Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams PS4

It was admirable. We can all relate to this scenario. How would you react to having your sibling nicked by a 60 foot obese dragon in dream land? Twisted Dreams is a sequel to the DS version of Giana Sisters which means the sisters have aged a little but the story is easy to follow even for the little ones. Giana is a perfect protagonist for the little ones as they can relate to her thanks to their imagination and every child has a dream world right?

For those that haven’t played Giana Sisters the first time through, it plays like a traditional platformer but Giana’s unique ability to transform has given the traditional running and jumping an interesting twist. At the push of the R2 button, Giana transforms from her cutesy blonde locks and blue and white outfit to a red haired rock chick with fingerless gloves and a skull laden emo outfit. When you transform for the first time, you think “whoa!” but as the game goes on, it tends to lose the limelight gradually. Not only does she transform visually but her abilities do too. As Giana’s ‘punk’ persona, you can shoot fireballs. This changes things when it comes to battling the games many enemies as you can imagine. It’s like Superman but not as badass...and you don’t need a telephone box. This mechanic enables you to collect the huge amount of collectables scattered throughout every stage as different coloured gems can only be collected by the corresponding persona of Giana, it’s clever and it gives this game that extra degree of challenge.

As expected, Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams for current gen is a beautiful game. I mean it was last gen but things stand out more in this directors cut thanks to its sharpened edges and brighter and more vivid colours. It’s like watching a psychedelic kaleidoscope after a night on the tiles. Especially when you trigger Giana’s transformation, the world around you changes too as well as the soundtrack which is just brilliant. Aside from the cool polished up visuals, this definitive version hits up with more difficulty settings too. It now goes to insanely difficult for those gaming sadists amongst us (me not included) who crave a challenge.

The only faults I saw with this game are its lack of mechanics to hold attention for a long time. Yeah the on-the-fly Superman-esque transformation is fantastic and all but the platforming gameplay gets tedious after a while. I’m not saying add a few driving sections here and there to break things up a bit but maybe something else was needed to keep things interesting.

Pros
• Gorgeous graphics
• the changing level and soundtrack with each version of Giana
• Simple platforming with a twist
• A story we can all relate too
• Accessible to younger players


Cons
• May not hold more experienced players in for too long
• Not a great deal of variety
• Extra difficulty levels and added extras not much worth shouting about

Summary

This director’s cut version of Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams is by no means the definitive version of it. With spruced up 1080p flashy visuals emphasising the unique transformation mechanic that is clearly this games signature move and all DLC additions including more difficulty levels, your certainly getting your money’s worth. A delightful version of a unique colourful gem.