Post a Comment On: The Dreamcast Junkyard

[Image] Sturmwind is without a doubt one of the finest shmups on the Dreamcast. Actually, scratch that - it's one of the finest games, period. A stunning mix of pre-rendered video backgrounds, highly detailed sprites, awesome visual effects and a killer soundtrack make Duranik's 2013 side scroller a must play title for Sega's little white box of tricks. The only sticking point is that due to the limited release, the game has become something of a rarity and when copies do surface on eBay, sellers can literally charge what they like for it. I've seen standard editions of the game go for over £100 and the special collector's edition can go for anything up to and above £200. It's madness I tells ya. Well, all that nonsense is about to change: Sturmwind is being re-released!
[Image] Duranik posted a teaser on their Facebook page yesterday hinting that the release may be imminent and I spoke with lead developer Johannes Graf to get some further information. Johannes confirmed that Sturmwind is indeed being re-released and is currently being shipped to several online retailers in the US and Europe including Dragon Box (who handled the recent re-release of Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles) and The Bit Station, a dedicated US retailer which specialises in homebrew and indie games. As far as the game is concerned, nothing has been changed apart from the removal of copy protection and the cover art has been amended to what you see above.

[Image] There's no word yet on the price, but going from past re-releases I can't imagine a standard jewel cased game being too expensive. This really is fantastic news for the Dreamcast community and one in the eye for scalpers who have previously held buyers to ransom with their ridiculous valuations of Sturmwind. This re-release could herald the beginning of the end for the practice of highly-priced copies of certain indie games, and we hope to bring you news of more re-issues coming our way in the near future. For now, keep your eyes on The Bit Station and Dragon Box as we're informed that Sturmwind will be back on sale within a matter of days.

Update: Sturmwind is available now!

Check out our developer interview with Johannes from Duranik here.