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The Great Giana Sisters

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The Great Giana Sisters
The Great Giana Sisters
Cover art of The Great Giana Sisters on Commodore 64
Developer(s)Time Warp Productions
Publisher(s)Rainbow Arts
Designer(s)Armin Gessert,
Manfred Trenz (Graphics)
Composer(s)Chris Hülsbeck
Platform(s)Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX2, Mobile phone
Unofficial ports:
DOS, Windows, Dreamcast, Nintendo DS, Linux, Mac OSX, AmigaOS 4, NetBSD, AROS, MorphOS, Symbian OS
Release1987
Genre(s)Platforming
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

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. Its famous soundtrack was composed by Chris Hülsbeck.

The license is currently held by Black Forest Games[1]

Plot

One night, when little Giana from Milano was fast asleep, she has a strange dream. Everybody dreams weird things at night, but no one will have experienced situations like little Giana is about to.

Giana suddenly finds herself in a strange mysterious world, where everything is completely different. Gravity has almost disappeared - sometimes one feels like flying away - and everywhere there are unexplainable buildings and structures. Old grottoes and deserted castles seem to hide lots of secrets, and frightening and hideous creatures appear. This wouldn't be too bad, except that Giana can't leave this world unless she finds the magic, huge diamond. So she starts searching for this wonderful jewel.

However, she is not totally alone, for her little sister Maria can dream, too.

Gameplay

Giana after obtaining a Fire Wheel

The Great Giana Sisters is a 2D side-scrolling arcade game in which the player controls either Giana or her sister Maria. It takes place in Giana's dream, where she must find Dream Crystals in order stay strong throughout her dream. The game supports alternating 2 players, with second player taking control of Maria.

Each level contains a number of dream crystals which gives points when collected in order to make the game's high score. An extra life can be gained by collecting 100 dream crystals. Extra lives can also be found in the form of hidden "Lollipop" items.

Enemies can be jumped on or shot with obtainable powerups to be defeated. The enemies range from owls, rolling eyeballs, flesh eating fish and deadly insects. The "Fire Wheel" transforms Giana into a punk with the ability to crush rocks by jumping beneath them. "Lightning Bolt" will award Giana "Dream Bubbles", a single projectile shot. "Double Lightning" gives her ability to shot recoiling projectiles. "Strawberries" gives the ability to shoot homing projectiles. There is one defensive item in the game, the "Water-Drop", which protects Giana against fire. A number of special items can also be triggered that affects the entire screen, such as the "Clock" which will freeze all enemies on-screen, and the "Magic Bombs" will kill all enemies. These items are found in the item blocks scattered around the stages.

There are two types of stages in the game, an "Overworld" and "Underground" stage. The "Overworld stages" feature green scenery and pipe shaped objects, along with bottomless pits for Giana to avoid. The "Underground" stages feature additional hazards such as water and fire, as well as bosses.

There are in total 31 stages in the game. Hidden "Warp-Blocks" can be found to jump through portions of the game.

The immediate similarity to the Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. made sure Great Giana Sisters was quickly noticed by both the public and the video game industry itself. Giana Sisters first level for example is almost a complete 1:1 copy of the first stage found in Super Mario Bros., in addition to almost an identical style of gameplay. A commonly referred to rumor is that Nintendo took Rainbow Arts and Time Warp to court and blocked the game from being sold. However, Nintendo did not initiate any legal proceedings against either company, choosing rather to pressure them with warning of legal action should they not take appropriate reaction themselves.[2]

Soon after release, copies for the Atari ST and Amiga were taken off the store shelves. This caused the game to become an immediate and rare collector's item.[3] [4]

The alleged dispute with Nintendo became known worldwide through game magazines and word to mouth. It achieved a cult status and following. Despite being taken off the market shortly after its official release, it became widely available through piracy and black market copies. As of 2011, the prices of original versions of the game can have been sold for €100 to €250, depending on the state of the game and its packaging as well as system version. The Commodore 64 version was made available for a longer period of time for the Commodore 64, resulting it being the least rare, though still fetching high prizes once taken off the market.

A ZX Spectrum version was planned and even reviewed by gaming magazines prior to its planned released, but was cancelled due to the legal pressures the game suffered.[5]

Reception

Upon its release, Great Giana Sisters received strong critical praise and acclaim from the gaming magazines across Europe. Zzap!64 magazine proclaimed that the game was "amazing" and concluded with the overall opinion that Great Giana Sisters was "A fabulous, compelling and constantly rewarding arcade adventure.[7]" PowerPlay in their review felt that the game did not quite live up to the standards set by Super Mario Bros., but "still achieves being an entertaining pleasure."[8]

Due to the game being taken off the market, it became one of the most sought after collectible items on the systems where it received an official release.[3][4]

Despite never seeing a release, the ZX Spectrum version gained favorable reviews from Spectrum based magazines. CRASH noted that the game was "highly addictive and great fun to play. Plenty of hidden passages and surprise features should keep you hooked for weeks".[11]

Great Giana Sisters has gained a strong cult following over the years, citing its strong soundtrack and unique charm. On the online web resource Lemon64, staff member Jan Egil Romestrand remarked that the game is "must-have" for any serious C64 games collector."[10] As of 2012, it ranks 6th place on the Top 10 Games List on Gamebase 64.[12]

Chris Hülsbeck's soundtrack for the game has become one of the most popular video game soundtracks of all time. It has received over 50 remixes on the popular music arrangement resource Remix64. The music of Great Giana Sisters was featured in the live orchestra concert Symphonic Shades held in Colgone, Germany on August 23rd, 2008. The arrangement was made by Jonne Valtonen, and performed by the WDR Radio Orchestra. The concert was the first video game orchestra concert to be broadcasted live on radio. The concert recording received an album release in 2009.

