Shit, now I need a DS

[Norse]

As an old C64 lover I can't express how awesome this is.


Retro fun from the 80's: The Great Giana Sisters return – Jump'n'Run debut on Nintendo DSTM

Hamburg, December 09th, 2008 – It was a little bit more than 20 years ago when a game was born that still is a synonym for a whole gaming genre: The Great Giana Sisters made Jump’n’Run gaming available for home computer users all over the world. In 2009, the blondes finally return – and with that, they make it all the way to Nintendo DS for the first time.

Back in the late 1980’s, there was literally no chance to play Jump’n’Run games on home computers like Commodore 64, Amiga or Atari ST. Until 1987, when a small German development team released The Great Giana Sisters.

Their father, Armin Gessert, let them become stars of the genre over night. The Great Giana Sisters was a Jump’n’Run that had everything home computer gamers back then only could experience on video game consoles: A fantastic game world on many different levels, that challenged the players’ hand eye coordination skills to their maximum to jump over deep canyons, collect bonuses and succeed when fighting enemies just by jumping on their back.

Now, The Great Giana Sisters are finally back! Publisher dtp entertainment and developer Spellbound Entertainment in co-operation with Bitfield are going to release their new adventure on Nintendo DS in June 2009.

In more than 80 levels, players experience all the great features of the original home computer version, as well as new features, that are kept exclusive for Nintendo DS. Players will have the Nintendo DS microphone as well as the touchpad, for instance.

The Great Giana Sisters’ graphics on Nintendo DS both is a redesign as well as reminiscent of the classic game.

The music score of the game is a remix by Fabian del Priore of the original soundtrack, written by famous computer game composer Chris Hülsbeck.

dtp entertainment is going to release The Great Giana Sisters DS for Nintendo DS in June 2009. (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=344837) (Source: NeoGAF)

TxsVV9a5J9I

Giana Sisters was my favorite platformer on my all time favorite platform. This remake looks great, and I'm actually considering getting a DS (again).

[Norse]

There was a lot of controversy surrounding this game back in the day. From Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Giana_Sisters)

Due to its strong similarity with Super Mario Bros., Rainbow Arts was forced to withdraw the game from sale almost as soon as it was released and cancel release of the otherwise completed ZX Spectrum version, under pressure from Nintendo's legal arm. The cover of the C64 version published in the UK by GO!, a sub-label of US Gold went so far as to taunt Nintendo's game with the tagline "The brothers are history."

Similarity to Super Mario Bros.

Since Nintendo has historically avoided porting its console titles to home computers, it is likely that the game was developed to cash in on the popularity of Super Mario Bros., and to provide a similar experience to home computer owners with no interest in buying a NES. The game has two playable characters: one named Giana, mirroring Mario's status as the prominent Mario Brother, and the other named Maria.

In Super Mario Bros., the main characters (Mario and Luigi) could collect Super Mushrooms. The mushrooms caused the characters to grow taller, and withstand a single attack without losing a life. Damage caused after collecting a Super Mushroom would revert the characters to their original small state. The mushrooms were hidden in blocks, and could be freed by jumping into the underside of the block. In Great Giana Sisters, the sisters would collect brightly-colored balls from blocks, which caused their hairstyle to change into a brightly colored Mohawk haircuts. In both games, the alternate state of the characters gave them the ability to break blocks with their heads. Many of the enemy sprites bore strong similarities to the enemies in Super Mario Bros., and in addition to very similar backgrounds and areas, some of the map layouts used were virtually identical to levels in the Nintendo flagship game.

It's kinda funny seeing this on a Nintendo platform knowing its background :)

[AliasRomanian]

wow this looks very fun.

[Purple Santa]

Platforming? Old School? I'll take two please...

[Dave]

I had never heard of this game before reading this thread. This looks really fun, though.

[The Doctor]

For the longest time, I thought there was a weird licensed port of SMB to the C64 because I played a hack of this that changed the sisters into Mario & Luigi.