Competitive multiplayer games are nothing new. The concept of multiplay has been the sole, defining feature of the past ten years in gaming. From the Gamecube, which allowed four person madness on titles like Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers to the general, endless insanity and turmoil millions of us join in every day on the newer consoles.

In terms of heritage, Giana Sisters boasts one of the most impressive, and controversial, histories in the early video game industry. Way back when Super Mario Brothers was first released in 1985 and revived the video game market using its 2D, 8-bit charm and ever lovable game play, other studios wanted in on the profits naturally. Time Warp Productions and Rainbow Arts were no different as it turns out, after bearing witness to how the people reacted to Super Mario, they must have been walking round with money on the brain.

This is where “The Great Giana Sisters” steps into the limelight and tries its hardiest to steal Nintendo's thunder. Because it copied everything Nintendo did. The level design, the mechanics even the sibling influences, the original Giana game was nothing more than a poorly veiled attempt to grab Nintendo's crown. Despite the game itself being quickly pushed out of shops by Nintendo's marketing core, despite no lawsuits being issued, copies of the game began to vanish from open view, it became nothing more than a valuable collectable.

And the newest addition, to the now twenty eight year old franchise, is Dream Runners. Which is in no way a game similar to the now popular Speedrunners. It's a competitive 2D racing game that operates on a 3D plane, with cast of cutesy, high definition characters whose names are never given to us.

I'd just like to quickly mention that this game is in very early beta, which means that I need to take absolutely everything I see and play with a slight pinch of salt so that I can appreciate this game properly. However, I wholly believe that a cubic foot of salt would be needed to avoid speaking ill of this game.

In Dream Runners the only objective is to, like the title plainly says, run through dream lands against bots and other players. You take control of one of the four 'sisters', in the last iteration there was only two, or the unlockable characters and do battle against everyone else that isn't you in the chosen level.

While this is all brilliant fun for the first hour or so, it offers very little beyond what is presented within those crucial sixty minutes. You glide through levels at great speed while attempting to master what little controls are explained for you and then once you try to jump or attack enemies, the entire game lags a little, causing you to stop winning and start failing.

There's also a serious issue with this game's 'ice momentum', because you end up sliding around every level, including the ones covered in stone, dirt and grass. Trying to react to a blockage or enemy item attack is therefore next to impossible and since the only way to win is to go fast enough to lose sight of the other players, it's very hard right off the bat.

I really struggled to get into this game since my head kept drawing so many parallels to, the unfortunately superior, Speedrunners. Maybe the developers at Black Forest studios will give Dream Runners a unique selling point upon its official release later this year, and I really hope that they do because they've got a fantastic concept to play with.

Giana Sisters: Dream Runners            

Matt Dawson