Ports

The game has been ported to numerous systems since its release. A planned port for the ZX Spectrum was reviewed in magazines, though eventually cancelled due to legal pressures.[5] In 1993, Dutch developer Sunrise released a version for the MSX, programmed by Jan Van Valburg. Unofficially, the game has been ported to Windows, DOS, Linux, Mac OSX, AmigaOS 4, NetBSD, AROS, MorphOS, and Symbian OS. An unofficial port of the Commodore 64 version was also made for the Nintendo DS.[13]

In 2005, a new version titled Giana Sisters has been made available for mobile phones.

Sequels

Official

Hard'n'Heavy (Giana 2: Arther and Martha in Future World)

Shortly after the release of Great Giana Sisters, Time Warp began developing a sequel which was announced as Giana 2: Arther and Martha in Future World. The game was to take place in a futuristic landscape. However due to the trouble caused by the legal pressure coming from Nintendo, it was deemed to risky for the small developer to once again produce a game associated with the Giana Sisters. Time Warp then renamed the game Hard'n'Heavy, and changed the game's protagonists into robots rather than the Giana sisters.[14]

Hard'n'Heavy was released on the Commodore 64 in 1989.[15]

Giana Sisters DS

Main article: Giana Sisters DS

In April 2009, publisher DTP Entertainment and developer Spellbound Interactive, then owner of the game's IP, released a new Giana Sisters game in Europe with an extensive graphical update for the Nintendo DS titled Giana Sisters DS.[16] 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

Project Giana

Main article: Project Giana

In July 2012, Black Forest Games started a Kickstarter campaign for a new installment of The Great Giana Sisters tentatively titled Project Giana stating, Project Giana is the grandchild of The Great Giana Sisters." The game will feature music from The Great Giana Sisters' original composer Chris Hülsbeck and the Swedish "SID metal" band Machinae Supremacy[17]. Project Giana is planned to be released in October 2012 on PC with later releases on XBLA, PlayStation Network, and possibly OUYA.[18]

Unofficial

Giana Sisters II

Giana Sisters II was released in 2005, and is an unofficial sequel released on the Commodore 64. It is based on a hacked version of Great Giana Sisters. It was created by the team "7A3" in 1993, originally with commercial purpose plans though later released for free on the Internet. It fixes some of the original game bugs, removed some sprite issues, added better collision detection, and added 40 new levels. Some of the enemies were changed, and the hack also features new abilities such as swimming and flying. The level design remains very faithful to the original game.

Giana's Return

In 2008, Rodolphe "Thor" Boixel released an unofficial sequel titled Giana's Return. In the game, Evil Swampy and his followers have stolen the magic ruby, which made it once possible for Giana and Maria to return from their dream. Giana Return's took direct inspiration from the 1987 title and features very similar gameplay mechanics and looks. The soundtrack was handled by Alexander Oldemeier and David Wuttke. Giana's Return was met favorably with fans of the old games, and also garnered attention from official gaming outlets and print magazines, such as Retro Magazine.[19]

The game is available on Windows, Linux, Mac OSX, GP32, Wiz, Dreamcast, Pandora, MorphOS and SymbianOS.

References

  1. ^ Project Giana
  2. ^ Andreas Lober, ed. (2011). Die Clone-Kriege. Spiele-Plagiate im juristischen Licht. p. 170.
  3. ^ a b Eli Neiburger, ed. (2011). Gamers-- in the library?!. Amer Library Assn Editions. p. 53,174. ISBN 978-0838909447.
  4. ^ a b Karen Collins, ed. (2008). Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design. The MIT Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0262033787.
  5. ^ a b World of Spectrum: Great Giana Sisters
  6. ^ "The Great Giana Sisters - Overview - allgame". Allgame. Retrieved 2012-09-06.
  7. ^ a b "The Great Giana Sisters". ZZap64 (39). Newsfield Publications Ltd: 19. Retrieved September 5, 2012.
  8. ^ a b Powerplay (6/88) http://www.kultpower.de/powerplay_testbericht_extern.php3?im=greatgianasisters.jpg. Retrieved September 5, 2012. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ^ Aktueller Software Markt (2/88) http://www.kultpower.de/external_frameset.php3?site=asm_testbericht.php3%3Fim%3Dgianasisters.jpg%26backurl%3Dindex_main2.php3. Retrieved September 5, 2012. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  10. ^ a b "The Great Giana Sisters". Lemon64. Retrieved 2012-09-06.
  11. ^ "The Great Giana Sisters". CRASH. Retrieved 2012-09-06.
  12. ^ "Gamebase64". Retrieved 2012-09-06.
  13. ^ Giana Sisters DS
  14. ^ Frank Gasking. "Giana 2 - Arthur and Martha in Future World - Games That Weren't".
  15. ^ "Hard 'n Heavy 1989, reLINE Software". {{cite web}}: line feed character in |title= at position 14 (help)
  16. ^ Spellbound Entertainment AG
  17. ^ Project Giana
  18. ^ "Project Giana by Black Forest Games".
  19. ^ "Giana Returns".
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