Are the chances we get to see an easy-mod(e)?

I beat the game about a week ago. IMO, the game doesn't start getting super-hard until the second half of world 3. The first half of world 2 was also pretty difficult.

The final boss is a real doozy. It took me about an hour (and countless deaths) to finally beat it; partway through, I was wondering if I'd even be able to do it.

Do you actually use the spin and the fireball dash? They are great ways to extend your jumping lenght and when you jump on an enemy with the spin or dash into one with the fireball you can use it again. There shouldn't be any barely doable jump, especially in the beginning.

It definitely is a throwback into times when we trashed ourselves against games until we beat them.

Expect to fail a lot of jumps a million times. If you are prone to fits of rage and controller throwing then you propably should pass this one.

That's the only reason why we call it a retro game. Everything else is top notch modern. Back in the day games were hard to conceal that they were woefully short.

Take for instance Xenon 2. Turn on the invulnerability cheat and you've got the damn thing beat within 30-45 minutes. It took me 6 months to get to the final boss and uttterly fail there. Giana Sisters propably is a lot longer. I've only failed at for 2 months now and are nowhere near the end. Or the first boss :(

I have to admit that I bought a gamepad just for this game and for me the game got A LOT easier with the game pad. Before I struggled with the keyboard in certain situations, especially when it game to swimming in the Emerald Mines.

I see. Maybe the main problem is that the PC or even C64 roots of Giana Sisters were forgotten by the makers. :(

Does the game appear to you in that way?
I played Giana Sisters on the C64 and for me Twisted Dreams is a worthy successor. It's now FAR more than a Mario clone while the essence of being a game that is a darker platformer (compared with Mario), being a game that rocks, that is slightly ironic and funny is still there for me.
And while I haven't played Giana Sisters on the C64 for some years now I have to admit that I didn't find it easy when I was playing it - with a joystick, of course.

They are apparently adding an easier "Sweet Dreams Mode" with "way more friendly, less dangerous levels with more checkpoints. No boss locks."

Will you give the game another chance then? Would be intereted in what you think of that mode once its out.

They already didn't send me as a backer an email for the second patch; I doubt they'll send me one for an updated version... ;)

You have no idea. ;)

The update is out today on gog.com. Guess which backer did not receive an email from BFG. Juuuuust as expected.

I must confess, I expected you not to get an email. There are a number of backers who never get mails. At first I was forwarding my mail to other backers so they could at least get a drm-free download.
But there is not DRM free Rise of the Owlverlord download for backers. We only get a Steam key.

I emailed them about that but I think we all know how likely they are to reply ;)

Oh effing hell. Now they're actually pissing on the Kickstarter spirit.

The expandalone came out yesterday on GOG. The update isn't here yet.

Well, IMO the only worth of your review is the pointing to the lack of a save feature. I found puzzling in the 2013 some developers do not make a real save feature (quicksave, quickload, multiple slots, selectable save name) ...
Still I am not sure about what you mean with "trashed".