I loved the game "The great Giana Sisters". This has to be my favourite game of all time. It was totally addictive and infuriating at the same time.
The game goes like this: You're Giana (or Maria if you're player 2), you progress through side scrolling levels picking up diamonds and jumping on bad guys until you reach the end of the stage where you get a bonus pay out. Along the way you'll pick up various "bonus" power ups to allow you to break bricks, shoot a little rubber ball, gain homing ability for your little rubber ball, walk on fire etc.
These are essential to your successful travels through the levels and dungeons.
One of the most appealing characteristics of the game is the addictive music and free flow of the game play. The Amiga version is much better looking and the graphics are better than the C64 version.
The game was created in 1987, about 2 years after the first super Mario bros was released. This caused much fuss and the creators were sued and the great Giana sisters were removed from the market due to breach of copy write. The c64 version of the game even taunted the Super Mario Bros with “The brothers are history” written on the jacket.
I spent many, many hours playing this game. My friends and I would compete
and my brother and sister were also just as obsessed with the game.
The warp bricks are secret warps where you can hit a brick and it will warp you past a few levels so you don’t have to complete them.
Another little known secret about the game is that there are secret dungeons available when you fall down some holes in the game. The holes are marked by little blue “perforated” lines right at the bottom of the hole. You’ll only see them if you look really closely but they are well worth the effort. There are many bonuses and extra points to be gained by going through them.
All in all there are 32 levels. The dragon is the largest of the bad guys and cannot be killed (but he can be dodged).
The copy I played when I was a kid was not able to be completed because it had a bug on level 32. The screen was all graphically messed up and it was too easy to get killed by a random invisible enemy.
I'm so glad this game collection is here. I'm looking forward to playing my favourite game again.
