Printing Miiverse is an art show about the Nintendo’s Miiverse organized by Miiverse ART guys. It is absolutely non-profit and it will take place in Nuremberg, Germany in the Kunstbunker Gallery, starting on 4th of May.
This sounds amazing and the gallery will feature 172 Miiverse artists presenting incredible 13255 drawings! As the event is located in Germany (you know, Nintendo’s european HQ is in Frankfurt) you can also watch the Livestream and video-uploads in this channel, for a chance to chat with the visitors and comment on their drawings via Miiverse!
This is absolutely one of the highest manifestations where gaming meets art!
Few weeks ago we received from Germany our press copy of Sturmwind! What is it? Easy, it is a brand new homebrew shooter game for the SEGA Dreamcast (obviously not an official release approved by SEGA) by Duranik.
Sturmwind is an old school shmup, a very traditional one indeed, where you don’t have to think a lot, just follow one simple rule: if it moves, shoot it!
Behind this little masterpiece there is Duranik, a German indie development team, known for its previous attempt to create a shooter game on a dead console: Native for the Atari Jaguar.
It is very likely that Sturmwind has born from that failure, trying to make a better game, more accessible even to modern players, but sticking to the great classics guide lines.
That’s why Duranik has chosen the Dreamcast, that despite its premature dead, it is more widely available and more powerful than any other cool retro-console (no, ps2 isn’t cool, nor powerful).
Sturmwind tries to take advantage of every bit of the Dreamcast hardware and supports a wide range of effects, indeed we can call it a perfect mix between 2D and 3D, leading to an astonishing visual impact.
We surely can’t hide out excitement playing a bran new game on our favourite console of all times, and it’s safe to say that Sturmwind could have been released on XBLA and PSN without any problem.
The game is pretty straightforward, you can play the normal mode with all 16 levels or the arcade mode with only 6 levels and no continues. In normal mode your progress will be saved with every finished level (obviously you’ll need a VMU to save your progress).
Speaking of pure gameplay, Sturmwind is very enjoyable (despite the CG intro with german voiceover or the unreadable german names of the weapons and levels) and once you start to play you’ll quickly understand every game dynamic, as the three weapon selection, the backfire and the point system. Duranik guys said that the game is designed for all Dreamcast fans, it is no hardcore maniac or score shooter. Even average players are able to see more than the first level. There is a good bit of memorization involved as with most of this type of games but that is part of the fun.
We said that Sturmwind is a game for everyone, so it’s not hardcore? Don’t worry, it is a highly addictive and a very challenging game; it could not be like a modern bullet hell game from Cave, but we prefer this way…even because on the Dreamcast we want to breathe a sort of old school flavour, and Sturmwind perfectly accomplish this job! (if you want to go crazy, just set the hard mode!)
And guess what? Sturmwind has also online leaderboards, but you won’t need to connect your dusty DC to the internet: in fact, your copy of the game will generate an unique code for your highest score, then you’ll just have to put that code with your nickname in this site…done! Online leaderboards!
So here’s some specs:
16 Levels
3 selectable difficulty levels
configurable controls
adjustable screen position
different weapons selectable
More than 20 large boss enemies
Hundreds of different enemies
FMV intro sequence
Hybrid 2d/3d game engine
Resolution 640×480
PAL50, PAL60, NTSC and VGA (with Adapter) compatible
If you got a working Dreamcast at home and you feel like this could be your next must-play (we feel it) you can preorder the game on Redspot Games, even if the release date is still set to TBA.
That Damn Pixel 