The Great Giana Sisters

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The Great Giana Sisters
Image:The Great Giana Sisters Coverart.png
Developer(s) Time Warp Productions
Publisher(s) Rainbow Arts
Platform(s) Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX, Mobile phone, Nintendo DS
Unofficial ports:
DOS, MS Windows, Sega 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 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.

Due to its extreme similarity with Super Mario Bros., 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. 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.

Despite being unavailable commercially, unauthorized copying of the game has led to its rapid rise to cult status. Some people also altered the game's sprites to create an ad hoc version of Super Mario Bros. for the Commodore 64.

As of 2005, a new version titled simply Giana Sisters has been made available for mobile phones. There is also an unofficial remake titled Giana's Return for the Sega Dreamcast. A porting of the Commodore 64 version was made on the Nintendo DS [1].

In 2008, publisher DTP Entertainment and developer Spellbound Interactive, owner of the game IP have announced that an official remake with extensive graphical update is in development for Nintendo DS and was release in April 2009 in Europe by the developer. [2]

Contents

[edit] Music

Much of the game's fame may come from its theme music (composed by Chris Hülsbeck), which is highly regarded in the chiptune community, especially among SID chip fans. Music from the game was performed live by a full orchestra at the third Symphonic Game Music Concert in 2005, which took place in Leipzig, Germany. The Swedish band Machinae Supremacy has based one of their songs on the music of this game. Also, the reggaeton artist Don Omar sampled the theme music for his hit single "Dale Don Dale".

[edit] 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 an NES. The game has two playable characters: the single-player character Giana (mirroring Mario's status as the prominent Mario Brother), and Maria.

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 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.

[edit] Screenshots

Great Giana Sisters (Amiga version)

Giana in a cave (Amiga version)

Great Giana Sisters (C64 version)

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Giana_Sisters"
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