waterfalls and ruins that are accompanied by a subtle jungle-esque soundtrack alongside the ambient sounds of rushing water, chirping birds, and wind-swept leaves.



Controlling Kolibri has a very unique feel. Rather than the typically dull movements of most other shmups, Kolibri - being a hummingbird - moves realistically with every flutter of his wings. It will take some getting used to, but those familiar with Ecco’s underwater mannerisms will adjust quickly.

It is hard to write about how great this game is because, in the process of doing so, Kolibri begins to sound more and more ridiculous. But that may be what makes Kolibri an unsung gem: it is so ridiculous, so unique, so odd, that it is unconditionally… a masterpiece!

So why did it fail? It was exclusive to the Sega 32X.
The 32X’s price was too high, the Genesis/32X setup was confusing to some, and developers opted for Sega’s other 32-bit system: the Saturn. These factors resulted in a system lifespan of slightly over a year.
Kolibri simply did not get enough attention from media to become well-known, and most of those who did hear about it were turned off by the 32X.

Should you buy it? That’s debatable. It is a masterpiece, but it’s not worth buying a 32X just for Kolibri (and really, what other 32X titles are worth owning outside of Knuckles Chaotix?). If you already own a 32X, though, then certainly get a copy of Kolibri if you stupidly haven’t already.
Of course, you could get it illegally, but I don’t condone that (at least not in writing).

All said and done, Kolibri is one of the most outrageously beautiful experiences available to gamers; for that reason, it’s truly an Unsung Gem