The famous 'Super Mario brothers' (NES) had their counterparts on the C64 with 'The Giana Sisters'. Instead of Mario and Luigi, where Mario is the main character, it was Giana and Maria, with.
The sisters are back.Giana Sisters is an interesting title. Dig back deep enough and savvy gamers will discover that this series originated from the Commodore 64, and was pushed aside due to its familiarity with a certain plumber from a small company called Nintendo. Well the series has recently had a resurgence on PC and consoles, and now Xbox One owners can snag what is being dubbed the Director’s Cut. This version consists of the original release and expansion pack, as well as some holiday-themed levels tossed in for good measure. There are also a host of improvements, all for the same price as the original release.My colleague Dave has already exhausted the first two releases of the game in review form. For details about and, be sure to check out his reviews.
This review will focus mainly on what has changed from those titles. Time to throw down.MSRP: $14.99Platforms: Xbox OnePrice I’d Pay: $14.99The most obvious change is the amount of content. The Xbox One version plays host to all the original game, the expansion and the themed levels.
There is an abundance of content to be found here, including tons of levels and challenges. The only omission is the leader boards, which never seemed to work right on Xbox 360 anyways, but it does eliminate the usefulness of the Time Attack mode.Another big addition is the Normal difficulty mode. This alters the game in several ways, such as making certain sections easier. The cool part is that it isn’t just arbitrary things like making enemies do less damage, but instead altering sections of levels such as removing obstacles or instant death devices.
It really tones down an otherwise super challenging experience. It is nice for those that don’t have the patience to memorize platforms and sections.There are also a host of other changes that make this feel like more than a port job to bring another title to the system. For example the addition of Normal mode, as well as a fully-fleshed out tutorial that teaches more about the switching systems.
There is also now a gem counter for each stage, which eliminates the guesswork involved with knowing how many each stage has. Finally, any world can be tackled at any time, so if I got bored of the original game, I could jump to Owlverlord without having to unlock it. The worlds are truly beautiful.These are all minor changes, but ones that make the overall package feel more polished and accessible.Coming to Xbox One also delivers a more pristine coat of pain. The game definitely looks sharper, and the level and character design benefit from that. This has always been a great looking game, but with a higher resolution and more stable frame rate it shines even more. I loved the designs of the holiday levels, and the new enemy types in Owlverlord give it variety that it desperately lacked in the original.There are a lot of Xbox 360 games making their way onto Microsoft’s new console, but most don’t offer up this amount of care put into them. Giana Sisters is a better game on Xbox One, and worthy of the often misused title of Director’s Cut.
For those that have not ventured into this world, the time is perfect to jump in, and even for those that sampled it before, this is certainly a version worth coming back for.Review copy of game provided by publisher.
Once seen as a legal threat to Nintendo, the Giana Sisters series has since found itself at home among the indie games industry. 2011’s Giana Sisters DS marked a different kind of relationship with the Big N and the following year saw a Kickstarter for what appeared to be a bigger game in the series known then as Project Giana. Of course, Project Giana made its goal and has seen plenty of releases on platforms since then as Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams.As a fan of the DS game, I had been looking forward to getting Twisted Dreams in some capacity. Thankfully, given the popularity of the Nintendo Switch it was only a matter of time before the game would be ported to this lovely device. The question that remains is that now I’ve finally gotten to play the game through, what do I make of it?StoryOn the surface, it’s the usual “rescue ” scenario. In this case Giana has to rescue her sister, Maria. Giana is not the child she was back in the day though; this time, she’s going through internal transformations which can alter the ways she sees the world around her.
The loading screens sometimes even give us brief glimpses into life outside of the fantasy lands but that’s just what they are – glimpses.GraphicsI am not going to lie, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is a beautiful-looking game. Every level in the game is filled to the brim with lush environmental detail. It’s the kind of visual bliss you wish the New Super Mario Bros. Series would have. And despite all of the decorations, the framerate sticks at 60 per second rate with only very rare exceptions of slowdown.
The silhouette animations that are on display during the loading screens also never cease to catch my eye.AudioI kind of wish I could say the same about the audio. Well, more specifically the music. The sound effects are reasonably stimulating but the music feels too much like background fodder.
With normal Giana the music is bubbly and lighthearted and as punk Giana it’s injected with a metal emphasis. That’s pretty much all that comes to mind. Granted, Giana DS played it safe with the soundtrack as well but you’d think Twisted Dreams would up the ante similarly to how the graphics have been upgraded.GameplayThough the Giana Sisters series were obviously influenced by the Mario games in their prime, this latest installment twists it up a bit with a shifting mechanic. Giana has two different forms she can use to her advantage and they each transform the world around her. The regular form has a spin jump while the “punk” style has a fireball attack that’s useful for hitting enemies. When the levels give you room to play around with your abilities, Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is very much a good time.
And there’s a good amount of game content here with 38 levels divided into four worlds to travel through (not counting included DLC). This is especially welcome considering the levels themselves last a while compared to Mario or the previous games in Giana‘s lineup.While the gameplay is sound for the most part, there are times where the game’s flow can feel somewhat unbalanced. This game LOVES spikes and Giana’s a one-hit wonder if there’s no shield power in sight. Some of those things come from how you never know what obstacles are manipulated by your transformations until you try it for the first time – aka trial and error. Checkpoints are generous but it does nevertheless get annoying when you repeatedly die from things you wouldn’t be able to see coming.VerdictI think Giana Sisters DS balances out the challenge and platforming better in the grand scheme of things (therefore it is still my favorite of the series) but Twisted Dreams is still an enjoyable jump ‘n run the whole way through. There’s a lot to like about it even if there are levels that could have been ironed out. The gameplay is unique enough to at least give it that sense of identity the series ironically didn’t have in its inception. I’m glad to have finally been given the opportunity to play it.Review copy provided by THQ Nordic.