Compared to the DS version, the graphics for the iOS port have been prettied up a lot. Everything’s super smooth and has lots of expressiveness. However, the animation is jittery and there’s frequent tearing between background tiles, making it on balance somewhat unpleasant to look at.
The levels would be fun to play through, and for the first part of the game often are, but the second major issue with this port is the controls. It’s not a good touchscreen conversion at all. Too many times to count I died because of the fiddliness of it all.
Menus are rough, abrupt, and buggy. Navigating the world map requires multiple tries. The pre-level splash screen displays how many lives you had before your most recent death. Do you see what I’m trying to say? The whole thing feels like a botched mess. I considered switching entirely to an emulated version of the DS copy, except I would lose the portability, my progress, and the nicer sprites and backgrounds. Still, having said that, the slightly chunkier DS sprites have a charm of their own. I decided to continue the iOS one, but had frequent hiatuses due to the general frustration.
I wanted to play this one in preparation of the Mac port of Twisted Dreams, but to be honest it didn’t exactly make me excited about the series. Did I mention they repeat essentially the same boss fight throughout the game—and that’s a design flaw, not a fault of the port. Overall though, I wouldn’t recommend the iOS port at all really. Just emulate the DS version if you want to look at the series’ history, perhaps before Giana Sisters 2 comes out eventually (although in doing so you’d realise how inappropriate that name is for the fourth in the series). If you want to play the C64 one, well I can’t help ya, buddy.