I talked about Giana Sisters in one of my kickstarter reports a couple months ago so it’s a little surprising to find that it’s been released already. Funny enough, I was offered a review copy of the game without even asking, but I have an affection for Steam so I just went ahead and activated the free Steam copy I got for supporting the kickstarter.
Although the Giana Sisters series started out as a Super Mario Bros. knock-off, the latest Giana Sisters game feels like a mixture of the best of both the Mario & Sonic series. You have the tight controls & exploration from the Mario games combined with the speed & excitement of a good 2D Sonic game. The gimmick here is that you at any moment, you can switch between the two sisters each of which has their own special move. One can do a second half-jump and then float down, while the other has a flaming dash attack. When you switch between characters, the world also transforms and besides looking cool (and each mode having its own soundtrack), this is often necessary to continue progressing.
There aren’t very many levels in the game (twenty-something) but so far, the level design has been excellent and the game has been a lot of fun. Although I imagine it will only take 2-4 hours to “beat” the game, I’m having enough fun that I expect I’ll try to get all the gems & do some of the bonus modes (score attack, time trial, plus some hardcore modes that I probably won’t do).
