The Great Giana Sisters

The Great Giana Sisters
Cover art of The Great Giana Sisters
Developer(s)	Time Warp Productions
Publisher(s)	Rainbow Arts
Composer(s)	Chris Hülsbeck
Platform(s)	Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX2, Mobile phone, Nintendo DS, iPod Touch, iPhone Unofficial ports: DOS, Windows, Dreamcast, Nintendo DS
Release date(s)	1987
Genre(s)	Platform game
Mode(s)	Single player

The Great Giana Sisters is a platform game developed by Time Warp Productions for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, MSX2, and Commodore 64. It was released in 1987 and published by Rainbow Arts. The Commodore 64 version was programmed by Armin Gessert. Graphics were designed by Manfred Trenz.

As of 2005, a new version titled simply Giana Sisters has been made available for mobile phones. There is also an unofficial fangame titled Giana's Return for Windows, GP2x, GP2X Wiz, and Dreamcast. A port of the Commodore 64 version was made for the Nintendo DS.

In April 2009, publisher DTP Entertainment and developer Spellbound Interactive, owner of the game's IP released a new Giana Sisters game in Europe with an extensive graphical update for the Nintendo DS. It has since been released in Australia. The game features all-new levels and more gameplay elements, and a recreation of the original game's levels can be unlocked. Giana Sisters DS was finally released in North America in November 2011 by publisher Destineer, though their official website does not have it listed, and is only available through several retailers such as Walmart and Newegg.com

History

Rainbow Arts was forced to withdraw the game from sale almost as soon as it was released and cancel release of the otherwise completed ZX Spectrum version, under pressure from Nintendo's legal arm, because of the strong resemblance to Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers game. The cover of the C64 version, published in the UK by GO! (a sub-label of US Gold), went so far as to taunt Nintendo's game with the tagline "The brothers are history".

Original copies of the game are currently highly prized by video game collectors.

The Spectrum version was reviewed and mentioned in magazines, but was never commercially released.

Similarity to Super Mario Bros.

Since Nintendo has historically avoided porting its console titles to home computers, it is likely that the game was developed to cash in on the popularity of Super Mario Bros., and to provide a similar experience to home computer owners with no interest in buying a NES. The game has two playable characters: the single-player character Giana (mirroring Mario's status as the prominent Mario Brother), and Maria. In Giana Sisters DS, Maria does not appear. Instead, Giana gets a transformation called Punk Giana.

In Super Mario Bros., the main characters (Mario and Luigi) could collect Super Mushrooms. The mushrooms caused the characters to grow taller, and withstand a single attack without losing a life. Damage caused after collecting a Super Mushroom would revert the characters to their original small state. The mushrooms were hidden in blocks, and could be freed by jumping into the underside of the block. In Great Giana Sisters, the sisters (Giana and Maria) would collect brightly-colored balls from blocks, which caused their hairstyle to change from braids-and-bows into brightly colored Mohawk haircuts. In both games, the alternate state of the characters gave them the ability to break blocks with their heads (in actuality, Mario and Luigi punched the blocks from below). Many of the enemy sprites bore strong similarities to the enemies in Super Mario Bros., and in addition to very similar backgrounds and areas, some of the map layouts used were virtually identical to levels in the Nintendo flagship game.

Starting from level 3, the game breaks with the Super Mario level design and introduce "unique" features such as disappearing platforms or bricks that consolidate into boulders when the player tries to break them with her head. Power-ups are more varied than in Super Mario series, including 3 types of fireballs (regular shot, bouncing shot and homing shot) as well as special items that allow the sisters to walk through fire or temporarily freeze all monsters on screen later in the game. Unlike the Super Mario series, there is no special fixed location for 1-UP lollipops; they will be available in the same power-up blocks after the whole sequence of power-ups have been shown. Moreover, Giana/Maria will lose the current "extra power up" (bomb, clock or droplet) as soon as she collects another "extra power up" or a 1-UP lollipop, which introduces additional strategy in the gameplay.

A series of "warp blocks" are hidden across the levels, allowing the astute player to by-pass some of the harder levels.

Screenshots

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  Great Giana Sisters (Amiga version)

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  Giana in a cave (Amiga version)

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  Great Giana Sisters (C64 version)

External links

• Original C64 version playable on webpage with Java
• Giana Sisters in C64-Wiki
• Giana Sisters DS - Official remake of the Commodore 64 game for the Nintendo DS
• Giana Sisters iPod Touch/ iPhone - Official remake of the Commodore 64 game for the Apple iPod Touch / iPhone (link to iTunes: iTunes-link )
• Review of Great Giana Sisters in Your Sinclair
• Review of Great Giana Sisters in Crash!
• Great Giana Sisters at AmigaMemo.com - AmigaMuseum
• Great Giana Sisters at World of Spectrum
• English page for mobile phone Giana Sisters at Jamster!
• Great Giana Sisters theme remixes at remix.kwed.orgda:Giana Sisters