The Great Giana Sisters Hands On

So we got our hands on a German copy of Giana Sisters for the DS. That is to say, the instructions and box are printed in German. Giana Sisters is still Giana Sisters, even in German. The game itself is in English. This isn't important context, but it does show you what we're up against sometimes. If I hadn't played Great Giana Sister on my Amiga 500 back in the day, I wouldn't have known what to expect. On the surface, Giana Sisters looks like a rip off of Super Mario Brothers. Oh wait. Wait...

It is.

Nintendo managed to get this game stripped from shops soon after it made its debut. Great Giana Sisters was the Commodore 64's answer to the popular plumbers, and was a shameless copy of the classic platformer. That does, however, mean it was quite good. And from what we've played of the updated version on the DS, things haven't changed much. Giana Sisters continues to be such a good copy of Super Mario Brothers, that anyone who's a fan of platformers should find a rewarding and engaging gaming experience.

The best way to describe Giana Sisters is by listing out all the major attributes of Super Mario Brothers and placing alongside them the Giana Sisters version of that attribute. Mushrooms are beachballs. Big Mario = Punk Giana, etc. Pretty much everything is covered. So all that aside, what are our first impressions of the DS version? Almost everything has been carried over from the C64, and a number of new additions feature. The game has more than 80 levels, and plays exceedingly well. The DS is the platformer's platform, and Giana Sisters seems to have made a more or less seamless, albeit strange, leap.

So far we're enjoying that classic functionality, but what's exciting about this port is that later we can expect to see the microphone and touchscreen used, where developers Spellbound have injected a little 2009 into the proceedings. There'll be more on this in the review - so look out for that next week.

And what can we tell you about just why a game that was stomped on my Nintendo's legal beagles back in 1987 has suddenly appeared on the DS? Well, it could be a case of if you can't beat em, buy em out. But that seems a bit unlikely when Mario and his various offshoots are now a part of a vast dynasty. And while Giana Sisters has always been a cult fave, with a spread across a range of systems including Atari, Amiga and Amstrad, it never looked once like a true threat.

Bat around the whys and why nots long enough and you're just wasting precious game time. What we've juiced out of the card so far has been muchos enjoyable, and we're only hoping it gets better from here. The DS is a great one for throwing up those titles that aren't must haves, but sure are nice-to-haves, and Giana Sisters at first glance looks to be one of these. The music and graphical presentation of the game is excellent, and provided the gameplay can keep us locked in, there's no reason to believe this game will get cut up at crunch time.

Watch this space.