Super Kiwi 64 is a 3D Collect-a-Thon Platformer developed by Siactro for Steam and Nintendo Switch, and released on December 2022. It was conceived as a Homage to the 3D platformers that were released during The Fifth Generation of Console Video Games, particularly Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie and Spyro the Dragon.
It follows the journey of a round, brown-colored kiwi who plans to embark on an adventure around the world, so it boards an airplane alongside an older, experienced parrot beyond the horizon... and then a sea storm causes them to appear adrift in a mysterious island. The parrot tells the kiwi that he'll need some amethyst-colored gems that act as energy cells to refuel the airplane so both can return back home. So the kiwi explores the main regions of the island to look for the necessary amount of gems and help in the airplane's refueling process.
In January 2024, Slactro released a free update for the game, which not only adds an extra story campaign, but also improves the original one by adding story cutscenes, save files and a Time Trial.
The game provides examples of:
- Big Boo's Haunt: The third and final level of the Doomsday campaign takes place within a haunted dimension whose passageway is decorated with blue candles, spooky fences that provide a view of outer space, and skeletons. Along the way are swinging axes and shaking plant branches that have to be avoided.
- Company Cameo: Some of the announcements placed in City 64 (the first level of the Doomsday campaign) feature the logo of Siactro, the developers of the game.
- Final Boss, New Dimension: The Final Boss fight against Melon King in the Doomsday campaign takes place within an abstract location that is defined as the gap between realities.
- Fractional Winning Condition: There are 50 amethyst gems in the game, but only 40 are needed to refuel the main character's airplane and fly back home to finish the adventure. The trope is averted with the Doomsday campaign, as it has 20 energy crystals distributed across its two worlds but all of them are required to access the final level.
- Gangplank Galleon: The seventh level takes place in a tall pirate island with a big, skull-shaped sculpture; the island is played during night, so several port lamps are lit. After the kiwi climbs the island's top and presses a switch, a massive ship is unveiled; it has some marked targets the kiwi has to hit in order to get a gem. There's also a treasure chest that can be opened after gathering a stray key and unlock another gem.
- Hailfire Peaks: The third level is, at heart, a Shifting Sand Land location (with it being a sandy landscape with some ruins and machinery). However, pressing a switch next to a large furnace near the top will flood the level with lava, thus making it transition into Lethal Lava Land. Pressing a switch located near another furnace will refert the flood.
- Hub Level: The secluded area where the airplane landed grants access to all levels in the game (which can also be entered in any order).
- Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt: The first desert level and the second coastal one have conveyor belts in various areas, with some of them hanging mid-air and thus increasing the risk for the kiwi to fall down.
- Irony: The kiwi originally wanted to embark on an adventure around the world. Due to a sea storm, it and the old pirate parrot accompanying him end up being stranded in a remote island. Now the kiwi has to embark on an adventure... so it and its buddy can return home.
- Kill Enemies to Open: One of the Plot Coupon crystals in the Wild West level of the Doomsday campaign is guarded by a group of mechanical sheriffs that roam the haystack yards. Defeating them all is necessary to reclaim the crystal.
- The Lost Woods: The first and second levels take place within a dense, sprawling forest where flora has reclaimed what seemed to be an ancient city (there are some ruins and monuments). There are many large mushrooms that can be used as springs.
- Mooks, but no Bosses: None of the levels in the base campaign have any bosses (there's No Antagonist). And half the levels don't have mooks either. However, the extra campaign Doomsday does have a boss battle against the Robot Melon King.
- No Antagonist: The driving conflict of the game revolves around the kiwi and his buddy (the pirate parrow) being stranded in a remote island and needing gems that act like energy cells to refuel the airplane that will take them back home, with the only "enemy" being non-sentient robot guardians. The Doomsday storyline does have a villain in the form of the Robot Melon King.
- Pass Through the Rings: All levels except the fifth feature gold rings the kiwi pass through in order to earn a gem. They are scattered through the levels, and can be passed through in any order. In the case of the levels from the Doomsday campaign, the rings are colored silver, but serve the same purpose.
- Pickup Hierarchy:
- Primary: The amethyst gems that serve as energy cells to refuel the airplane.
- Secondary: The gold-colored gears, and the five rings. Collecting them all yields a gem.
- Tertiary: The keys that open doors in certain levels.
- Extra: The gold medals obtained by breaking the levels' time records in Time Trial.
- Plot Coupon: The game tasks the player to collect amethyst gems that serve as power cells to refuel the airplane that got stranded in the island where the kiwi and a friendly pilot are now. The Doomsday campaign has differently-shaped gems that are instead used to dispel the barrier that blocks the entrance to the final level.
- Portal Endpoint Resemblance: The Hub Level not only shows the thematic features of the levels it grants access to, but when the kiwi approaches the entrance to a level pair, their shared music will play as well before the kiwi goes through them.
- Port Town: The eighth and final level takes place within a coastal city with buildings in the shore and some submarines in the surrounding waters. Located in various parts are color-coded keys that open the doors leading to a grotto hiding a gem.
- Retraux: This game takes a lot of aesthetic influences from later-era Nintendo 64 platformers, particularly those developed by Rare, with simplistic low-polycount characters, low-resolution texture work, and baked lighting.
- Shifting Sand Land:
- The third and fourth levels take place within a wide, scorched desert with some ancient buildings and functional furnaces. The former level has a furnace with a switch that floods much of the level with lava, but there's another whose switch reverts the flood.
- The second level of the Doomsday campaign aims for The Wild West instead of the Middle East motifs seen in the base campaign's desert levels. It's a scorched land whose features include cacti, crystal statues shaped like bird necks, a pair of rails where a train does an endless Wrap Around trip, some saloons, small plateaus that can be climbed, and more uniquely a set of floating cubic devices that can be used by the kiwi to gain extra height while gliding (with them, it's even possible to go through the whole level without ever touching the ground).
- Shout-Out: In the Doomsday campaign, there are some cardboards modeled after the main character of MacBat 64: Journey of a Nice Chap.
- Springy Spores: The forest levels feature giant mushrooms that bounce the kiwi up when landing on them.
- Temple of Doom: The fifth and sixth levels are set within ancient ruins filled with traps and obstacles like green boulders, swinging axes, purple-colored flames, and pools of toxic liquid. And in the sixth level, some of the gems are encased within sarcophagi that have to be opened by pressing switches.
- Time Trial: A post-release update adds a feature to replay the levels completed, but now with an ongoing chronometer so the player can attempt to collect everything as quickly as possible.
- Toggling Setpiece Puzzle: The fifth level features crystal switches that swap the states of various contraptions like color-coded barriers (green and red), the level of a toxic liquid in one pool, the height of solid platforms in another, and the respective positions of a room's floor and ceiling. The switches, by default, are colored green when they're toggled off, and red when they're toggled on. Working around the contraptions and their states will be necessary to reach the most treasured part of the level, where five gems await.
- Tomorrowland: The first level of the Doomsday campaign takes place within an enclosed urban rainy area called City 64, which has a futuristic motif. Many neon lights, including some written in Japanese, can be seen, as can various luminescent green orbs that come from the pool of water at the bottom. The level is very tall, being divided into vertical sections that have to be traversed with the help of moving platforms as well as some billboards the kiwi can climb with its beak.
