Gaming’s Pinocchio

  • Posted on Sunday March 8th, 2009 | Comments (View)

    • retro games chiptunes

    …Becomes a Real Boy Girl

    The Great Giana Sisters have a legacy in gaming. Scheduled to come out in 1987, a year after the US release of Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros refined the platforming genre, the game was in stores for a brief moment… but it wouldn’t last long. Just as soon as it was released, legal pressure forced them to remove it from the market. The reason should become clear once you see the original Commodore 64 title.

    The game was an absolute rip-off of Super Mario Bros. The first level, the way the text at the top displayed, the fireball powerup. The facsimile was swallowed up by Nintendo the whale and their lawyers, barely given a chance to live. For good reason, mind. Supposedly the levels following world 3 began to introduce unique elements that distinguished it away from SMB, but… come on guys, you don’t tackle the giant not expecting to get squished.

    The franchise however seems to have been given a chance to redeem itself, a good 22 years later. It has re-surfaced as Giana Sisters DS, still very much in the same vein as Mario. There are still enemies to stomp from above. There are still blocks to punch from below. There is still a fireball powerup… Yet, it looks and moves so good. While Mario may have made a permanent leap into the 3rd dimension on the DS with New Super Mario Bros, Giana ironically brings with her a 2D soul that Mario’s DS adventure sorely lacked.

    As an addendum, the original C64 release contained one stand-out originality to it in the way of an awesome soundtrack by Chris Huelsbeck. A bit of a legend when it comes to his chiptunes, the theme for The Great Giana Sisters was no exception.

    What interesting times we live in, when former rivals are releasing games on the same system. In fact, nearly all former rivals are finding a home on it. Even a game torn down by massive copyright infringement and legal tape is getting a vastly belated sequel that looks to exceed a sequel to the game it originally ripped off… on the same platform.

    Bizarre, yet wonderful.

     
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