Sturmwind

So Sturmwind actually happened.  We know, we’ve played it, and we didn’t believe it either, but well, shit, there it was.  At the first ever Hinge Problems Official Hang Out and Play Some Shit Festival, Rudie pulled the cellophane off this fresh pressed 2013 Dreamcast game and away we went, fully expecting a euroshmup of the highest order, and instead finding, well, at least not that.

Surprisingly, this here 2013 Dreamcast game is pretty solid.  Not solid so much as an arcade, go-for-1cc-and-high-score game, but solid enough to play through once and see what it has on offer.  Most of the game is in German (man, them Germans do sure still love devvin’ for that DC) but that won’t stop you at all.  Who the hell even knows what is going on in the story? And really, should we care?

Magically, it avoids the pratfalls of euroshmupery, eschewing the long levels, micro/barely-visible bullets, and buying-powerups-between-levels bullshit of the genre, instead going for a neat, if not a little confusing power-up/life system, in which strengthening weapons actually lets the player get hit a few times more.  The game never explains this in game (Holy shit, reading a manual in 2013? Heck yeah!) and is better for it.

And much like how NG:Dev.Team’s work has made people go “shit a Nego Geo did what now?”, Sturmwind dev Duranik has managed to pull some shit on the Dreamcast that will at least make you pause for a moment and wonder.

So good job Duranik.  For a game that started as a demo for the Atari Jaguar CD, you managed to make a pretty darn good game.