Not the Giana Sisters I was hoping for.
For the longest time, Dave Payerle, contributor and reviewer for this site has touted Giana Sisters: Twisted Dreams as an amazing platformer I should really try out. I was asked to review the new Giana Sisters game and figured, this would be a good idea to see if I enjoy the style. Well, come to find out Giana Sisters: Dream Runners is nothing like Twisted Dreams, and is, in fact, not a good game. Thanks, Dave.
Dream Runners is a multiplayer racing game that has players and AI opponents racing around a track in hopes they can take a high enough lead so the other racers go off the screen and lose. Think of it like Super Smash Bros. meets a 2D platformer where running takes precedence. Characters can use the environment to change the paths using shifts from light to dark as well as item pickups for attacks to hinder the other racers.
MSRP: $9.99
Platforms: PC, PS4, XB1
Price I’d pay: I wouldn’t buy it.
The jumping is a bit floaty more times that it should and trying to keep up with my character when three other characters are running and jumping around with the camera constantly zooming out even more made it a chore to try to actually concentrate on winning the laps.
The visuals are nice, and the vibrant colors really pop, but when trying to race and dodge attacks and enemies, the last thing I’m paying attention to are the looks of the backgrounds. The sense of speed is well done as well. It is a rather fast-moving game and it works for the most part.
It is a multiplayer only game meaning if I didn’t have friends to play with me, I would end up having to use bots which was fun for about two matches. The bigger issues is that while the there is online support for multiplayer, there is absolutely zero people playing it online. I sat in an empty lobby for five minutes twice and finally gave up. After 30 minutes with the entire game, I was pretty much done with it, and even when I would have had people to play with online, I feel I would have gotten maybe an extra 30 minutes worth of play out of it.
Giana Sisters: Dream Runners is not a good game. There are many missteps in the mechanics and the overall feel of the game. Playing with bots solo is boring and not fun, and even with people to play with either online or locally, you may get an hour’s worth of play out of it before looking for something better to play and there are way more games out there that play better than this.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
