The Great Giana Sisters

The Great Giana Sisters
Cover art of The Great Giana Sisters on Commodore 64
Developer(s)	Time Warp Productions
Publisher(s)	Rainbow Arts
Designer(s)	Armin Gessert, Manfred Trenz (Graphics)
Composer(s)	Chris Hülsbeck
Platform(s)	Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MSX2, Mobile phone Unofficial ports: DOS, Windows, Dreamcast, Nintendo DS, Linux, Mac OS X, AmigaOS 4, NetBSD, AROS, MorphOS, Symbian OS, Atari STE
Release	May 6, 1987
Genre(s)	Platforming
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Review scores
Publication	Score
AllGame
Zzap!64	96%
Power Play (DE)	80%
ASM	ASM Hit
Lemon64	9/10

The Great Giana Sisters is a 1987 platform game developed by Time Warp Productions and published by Rainbow Arts. This German video game is known for its controversial production history, its similarities to the famous Nintendo platform game Super Mario Bros., and for an alleged lawsuit case against the producers of the game. The scroll screen melody of the game was composed by Chris Hülsbeck and is a popular Commodore 64 soundtrack.

The player takes the role of Giana (referred to as Gianna in the scrolling intro and also the intended name before a typo was made on the cover art and the developers just went with that rather than having the cover remade), a girl who suffers from a nightmare, in which she travels through 32 dungeons full of monsters, while collecting ominous diamonds and looking for her sister Maria. If the player wins the final battle, Giana will be awakened by her sister.

The Great Giana Sisters is a 2D side-scrolling arcade game in which the player controls either Giana or her sister Maria. The game supports alternating 2 players, with second player taking control of Maria.

Each level contains a number of dream crystals, which gives points when collected in order to make the game's high score. An extra life can be gained by collecting 100 dream crystals. Extra lives can also be found in the form of hidden "Lollipop" items.

Enemies can be defeated by jumping on them or shooting them after obtaining the relevant powerups. The enemies include owls, rolling eyeballs, flesh-eating fish and deadly insects. The "Fire Wheel" transforms Giana into a punk with the ability to crush rocks by jumping beneath them. "Lightning Bolt" awards Giana "Dream Bubbles", a single projectile shot. "Double Lightning" gives her ability to shoot recoiling projectiles. "Strawberries" gives the ability to shoot homing projectiles. There is one defensive item in the game, the "Water-Drop", which protects Giana against fire. A number of special items can also be triggered that affects the entire screen, such as the "Clock", which freezes all enemies on-screen, and the "Magic Bombs" kills all enemies. These items are found in the item blocks scattered around the stages.

There are two types of stages in the game, an "Overworld" and "Underground" stage. The "Overworld stages" feature green scenery and pipe-shaped objects, along with bottomless pits for Giana to avoid. The "Underground" stages feature additional hazards such as water and fire, as well as bosses.