The Great Giana Sisters

Anyone heard of this game? (I have for a LONG time but what about you?)



Here's a background story: In 1987, a German company named Rainbow Arts saw how big Super Mario Bros. was. Knowing Nintendo would not port the game onto any PC, they decided to make their own version on the Amiga and the Commodore 64 about two girls named Giana and Maria. One of the game's box art actually had "The Brothers are History!" on the cover. And thus, The Great Giana Sisters was born... ... for a short time though. Nintendo was not happy at all. They sued Rainbow Arts for plagiarizing their game and won. The company was then forced to withdraw ALL copies from the shelves, cancel the finished port for another system, and no longer sell them, making them rare and collectable (the game was only on the shelves for 2 weeks). It is also the second most pirated game of all time. Even though it had a ton of similarites (like the 32 levels, every 4th level is a castle, similar power-ups system, 100 diamonds is a 1-UP, an enemey that looks like a Goomba, ect) there were some things that were original like vanishing platforms when you walk over it, some original enemies, and some original items where one can freeze enemies. It is TOTALLY worth a try so play it when you can. If you have a DS flash card, someone made a Public Domain DS ROM where all it is it's an exact port of the Commodore 64 version.

Surprisingly, in 2009, a sequel titled "Giana Sisters DS" was made for the DS. It was only sold in Europe and Austrailia and sold for a short time (making them hard to get too). Even though the DS game can cost big bucks on eBay, the game was also ported to the iPhone for a cheap price (it's still available for download). I've beaten it three times (via a DS flash card) and it's amazing.

Interesting game, huh?

Oh, and if you're interested, I found an image online where someone rip all 32 levels (plus the bonus stages and the title screen.)

http://c64screenshots.com/images/giana_sisters.png

Sweet Action, you just gotta love old platformers. I'll have to get an emulator and try it out.

Never heard of it but very interseting!