Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams

Giana Sisters is a platforming game which uses a system where you switch between versions of Giana which gives her a different ability and changes her surroundings. The 'Cute' Giana has a twirl manoeuvre which gives you extra height then allows you to glide. 'Punk' Giana has a dash which is used offensively or to quickly move in any direction. These skills can be used once per jump but chained if you kill an enemy mid-flight.

Changing versions changes the level aesthetics (background objects and music), collectables and the obstacles. Certain platforms exist in one of these dimensions, platforms may change direction, and enemies change types.

You will be often required to change dimensions multiple times as you hop from enemy to enemy, careful avoiding spikes and other dangers that surround you. As the game goes on, you are introduced to new techniques such as wall jumping on certain walls, or using a bubble to float.

You are generally guided through the level by the collectible gems. These are laid out in a path, and will often guide you when to switch by placing gems in the other dimension (they appear translucent). There's also a few massive gems hidden in hard-to-reach locations which unlock concept art. It's important to keep your eye out for branching paths to increase your gem count and find these secrets. The techniques for reaching some areas requires more skill though, so you may end up increasing your death count by going for these.

The difficulty seems fairly easy during the first few levels, but soon ramps up, later becoming insanely difficult. There's plenty of check-points so you don't lose much progress when you die, but there will be plenty of sections that take you many tries to get through.

At the end of the level, you are awarded stars. Some stars are given based on how many gems you collect, and others are awarded based on your death count. Every several levels, you will have to fight a boss whose level will be locked off until you accumulate enough stars. So it's not good enough to merely complete these levels, you will have to master some of them; which means replaying them multiple times.

The bosses themselves are infuriating. You have to hit the boss three times but only can take two hits yourself. This wouldn't be that bad if the bosses didn't suddenly come out with unfair moves. I found most bosses seemed to have an attack that covers most of the screen. Also, you can often be pushed down a pit which will be instant death. The final boss is extremely tough. I felt the sections between when you can attack were too lengthy, and I felt there was too much emphasis on luck – he mixes up his attacks each time, and you can find yourself cornered without much scope of evading his attacks.

There's a few difficulty modes to unlock, and modes such as Time Attack and Score Attack.

On Windows 10, I found that the screen went black randomly, with the only option to close the game and restart the level. Eventually, this annoyed me enough to install the game on my old Windows 7 laptop.

I found Giana Sisters to be a great game, although the bosses really wound me up by how unfair they are. If you are looking for a difficult platformer, then the game is worth a look, but you definitely require patience to get through this game.