Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams

Before you kill me for giving two stars to such an - in principle - adorable attempt at reviving the Giana Sisters series, please try to get through level 1-6 yourself; I believe this is necessary to judge the philosophy with which the game was made. I backed this project via kickstarter, and God knows I loved those first levels. Like, heaven back on PC. Quirky graphics, interesting mechanics, the greatest music mixed in an iMUSE fashion, a seemingly MODERN, grown-up 2D platformer. This hasn't been seen on PC for eternity. I was really happy with it. Now, I'm a guy with a lot of patience. Someone who would play the same TrackMania level 200 times if necessary. And feels fulfilled if it eventually works. But what this GianaSisters game imposes on me even after a meager 5 of 26 levels is not bearable. To finish the sixth level with a halfway decent result, I'd need 90 minutes to two hours. The following levels will undoubtedly increase in difficulty, so more time for a single sitting. Unfortunately, if you leave a level in the middle, you will have to start at the beginning again later on. So you either play for those two to maybe even four hours per level at a time or you will never ever finish the level. I'm not 14 any more. I can not offer that much time at a stretch. I'm a dedicated and patient gamer, but I feel that the designers have aimed this game at a target group they might have had 25 years ago. But these old fans have grown up in the meantime, and BlackForest games has blatantly disregarded this simple foreseeable fact. If BlackForest games SWIFTLY implements an automatic save at every checkpoint that stays intact if you re-start the game, the "Twisted Dreams" will actually be playable for an employed target group. I'd take the remaining difficulty with a grin. Right now, please beware.

Anyone who ever owned a Commodore 64 had the following games: Bubble Bobble, The Last Ninja and the Giana Sisters. The original game made a lot of controversy when it first came out in 1987 for one particular reason: to call it a Super Mario Bros. clone was an understatement. However, the game had significant success, and people generally praised it for its brilliant gameplay and music, although the game's levels resembled that of SMB. A quarter of a century later the sisters are back (in 2010 there was, ironically, a Nintendo DS version of Giana Sisters, which also is a fun game). Now, a new generation, as well as the old school gamers (yippee!!!), can experience the Giana Sisters once more, in a new, wonderful world full of challenges and diamonds! This truly warms an 80s kid's heart - great game!

very good controls, three kinds of different jumps and/or dashes, nice graphics and animations a story mode and a super fine time attack mode. Additionally great music that can be switched on the fly from normal to rock/punk style and the landscape style is switching too - an awesome effect. A brand new classic. love it!

Levels are designed well, but there are a few annoying issues. Controls are rather loose - even with a controller, it's easy to misjump and fall to death. Couple this with numerous checkpoints spaced with severa; very hard jumps between them - and you got a recipe for trial & error. The game locks boss levels and you need to get a certain rating on every level of the same world to unlock them. When I hit the very final level I had to replay three levels - as those levels are the hardest in the game, this wasn't fun. The game is quite difficult and suffers from frustrating spikes, especially boss fights. The absolute epitome of trial & error, it won't be difficult to find people who died 50, 60, even 100 times on the last boss, which isn't challenging - it's just plain unfair. I 'd give a higher score had the developer playtested it more and realized how badly unbalanced the difficulty is. As it is - I would only recommend it for how gorgeous it is, much less for the gameplay experience provided here.