Here's a little history lesson for you - back in the day (1987) there lived a pretty shameless Super Mario Bros rip off called "Great Giana Sisters", which was designed for the C64 home computer.
It was in fact immensely popular, probably in part simply because it's inspiration was sweeping the globe, and Great Giana Sisters was actually quite a good take on it, with more levels and arguably better graphics. It wasn't long, though, before it came to the attention of Nintendo and was pulled from stores and carted away following legal challenges from the Big N.
Fast forward to 2009 and the upcoming release of "Giana Sisters DS" in April. This new title retains the classic platforming look, without borrowing nearly as much from Mario this time around. With a wide range of creatures to battle in over 80 dream world levels while collecting diamonds, this new take is a lot more than just a knock off. It looks like a promising game so far and even revisits some of the original music tracks that have solidified it as a cult favorite.
Needless to say we're looking forward to killing a lot of time with this one. Developer Spellbound Entertainment has kindly put up a website at www.giana-sisters.com, so feel free to check that one out.
[source giana-sisters.com]
Comments 8
Blimey, this really does look like a spiritual sister to the Mario Bros' games
My mate had the C64 version when it was removed from store shelves. It gave the game a certain appeal, and TBH it's a very decent clone of Mario. I hope they mix things up a bit with this update. This could be the 2D Mario we've all been screaming for!
Search Google for some of the screenshots from the original game, its quite amazing it got released at all!
I hope they keep the Chris Huelsbeck's soundtrack. (I hope I spelled that right) The music lived on after the game was pulled off the shelves. I'm also relieved that Codemasters isn't doing this port. They raped my other childhood favorite C64 game, Impossible Mission. Luckily they had enough grace to keep the classic version in there...
This could be the 2D Mario we've all been screaming for!
Oh please no, not so soon after I sold my DS.
I had the original on the C64 both in the regular version and a hacked version that replaced the player sprite with Mario.
Spellbound is where Armin Gessert (the writer of the original) works now so at least they've got the same mind working on it but the time between then and now may have altered his mindset. No idea how it'll turn out. I took the chance and actually preordered it on Amazon when the price was fairly low (something like 33€) so I hope it'll turn out well.
Now, also release the original C64 version onto Virtual Console!
Well, it's a good game, just too damn easy for those of us who can actually have nostalgia for a hard-as-nails game on a computer from 20 years ago.
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