Hard ‘N’ Heavy was created either as a sequel to The Great Giana Sisters, or was originally a Giana Sisters game itself, such is the similarity between it and the aforementioned game.

The funny thing is: I see Hard ‘N’ Heavy as another thinly-veiled ‘dig’ at Nintendo, because – if you look at the title screen, and the design of the game graphics – I’d say that this is a clone of (or sly tribute to) Metroid on the NES!

Female lead in a robo suit? Yes. Platform game with a ball-shooting weapon? Yes. Hard ‘N’ Heavy is a big “flip you guys!!” from Rainbow Arts to Nintendo, after the Giana Sisters debacle. I think anyway. 🙂

As professional and “neat” as Hard ‘N’ Heavy is, it isn’t a particularly captivating game overall though. You can choose which kind of weapon you use. The ball destroys certain platforms and can change the direction of moving enemies, which is alright. The flamethrower seems kind of useless initially but later you discover it kills only certain enemies. Gameplay is pretty basic.

Maybe there’s more to Hard ‘N’ Heavy and I just didn’t dig deep enough… I didn’t try the two player mode. The graphics are nice enough. The jumping inertia is a bit slow. It’s annoying that you can’t go backwards in a level… It’s alright. Nothing special. An interesting curiosity created by very talented people, first released by reLINE Software in 1989.

More: Rainbow Arts on Wikipedia