10 Hilariously Bad Super Mario Rip-Offs

The Great Giana Sisters was published by Rainbow Arts, making it a properly licensed game. This wasn't some sort of homebrew or clone hack someone made at home; it was a legit game made available on the Commodore 64, Amiga, Atari ST, and numerous other platforms via unofficial ports.

The game's story revolves around Giana, a girl suffering from a nightmare she must navigate. There are 32 total stages filled with all sorts of monsters, and as she progresses through the game, players rack up diamonds while looking for Giana's sister. If the player beats the game, Giana will be woken up by her sister.

As soon as the game was released, it sparked controversy due to the obvious way it was modelled after Super Mario Bros. The Great Giana Sisters had its own music track, but the graphics and gameplay were obviously "inspired" by Super Mario Bros.

There have been rumors of litigation brought on the developers by Nintendo, but they are all untrue. Nintendo did pressure Time Warp Productions to withdraw the game from sale, which they did. As a result, the game is incredibly rare, and many consider it a valuable collector's item.