Sturmwind

Sturmwind is a scrolling shoot 'em up game set in a futuristic science fiction setting. Prior to starting, an options menu can be accessed at the game's title screen, where any of the three available difficulty settings can be selected. There are also two game modes to choose: "Normal" and "Arcade". Normal mode has 16 levels and allows the player select any stage reached during a playthrough to resume progress, while Arcade mode only has 6 stages but continues are not allowed.

The player takes control of a space fighter craft over a constantly scrolling background, populated with an assortment of enemy forces and obstacles, and the scenery never stops moving until a boss is reached, which must be fought in order to progress further. The game primarily scrolls horizontally, but there are also sections where the scrolling is vertical, and uses various visual effects such as pre-rendered sprites and backgrounds with 3D elements.

Sturmwind began development in 1997. The game 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.

Sturmwind garnered critical acclaim from reviewers since its release on Dreamcast. RedSpotGames' CEO Max Scharl declared that the game gained nearly as many pre-orders as Last Hope. According to VentureBeat's Dan Crawley, both the regular and limited editions were sold out at the official websites of RedSpotGames and PlayAsia. Maximiliano Baldo of Argentinian website Malditos Nerds ranked the original Dreamcast version as number six on their top ten games for discontinued consoles.

Hardcore Gaming 101's Sam Derboo praised the pre-rendered pseudo-3D visuals, accessibility, weapon system, boss fights and techno music but criticized its prolonged length in Normal Mode. Jeuxvideo.com's Dominique Cavallo highly commended visual presentation compared to other homebrew releases on Dreamcast with its use of special graphical effects and background animations, stage and enemy variety, accessible gameplay and unlockable secrets but criticized the uninspired soundtrack and redability of patterns. IGN Italia's Vincenzo Ercole gave high remarks to the presentation reminiscent of Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network titles, backgrounds, gameplay structure and longevity but criticized the visibility of stage and boss elements on-screen, as well as sound design. Carlos Oliveiros of Spanish magazine GamesTribune highlighted its design, technical quality, amount of gameplay content and techno soundtrack but criticized the occasional difficulty to distinguish harmful objects on-screen.