Super playable Super Mario Bros. inspired
The Great Giana Sisters is actually a very good platformer, well designed and engaging though not very difficult. The game features the same gameplay style as well as many of the graphical and level design elements of NES era original Super Mario Bros., but it also pays homage to other NES favorites such as Kirby's Dream Land, from which it lifts some of the enemies, other enemies from Super Metroid, some other graphical elements from Kid Icarus and, following the trend, I'm pretty sure it might reference quite a few other titles. However the game by no means steals aimlessly, quite on the contrary, it creates its own adventure that will remind you of play sessions long forgotten you've had on your NES or platformer moments that feel familiar but you can't quite pinpoint where they're from. For this alone I find the game an absolute success, showing how much the NES era gameplay and mechanics have become engrained in my conscience and probably in other's as well. It's also fortunate that such a title goes beyond the immediate hack or mod mindset and actually manages to create a very entertaining experience on its own terms. I see it as much more of an accomplishment than a regular, straight game, though as I mentioned, the difficulty level could have been higher. Even so, Great Giana Sisters manages to conjure so many more memories and ideas that a straight platformer wouldn't be able to, all on its own. A great tribute to the NES platformers of yore, and, I will mention it again, very playable, unlike most other similar hacks.
