Armin Gessert’s Giana Sisters, Bad Monkee’s fairly obvious Super Mario Brothers clone, is now available from the app store. Sporting stark similarities and less-than-desirable controls, Giana Sisters feels like an unprepared understudy that falls well short of filling those gigantic plumber shoes.
Giana Sisters Pros:
- Mario-like gaming
- Lots of levels
- Nice artwork and music
- OpenFeint
Giana Sisters Cons:
- Lacking some expected features
- Control issues
- Too many loading screens
Clearly catering to the softer sex, our main character is a young, blonde girl named Giana. We suppose “Mary-o” would have been too obvious. Giana walks, jumps, and floats around more than 100 levels, which look remarkably similar, albeit much shorter, than those inhabited by a certain moustached hero. Giana’s goal is to collect gems while safely avoiding, or trouncing, the various weak-willed enemies on each level. There are various mystery boxes that Giana can activate by jumping underneath them, much like the boxes in Mario. She’s typically rewarded with more gems, though she’ll occasionally discover a rolling red orb that turns her into Punk Giana, a dark-haired alpha-female who spits fire and breaks blocks with her head. Punk Giana is also better able to withstand contact with her enemies, whereas Giana will die at the slightest touch. Each level takes only a minute or two to conquer, and many include a flowerpot checkpoint that can significantly shorten even that amount of time if Giana accidentally high-fives a giant bouncing eyeball. The end of each level is marked by a flag, though you won’t be sliding down any flagpoles here. Giana, or her sister, simply runs past on her way to the next level and more gems.
Graphically, the game looks quite nice, including many features from its muse, including pipes (that unfortunately go nowhere), various recognizable brick formations, bottomless pits to leap over, and the like. The girls’ movements look no more awkward than those of the Italian plumber, and the graphics are certainly a step up from what Mario offered. The music is also good, though not nearly as memorable as Mario’s. We can’t really fault them for that, though. While levels in Giana Sisters do have various looks/themes, they don’t feel different like those in Mario. The controls were the most frustrating aspect of the game for us. With only a left and right movement button, there would be no crouching to enter a pipe. The dedicated jump button is pretty small and positioned in a way that we often tap the area around the button, leading to our demise. It feels like it needs to be larger and tucked into the corner. When Punk Giana is active, there is a dedicated fire ball button on the right side of the screen that you can use to shoot enemies. Snagging a piece of bubble gum allows Giana to float in a bubble until she makes contact with an object. The controls don’t feel as tight as Mario’s, which sort of became a contentious point at times. The most annoying aspect of the game, however, was the multitude of loading screens, with several screens appearing in a row at times.
Replay value was ok, though the game lacked that certain quality that made Mario feel fun even decades later. Giana Sisters utilizes OpenFeint for leaderboards and achievements in an effort to keep players coming back once they complete the game. Overall, it’s a nice distraction and the closest thing we have to a genuine Nintendo-style Mario game on the iDevice. Lacking some obvious features (like the ability to run) and mucking the controls cost Giana (and her sister) a full dimple, dropping them to 4-Dimple status. Giana Sisters can be picked up for $4.99 in the app store.
