Game review: Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams

Enchanted worlds, simple child friendly gameplay and level designs and cute characters, these games are filled with fun for our young ’uns but adults will find something to get them playing too. Some child friendly games leave no one out. One of these types of games is Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams developed and published by Black Forest Games released on PSN and Xbox Live Arcade. Kids and adults alike will find something in this little gem that will push their buttons and keep them playing. Giana’s sister Maria has been sucked into an alternate “dream” world and taken prisoner by an evil giant fire-breathing dragon. Giana jumps in to the “dream” World after her sister to try to rescue her, but is too late and Maria gets taken away. Giana has the ability to manipulate herself and the world around her, allowing transformations from “cute” Giana to “punk”, both of which have different abilities. Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams is a sequel to the DS version of Giana Sisters which means they are slightly older and the story is easy to follow even for the little ones. Giana is a perfect protagonist for the young players as they can relate to her thanks to their imagination and every child has a dream world right? The gameplay is nice and simple and plays similar to the Super Mario Bros games with regards to platforming, however thanks to Giana’s transforming ability it has given the traditional standard platforming an interesting twist. “Cute” Giana can twirl which allows her to float across large gaps, for example, and enemies can be defeated by jumping on their heads (Mario Bros anyone?). At the press of a button, Giana transforms into her “Punk” persona who has a special ability which allows her to turn into a fireball to defeat enemies and also it can be aimed in any direction. Using both of these personas and their unique abilities enables Giana to collect different coloured gems in every level. “Cute” Giana can collect the yellow gems, “Punk” Giana can kill the purple gems and either of Giana’s personas can collect the blue gems. Scattered around each level are huge gems which can be collected to unlock more levels. Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams looks bright a colourful which speaks to young children nicely. “Cute” Giana has yellow hair and pale skin and “Punk” Giana has purple hair with darker toned skin and both look nicely detailed. The game world also transforms when Giana transforms which really impressed me. The whole level changes how it looks and along with it, how it feels thanks to the beautiful bright ambience Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams carries throughout. Bright beautiful green lands turn into meaner looking dark woods at the press of a single button and along with the games look, the music changes too. “Cute” mode carries a mellow toned soundtrack amplifying the cute nature of this persona and “punk” mode breaks the same tune out into rocking riffs and grungy beats. The whole look and sound of this game impressed me and I will be playing Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams for some time to come. Summary Black Forest Games have developed a delightful little gem that shouldn’t be missed by children and adults alike. The addictive gem collecting and responsive gameplay makes this game a joy to play and levels can be replayed for gems missed which doesn’t feel as grating as replaying levels in most games is. This is an impressive take on the standard platforming genre. Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams Developer: Black Forest Games Publisher: Black Forest Games XBLA PSN Genre: Platform Release Date: 20th March 2013 Story – 3.5/5 Gameplay – 5/5 Graphics – 4/5 Overall – 4/5 www.theleet.co.uk