Sturmwind


Sturmwind is a shoot 'em up video game for the Dreamcast console. It was developed by German studio Duranik, and published by RedSpotGames on April 24, 2013 as an independent commercially released game. The game has received coverage in major videogame publications in the United States, Germany and Japan all reported about its announcement. German magazine Chip called Sturmwind's effects "very amazing in relation to the systems' age."
It is the first original game released for Dreamcast since fall 2009's Rush Rush Rally Racing and , other more recent releases have all been ports.

Gameplay

Sturmwind uses a mix of pre-rendered sprites and backgrounds with elements in 3D. The game is a horizontally scrolling shoot'em up, but there are also section where the scrolling is vertical. The game has 16 levels, with more than 20 bosses. Three different levels of difficulty are available.

Development

Sturmwind has been in development since 1997. It first surfaced under the name Native an Atari Jaguar CD demo featuring just one playable level. The graphics were regarded as impressive for Jaguar standards, but the demo had no audio. Development was eventually resumed and shifted for Dreamcast.
In December 2010, RedSpotGames stated they would be making releasing news each Sunday of the month on upcoming plans, Sturmwind was the first of these, being revealed on December 5, 2010 on German TV show "neues".
In March 2011, Fabian Döhla from Sega of America promoted Sturmwind by playing a work in progress build of the game on online Destructoid show Mesh Tactics.
On December 19, 2011, RedSpotGames announced that the game had been delayed indefinitely due to the disc pressing plant they had contracted to manufacture the game filing for bankruptcy. A deal has been made with a new pressing plant although the release date had then been set as 'TBA'.
During Redspotgames' official press release on March 14, 2013, it was confirmed that Sturmwind would be released on April 24, 2013.

Reception

named Sturmwind the 2013 Game of the Year. Classic Game Room praised the game's music, level design, and presentation.