History of The Great Giana Sisters
The Great Giana Sisters has one of the most interesting stories in the history of video games. It began in 1987 with a development of the original The Great Giana Sisters title by Time Warp Productions and publishing by Rainbow Arts. The game quickly drew attention of the entire game industry and particularly of Nintendo with the accusation of being a copy of Super Mario Bros.
This 2D side-scrolling game takes place in a dream world of a girl named Giana, who has to travel through many stages of her nightmare, overcoming obstacles, fighting or avoiding enemies, and collecting diamonds and various power-up items, to find her sister Maria and wake up from the dream.
The resemblance to the Super Mario Bros lies in the level design. The first level is said to be almost exactly the same as in the famous Nintendo game. Many similar elements are also featured, including pipe-like platforms, different world levels, and warps.
According to several urban legends, Nintendo issued a lawsuit case against developers of The Great Giana Sisters, but the representatives of both sides negate such information, although, Nintendo did confirm that they were the ones responsible for the disappearance of The Great Giana Sisters from the shops.
Despite all the controversy around the origins of the game, it received positive and high-ranking reviews, putting the game on many top lists of the best games of all times. Its soundtrack, composed by Chris Hülsbeck, is one of the most popular and famous commodore 64 soundtracks. It has received many remixes and variations, and is currently considered one of the best game soundtracks in the history of video games.
The Great Giana Sisters has a recent sequel by Giana Sisters: Twisted dreams. There are also several unofficial remakes and releases, as well as the official sequel which had to be renamed and reworked to not have any resemblance to the franchise due to the dangers of additional copyright issues.