Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - XBLA Review

Tenlo Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:53 pm

Developed by: Black Forest Games

Published by: bitComposer Entertainment

Cost: 1200MSP

Now if you're a big retro fan (and I know some of you guys are), you'll have heard the name of Giana Sisters. A cult favourite on the Amiga, it was removed from sale due to being a little to similar to a famous pair of Italian brothers. But that was years ago and now decades later (and it pains me to say decades as I feel my age), the Giana Sisters have been brought back from the sidelines and given a brand new game. The question is are they even relevant nowadays or is this just some fanboy thrill ride.

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams, thankfully only keeps the bare minimum of similarities between its original title. It is still a 2D platformer at heart but it has plenty of modern twists. The story seems to be that the Giana Sisters find a magical crystal one night which opens up a portal to another world where one sister is whisked away by a giant dragon and the other has to try and find her. So far, so pretty familiar video game tropes! However, it's here that the innovations come in.

See as girls grow up they go through transitions and the sister rescuing (whom I call Giana for now to make it less confusing) is going through a period of rebellion. As such you get two versions of Giana to play with "Cute" and "Punk", or yellow hair and red hair! Now the interesting thing here is that each version has it's own special move, Cute Giana does an extra jump then pirouettes gently down till she reaches firm ground, Punk Giana goes dashing along in any direction as a flaming ball. Fortunately you can switch versions while mid-move as well which is handy as not only do they have different moods but the environment changes depending on which version you are.

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - XBLA Review Giana-Sisters-Twisted-Dreams-2_zpscbeaaefd

It seems that the world itself is a nightmare for Giana as depending on what version you are depends on whether the game setting is dark and full of bones, demons and skulls or bright and full of green trees and day glo mushrooms. Funnily enough the punk version exists in the cute world and vice versa. The music also changes with the same theme being used but Punk Giana is accompanied by heavy rock guitar riffs while Cute Giana has a prog rock keyboard. The different worlds not only change in theme though, the actual elements of the level change too.

These changes range from gates opening and closing and platforms appearing to certain objects only being useable in one form or another. This adds a whole new element to the gameplay as you're not only having to time expert jumping and traversing but having to keep an eye out on which version you need to be to get to safety. It is intense and a real challenge to master these levels, but it never feels cheap and just makes you feel that you need to hone your skills to get past them. Thankfully there are no lives just infinite respawns at checkpoints which is handy as you will die...a lot!!!

There is another familiar part of the gameplay though that long term fans will appreciate. The main goal of each level is not only to complete but to collect as many gems as you can. These gems come in three varieties, blue, red and yellow gems. Blue gems can be collected at any time, but red gems are only collectable as Punk Giana and yellow gems only as Cute Giana. This adds another element of strategy to progression as to collect all the gems you will need to not only master the platforming elements but the quick changing of Giana's to maximise the gems you collect.

And you will need every gem you can get. Each level is scored in a rating out of 5 stars. Three of the stars are awarded for collecting gems, while the remaining two are rewarded by how few deaths you had (you need a minimum of three or under to get two stars!). The game suggests to unlock the boss levels at the end of the three worlds (23 levels between them including the boss levels) you will need to get at least half the stars on each world so get your gem collecting skills to work. Progression is not going to be easy on this game and I'm currently only halfway through the second world and I'm going to have to hone my skills to move onwards.

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - XBLA Review 2012-10-22_00001_zps47f16e20

Each level is a quite lengthy as well so you'll be spending a good 20 minutes on your first playthrough of each level if you take your time to collect everything only to find you've missed a ton of seccret stuff too. This game is massive and will keep you occupied for awhile especially as those secret areas can be very tricky to reach.

As I have said I've only managed to get past the first boss so far, but if it is anything to go by, it'll be familiar ground for platform game fans. With the traditional three hits and your out stylings, you'll have to discover what the best method to attack while avoiding the boss attacks is and although the bosses seem tough at first, once you figure out the pattern and the right places to move to, it becomes a lot simpler. Personally when I figured out how to beat the boss, I felt that old feeling of accomplishment I used to get from playing Sonic.

This game is tough but not unforgiving. With a little practice you can pass pretty much any level, but it will take time and some perfect jumping skills, but it never feels like the game is being unfair just you're not up to scratch. This game is a real throwback to how gaming used to be, where it challenged you and you felt challenged but a great feeling of accomplishment when you figured out how to get past a certain part.

