Quick Look: Giana Sisters DS

The only Giana sister I ever want to play with is Gianna Michaels.

I loved the original Giana Sisters as a kid. Seeing it updated and re-released is weird.

LOL GIANA...get it guys?

@Moreau_MD said:

LOL GIANA...get it guys?

N...no? ;_;

I actually played and finished this few years back.

the only thing i can think of while watching this game is in how much i want to play Mutan Mudds

It seems like a combination of Super Mario Bros and Rayman.

Yo, the original Giana Sisters was boss!

The music from Giana Sisters is just the best. Made by the god Chris Hülsbeck. Here is the best cover of the theme song by Machinae Supremacy.

Fun (or not) fact about the game. The spelling was inconsistently Giana or Gianna in game or on the box. The sisters name is Maria.

Many months ago I was looking at gameplay vids of this on Youtube and there were people in the comments talking about how much better it was than New Super Mario Bros.

@beeryayghost said:

@ragnarok7038 said:

I really like the "The greatest platform game of all time?" quote.

I really like all of this.

I might actually buy this game. History and probably future rarity aside, it still looks like a competent 2D platformer, which is a genre that seems to be making a comeback with games like Rayman: Origins and Super Meat Boy but which is still pretty uncommon (even the newest handheld Mario game has 3D gameplay after all).

Giana Sisters for the Amiga was one of the first if not the first game I ever played in my life. The amounts of nostalgia I have for the game is immeasurable.

The underground theme is better than Mario's. Just sayin'.

A water bottle and a piece of wood?

I see a butt plug and a vibrator laying next to a used condom.

Just sayin'.

The version of Giana Sisters I have (Amiga) had a "Sonic the Hedgehog" in it too. I am fairly sure it was a mod as it would have been several years after the 1987 release date, but I dont remember for sure.

@h0lgr said:

The only Giana sister I ever want to play with is Gianna Michaels.

Glad I'm not the only one who immediately thought this

Junk knock-off or not, the whole euro C64 scene was awesome! Shame I only had an Amstrad CPC growing up. :(

Also:

I was going to say "Didn't this come out on the DS years ago" but Ryan explained it. Talk about a long wait for a US release.

I must admit, i laughed a lot at the "marital aid" comment, then again at the "looks like a piece of wood." Quip and jeffs follow-up.

Crappy looking game.

Newegg??

@Skillface said:

@h0lgr said:

The only Giana sister I ever want to play with is Gianna Michaels.

Glad I'm not the only one who immediately thought this

She is an amazing woman!

Did they get new mics, or did they just record these when they were sleepy? VOICES SOUND DIFFERENT TO ME

I knew a commodore freak that claimed that mario brother ripped off Giana Sisters

@Grumbel: Can't say I relate, I thought that New Super Mario Bros, while looking kind of bland visually, was the best playing, with the most mechanical variety, Mario game in many years (I was not that fond of Yoshi's Island btw, from what I played of it at least). I also had a lot of fun playing the separate mini-games (that were apparently first part of Super Mario 64DS) and the local multiplayer mode that didn't require the players to each have a copy of the game.

Compared to that this just looked so shallow. Run, jump, pickup crystals. No dashing through a mushroom platform level at maximum speed, barely landing on the caps long enough for them to sink down or stretch up or bend to the sides or whatever they did this time.

I'll give you that its music is good and has a distinct personality compared to NSMB's hummable elevator music, the design and animation of Giana and the enemies is nice too.

Even though I didn't play the original I was curious after seeing it in a store, it was why I was looking at gameplay vids to begin with, but it ended up just looking like a nostalgia piece for old fans to me, trumped in complexity by many other recent 2D games..

...This was about as far as I got, before rewatching the Quicklook and Youtubing different gameplay clips kinda turned me over, I can totally see the appeal now. It still sounds crazy to me that someone would try to favorably compare this to NSMB, or call it 'fresh' for that matter, but I can see someone enjoying the simplicity in its design when aided by its charming presentation.

It's super crazy that this exists, but it doesn't look at all special or interesting.

@RockmanBionics said:

@antime: Rainbow Arts made one of my favorite games of my childhood, Apprentice.

Or what we called it at the time the guy with the boxes.

Just listen to that music in the intro~

If you read the credits you'll notice it was composed by Chris Hülsbeck, who also made the music for Giana Sisters and many more Rainbow Arts games.

More pointless trivia: Both Hülsbeck and Trentz got their breakthrough via German computer magazine 64'er. Hülsbeck got his music editor (Soundmonitor) and an example song (Shades) published as type-in programs (remember them?) and both became very famous in the hobby/demoscene. Trentz won a graphics contest held by the magazine and AFAIK was hired by Rainbow Arts soon after. In fact, hiring from the German homebrew and demoscene seems to have been a common thing for them, maybe it was a good way of getting very talented people for cheap.

Ah the Great Giana Sisters. When I was 10 I had a NES and a guy in school had a C64 (this was 1993 so we where both behind the times) and he swore The Great Giana Sisters was better than Mario. Looking back on it now I would love to know where he got a copy of the game.

why does this exist. The visuals are real bad, apparently the gameplay isn't so hot, and they release it on a system that has actual Mario games.

@antime: I did (sorta) know who Chris Hülsbeck is, he's got some darn good work behind him that's for sure.

I remember beating the DS version some... years ago. Is this a sort of retro Quick Look? :O

Jeff's right. All of the text and some of the sprites looks grungy and baaad.

@JoeyRavn: This came out in October 2011 in the states.

I didn't know that this was a full retail game until the very end when they explicitly mentioned it... THE FUCK.

[Push Button For Wood]

You know, this game would have worked well on a phone (sans control scheme) Since the levels are in small chunks and it could be a minor distraction.

Marital aid button = instant buy

I've played all of Giana Sisters DS and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The gameplay and presentation is very simple and straight forward but it is well worth the 20 dollar price tag.

I never played the original game in the past, but the OC remix of the song is one of my all time favourite remixes.

http://ocrmirror.org/files/music/remixes/Great_Giana_Sisters_Synthpop_Mix_OC_ReMix.mp3

I used to like the Giana Sisters... but then I took an arrow to the knee.

@LentFilms said:

I've played all of Giana Sisters DS and I enjoyed it quite a bit. The gameplay and presentation is very simple and straight forward but it is well worth the 20 dollar price tag.

I played it back when it came out on Nintendo DS in EU years ago and I really liked it too. It's not anything notable or special, but for someone who really loves platformers (like myself) it's worth a shot - especially if Newegg puts it on sale for $10 again. It's got some creative level design and I really love the remixed music. I think the only thing I really hold again it is slight repetition in environments and the lame boss battles (battles which are a minor part of the game.)

Regardless of the rip-off qualities of it, this game just looks like mayonnaise on white bread.

You know, this game would have worked well on a phone (sans control scheme) Since the levels are in small chunks and it could be a minor distraction.

@RVonE said:

Great to hear that they put a variant of the main theme in there. But nothing beats the Commodore 64 theme of Giana Sisters. Just listen to it:

JUST LISTEN TO IT!

Yesyesyesyesyes! God, i love that tune.

Huh, I didn't realize that this was a thing that existed. Quite an odd little game with a weird back story. Too bad it looks super generic and junky.

@RVonE: This was my immediate thought. I really need to make a SID-licious blog dedicated to The Great Giana Sisters music.

This game looks boring to me. What does it offer other then a mediocre version of mario from decades ago?

This game has been out for quite some time already.

Nice Wardner shout out Jeff. I knew it as Pyros in the Pizza Hut of my youth. I love that game. :)