The Great Giana Sisters 11/09/97

Adverts for The Great Giana Sisters appeared in the Amiga press around about this time 9 years ago. "A terrible twosome who'll stop at nothing to send you out of your mind!", shouted the poorly illustrated commercial (re-created here from the August 1988 issue of Crash). It would seem that Rainbow Arts couldn't make their mind up wether The Great Giana Sisters were lovable girl-next-door types who would call around to inquire about your grandmother's health, or heavilly made-up punks. That wouldn't. Still, only one of them was ever pictured on the actual game's titlescreen. See?



If you were lucky enough to have witnessed Giana Sisters first time around then you are a either a top industry mogul or a filthy software pirate. For most of you, an explanation is probably in order. First, try this:

The Great Giana Sisters.
The Super Mario Bros.
The Great Giana Sisters.
The Super Mario Bros.
The Great Giana Sisters.
The Super Mario Bros.

"Sleeping safely in her bed one night, petite Giana (from Milano) has a strange dream. In her nightmare she enters a weird land, full of strange aliens and terrible traps," wrote Crash, who continued, "Her only chance of escaping this dreamland is to explore its 32 levels in search of a magic diamond." Tch.



Basically, The Great Giana Sisters is little more than a formulaic platformer which owes its existance almost entirely to the arcade game "Super Mario Bros." (which featured on the Nintendo Multiplayer system and later the NES.) Y'see, it's almost entirely the same. But in 1988, the Amiga had seen nothing like it before. In fact, you might say it was the first playable platformer on the Amiga.

You can play by yourself ("Ooer!" - In memory of YS) or, should they drop by at the right moment, you can play with upto a friend. Taking it in turns to explore the right to left horizontally scrolling world, comprised of such innovative scenery as the sky, rocks, brick walls, boulders and other fine examples of distractive and decorative schist.

The object is to make it from one end of each stage to the other. Throughout your journey you'll be hindered by monsters - most of which can be killed by jumping and landing on their heads. You'll be pleased to hear that jumping is achieved by pressing "up" on the joystick. (Whistles.)



Special powers can be obtained by careful head-butting of selected bricks; those with animated stars (on them) can contain a variety of useful little trinkets like frizzy hair (so you can head-butt anything), a bullet (so you can shoot things), another bullet (which, terrifyingly, comes back to you bommerang like), extra time, and extra lives.

In common with the game upon which this is based, there are many hidden treasures to be unearthed. Such as the "secret room" over there on the left. Once inside, you can collect many diamonds which increase your score. Also look out for "level warps" which, once discovered, will transport you to later levels. And so on.

It's hard to make it sound exciting, certainly it looks dated and offers primitive playability. But it's an important part of Amiga history. So that's okay then. DeeJay99