Once, and if, you finish the main game there is plenty of replayability as you have a score attack and time attack mode to play through. There are also two extra modes to unlock Hardcore mode (which requires you to get a certain number of stars on each boss level) and Uber Hardcore (which you have to beat each level on Hardcore to get). What gives this a challenge is Hardcore mode gives you no checkpoints to finish a level, you die you're back to the start of the level again. Uber hardcore mode takes it to a whole new level of extreme. If you die you go back to level one! This will be an incredibly tough challenge but for fans of speed runs and classic platforming games it is a goal worth aiming for and will certainly give you bragging rights of all your friends!

Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - XBLA Review Giana_sisters_twisted_dreams_pc_review_21_zps467560e1

The game is also very polished in its looks. The characters are all very big and colourful and although the enemies have very little variation it's not a problem as the enemies never feel like a threat and more of an obstacle or aid to help you progress. The levels themselves look amazing and the transition between the two versions is smooth and rapid. The only think which is a let down is the colour swap bad guys, but it's not a huge issue as the enemies are not the focus of the game more the gems. The backgrounds are very detailed and I often switched Giana's just to see the difference between the versions.

The sound of the game is pretty much all about the theme being played throughout the levels. There are very few sound effects in game except for gem collection and jumping/killing enemies, but it's fine as this back to basics approach allows you to concentrate on the platforming rather than being distracted. Obviously if your not a fan of classic rock, you're going to get irritated by the music, but for me it was heaven and I usually ran around as Punk Giana just to hear the great riffs!

Right onto achievements and as you can guess, they are not going to come easy. I've racked up 50 out of 400 so far, but some of these are going to be uber tough. 160 should be available (I guess) for completing the game, plus one achievement for 5 stars on every level. However the other achievements are tough as they relate to the other game modes available. While the achievements tied to score attack and time attack just require you to get a trophy on each level, the final two require you to unlock hardcore and uber hardcore mode. The only saving grace is they don't ask you to complete Uber Hardcore mode though that would be an accomplishment worth getting!

Overall Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is a well packaged and presented game which wears its heritage proudly. This is a game from a time when games were a challenge and you could only afford one game a month but you played the hell out of that game and got your moneys worth and this is the same. The only downside is that I think a lot of players who aren't old enough to remember these days will pass on it due to its difficulty. They will be missing out as this is a real gem of a game and for fans of retro platforming action an absolute must buy!

Overall: 8/10

**KENT HAMMER** Tue Mar 26, 2013 1:03 pm

Good work mate.

I will start this once my own review workload slows down abit Very Happy

Guest Tue Mar 26, 2013 3:22 pm

Nice review mate. I will be totally honest and say I have never heard of this and I am 38, older than most. Guess this slipped me by at the time.

Colne Crusader Tue Mar 26, 2013 7:14 pm

Nice work Tenners. I really liked Giana Sisters back in the day. It was more than just a Mario clone, as the gameplay was superb. Home computer users had rarely had such tight mechanics in those days. It felt like you were playing a proper console game. Console owners usually had the most playable games, if not the best graphics so it was nice to get a piece of the action. I'm glad to hear we are getting some good old fashioned gameplay here! In fact, we seem to be getting more and more lately, so that's a great thing! I'm sure traditional gameplay can co-exist with modern gameplay, and hopefully it will continue to become more popular and eventually become as commercially viable as all the modern stuff! And with the news that Capcom are looking at rebooting the Resi series to a more traditional template, it's looking good for fans of ye-olde shizzle!! Very Happy

Also, for fans of the original Giana game's music, I believe they drafted in the original composer Chris Hulsbeck for this project too.

Waggly Bean Tue Mar 26, 2013 8:14 pm

Nice review! Have downloaded the trial but am yet to try this one out - looking forward to it more after reading this.

D3M0NiZe Tue Mar 26, 2013 9:18 pm

Nice review Tenlo.i played the trial which i enjoyed, but will probably wait until its a bit cheaper.

Sh00t3rmcgavin2 Wed Mar 27, 2013 8:29 am

Nice review mate, looks good, but not sure its for me.

TreeMunky Wed Mar 27, 2013 2:10 pm

Sterling review my man.

Guest Fri Oct 11, 2013 6:27 pm

Well as someone who actually bought the Miggy game prior to Ninty stopping it I was pleased to see this released

Now as it became free on Pissy Plus I bagged it and started it

Whilst its a competent platformer token gatherer title, there is little chance that it will tread on any rip off Japanese tomy toy manufacturer this time as it looks totally different to the original

Its not a bad game but I found it a little bit shallow a bit like myself

Still for free its got the value tick lol

Nice review matey and thanks

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Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams - XBLA Review

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