Little Bit of History: This title has a very interesting history. In 1987, German developers Time Warp Productions wanted to port Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers to the Commodore 64. Nintendo would not allow other platforms to use their Mario IP. So Time Warp Productions went on and made the game anyway but changed the main characters. The game was withdrawn from shops by publisher Rainbow Arts at Nintendo’s request, making a boxed copy of the game rare today.
Little Bit of Plot/Story: You play as Giana, who suffers from a nightmare in which she travels through 32 dungeons full of monsters. Collecting ominous diamonds and looking for her sister Maria. If the player completes all 32 dungeons, Giana will be woken from her nightmare by her sister.
Little Bit of Character: Single player has you playing as Giana, whereas an alternating 2 players option as the second player taking control of Maria.
Enemies are not named, but consisted of: owls, deadly insects, flesh eating fish and rolling eyeballs.
Little Bit of Influence: This game did spawn an official sequel called: Hard N’ Heavy, but it was altered to avoid further legal issues with Nintendo. There was even an unofficial sequel called: Giana Sisters II which was a hack of the original. But ironically, despite Nintendo’s disapprovement of the blatant ripping off of their IP Super Mario with the original game. Subsequent official sequels were made like: Giana Sisters DS and Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams both released on Nintendo’s handheld DS system.
Little Bit of Memories: Not having a NES growing up (but a friend did) meant I did not get chance to play Super Mario Brothers that often. So having our very own version, even if it was a rip off, was a welcome addition. I also remember the controversy the game created and it’s removal from sale.
Little Bit of Playability: If you enjoy playing Super Mario Brothers today then you’ll enjoy this game too. It retains that classic Mario style but also does things just a little bit differently to keep you entertained.
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