Great Giana Sisters on Nintendo. Wait...what?

I grew up playing a Commodore Amiga 600, so I didn't play Mario Bro's untill my mid-teens. As shocking as this must be to anybody who grew up in a Nintendo household, I did have an adequate replacement: The Great Giana Sisters.

Great Giana Sisters DS in action

The game so surrounded in infamy was a European developed rip-off of the first Mario game, with suspiciously similar textures, level design and game mechanics. The only real difference between the two was the replacement of two Italian plumbers with two odd looking, but similarly Italian, girls. The game was pulled off shelves after a Nintendo backlash soon after its release, but the healthy Commodore piracy community made sure it's never been forgotten. In fact everybody I know has a copy of this game, but none of them are legitimate. Even the YouTube videos of the game all have the same title screen with the credits of the guy's who cracked it. Amazing.

Well it seems Nintendo have buried the hatchet as the game is set for a 21st century remake. With over 80 levels of both original and revamped content. The hysterically awesome soundtrack by Chris Hülsbeck, which anybody who has played the game in the last 10 years can hum on command, is also back alongside a remixed version.

For anybody who has never played this game do yourselves a huge favour and watch this video of the first 2 zones of Giana. You couldn't make this shit up.

It's a shame the video ends there. The final boss of that section was a huge ant. Seriously.

I grew up playing a Commodore Amiga 600, so I didn't play Mario Bro's untill my mid-teens. As shocking as this must be to anybody who grew up in a Nintendo household, I did have an adequate replacement: The Great Giana Sisters.

Great Giana Sisters DS in action

The game so surrounded in infamy was a European developed rip-off of the first Mario game, with suspiciously similar textures, level design and game mechanics. The only real difference between the two was the replacement of two Italian plumbers with two odd looking, but similarly Italian, girls. The game was pulled off shelves after a Nintendo backlash soon after its release, but the healthy Commodore piracy community made sure it's never been forgotten. In fact everybody I know has a copy of this game, but none of them are legitimate. Even the YouTube videos of the game all have the same title screen with the credits of the guy's who cracked it. Amazing.

Well it seems Nintendo have buried the hatchet as the game is set for a 21st century remake. With over 80 levels of both original and revamped content. The hysterically awesome soundtrack by Chris Hülsbeck, which anybody who has played the game in the last 10 years can hum on command, is also back alongside a remixed version.

For anybody who has never played this game do yourselves a huge favour and watch this video of the first 2 zones of Giana. You couldn't make this shit up.

It's a shame the video ends there. The final boss of that section was a huge ant. Seriously.

"the healthy Commodore piracy community"

Well...

The truth about the downturn of Commodore could have nothing to do with the piracy issue. Software and Hardware for the Amiga was considerably cheaper than its compeitiors and many generations of the machine (C64, A500) sold profitably dispite the 'piracy support'. The main reason for Commodores downturn was the global shift toward home computers coupled with the massive expansion of the home console market (SEGA and NINTENDO). However, there are many articles about the piracy issues with Amiga. The main reason analysts say this wasnt to blame, was that the issue was just as rife on the home PC and Spectrum. It certainly was not 'the reason' as you suggest, but it did make the financial climate tougher.

Commodore put the disk copying software on the packaged in workbench.
But i was only referencing the piracy, not supporting it. 'Healthy' was a backhanded joke. I did pirate games, but I also have an attic of Amiga boxes i cherish.

Yeah...what Danny said.