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Oh dearie, dearie me. It hardly seems worth writing a review of this little beauty. We all know what it's a rip-off of, we all know what a work of genius the original game is,the only pertinent question would seem to be "Is it a good copy or not?" The answer is, I'm pleased to say, a very decisive yes.

There you go, end of review.

Oh, what more? Well, OK then, as you asked so nicely. What we are talking about here, guys and gals, is the definitive ladders and ramp game. There can be few of us who haven't played Super Mario Brothers to death in the arcades or on Nintendo consoles, but up until now it has never been available for any home computers. The fact is that hasn't changed one jot, Nintendo is still guarding its licence jealously. However, Giana Sisters is now available, and that's the next best thing.

Basically, Great Giana Sisters as straight a rip-off as they come, and as likely a candidate for a court case as any of the many rip-offs that litter our industry. However, for all that, it is a bloody good game, and it is the rare games player who would stand on principle enough to ignore it, considering the temptation we must all feel to have it in our collections. It's certainly good news for us all here at C&VG, since Mario remains the most played game in the office despite the length of time since it came out, and we can now have a version of it up and running on two different computers.

Probably the most obvious and important difference to playing Giana over the original is that, instead of the Nintendo paddle, you now control your little bouncing sprite with a joystick. This takes slightly different skills, but it's nothing much and after the initial shock of the new has worn off it makes no real difference.

Instead of playing a stumpy little ice cream man type who grows to twice the size on contact with the "magic" mushrooms that litter the various worlds he must fight through in order to rescue some princess, you now control a cutesy little girl in pig-tails and bobbysocks. This time around contact with hidden fireballs, electric shocks, fruit, etc, give extra powers, time, etc. including her becoming a much more acceptable hard punk type woman who thankfully takes the rather painful cute element down a level or two. Your task is to rescue your twin sister from some sort of trouble.

That's it really, a bloody good game, and if it didn't get Game of the Month, it's only because we were loathe to give it to such an obvious filch!