Great Giana Sisters

From C64-Wiki

Great Giana Sisters

Game No.	4
Developer	Armin Gessert, Manfred Trenz
Company	Time Warp Production
Publisher	Rainbow Arts
Musician	Chris HÃ¼lsbeck
HVSC-File	/Huelsbeck_Chris/Great_Giana_Sisters.sid
Release	1987
Plattform	C64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Handy
Genre	Jump & Run
Gamemode	1 - 2 Multiplayer
Operation
Media
Language
Information

1 Voting
2 Description
3 Design
4 Hints
5 Solution
6 Cheats
7 Critics
8 Miscellaneous
9 Highscore
10 Links

[edit] Voting

Voting of the C64-Wiki-User (10=the best Vote):
8.78 points at 58 votes (rank 10). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	10	(11. November 2005 - "highlight" 33659 downs)
Lemon64	8,4	6. Oktober 2006 - 179 votes
GameBase64	10	12.08.2003 - Classic!

[edit] Description

One night, when little Giana from Milano was fast asleep, she had a nightmare. Giana found herself in a wonderous world. Here everything was huge and strange. Giana can only leave this world, if she finds a huge jewel. Fortunately she is not alone, because her sister Maria has also this dream. The world consists of 33 levels and in the last stage Giana can find the needed gem, to return to her world.

[edit] Design

2-D Screen, whose contents scrolls to the left out of view. Sound and music are well harmonised with the game. The sprites are cutely animated.

[edit] Hints

The operation is done with a joystick in port 2 of the C64. At every re-start you can choose wether to play with Giana (press 1) or Maria (press 2). With the joystick you steer to the right or left and you can jump, when you press the joystick upwards. The longer you press, the longer Giana stays in the air. By combining running and jumping, longer jumps are possible.

The fire button comes into play, when you make a small punk out of Giana or Maria. The hairdo is hidden in one of the stones. Now she can also destroy stones and has the possibility to find thunderbolts later. The thunderbolts are activated by pressing the fire button. There are three thunderbolts: the simple bolt (vanishes with the first contact with a wall), the double bolt (the shot is reflected by the walls)and the strawberry, which makes the shot hit the nearest target automatically, also through walls.

With the target-searching shot (strawberry) you have to be careful! Some monsters "catch" this shot and are not killed by it --- instead the shot comes to rest on the back of the monsters. For this time you cannot shoot again!

After the strawberry there is an alarm clock, a bomb and a water drop. The alarm clock and bomb are activated by the space key. The alarm clock temporarily stops the time (which is practical, e.g. to jump easily over to bouncing balls), the bomb kills directly all killable monsters on the screen and the water drop makes immune against fire (Be careful: in some versions the water drop doesn't work properly). Alarm clock and bomb have to be collected again after use.

In the game there are hidden WARP-spots.

By accident I detected one of them during testing at the beginning of the 3rd level. By jumping against an invisible wall at the beginning of the level I was directly warped into level 6.

Another warp stone is in level 8: Destroy on the bridge of the boss enemy directly the first brick above you and jump into the upper left corner. You end up in level 11.

[edit] Solution

[edit] Cheats

Pressing the keys ARMN at once => jump into the next level! Alternatively you can add the I key: ARMIN, which reminds of the developer Armin Gessert.

Warp-Blocks
Warp-Block from Stage 3 to Stage 6	Warp-Block from Stage 6 to Stage 9	Warp-Block from Stage 8 to Stage 11	Warp-Block from Stage 17 to Stage 20
Warp-Block from Stage 19 to Stage 22	Warp-Block from Stage 22 to Stage 25	Warp-Block from Stage 25 to Stage 28	Warp-Block from Stage 28 to Stage 31

[edit] Critics

Sledgie: "The game reminds me a bit of the Mario series by Nintendo. Just with sisters instead of brothers. This was also the reason why it had to be taken from the market: Nintendo filed a lawsuit. "The Great Giana Sisters" has nevertheless its own style. In parts there are really difficult passages and the time limit is very short. Otherwise it is again and again fun to play. Also in the 2-player mode (which sadly only works by turns) you can fight about points."

Guybrush: "One reason not to like the Nintendo-mob...they have allowed the Sisters to be forbidden because of these two annoying, moustache-wearing overall-plumbers. Thank you for nothing, Nintendo ;o)!!!"

Jodigi: Just a great game.

triton: It IS a cheeky Super-Mario copy, but what a copy! From the design of the levels and the graphics to the striking sound everything corresponds. A jump'n'run game without bric-a-brac, as it should be!

[edit] Miscellaneous

The inofficial successor was Hard'n'Heavy, which originally should be issued under the title "Giana in Futureworld". Manfred Trenz mentioned in a forum, that the idea of a Mario clone came from the then label boss, and did not, as often assumed, arise by his initiative. After a plagarism trial by Nintendo Giana Sisters was taken from the market, because it was, according to Nintendo, too much based on Super Mario Bros.

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