Sturmwind Pandora Game Console

A Dreamcast shooter that arrived late

Sturmwind came out for the Sega Dreamcast in 2013, more than a decade after Sega stopped making the console. Duranik, a small German studio, made it, and RedSpotGames released it on disc for the people who still had a Dreamcast hooked up. This Pandora Game Console package lets you play it on arcade sticks instead of the Dreamcast pad.

We think it stands next to the shooters that came out while the Dreamcast was still on store shelves. The graphics are pre-rendered 3D in the style of the late 90s, it moves fast, and the soundtrack does a lot of the work of keeping you in your seat for one more try.

How Sturmwind plays

It is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up. You fly right, shoot whatever is in front of you and slip through whatever fires back. The weapons are the interesting part: you switch between different types as you go, and each one changes how you approach a stretch of the stage. A lot of the skill is picking the right gun before the screen fills up.

The bosses are large, multi-part machines that come apart in pieces. Expect to lose to each of them a few times before you start to learn their patterns.

Shooters want a lever

A shoot 'em up comes down to small movements. You thread a gap between two bullets, ease back a fraction, hold your line under a boss that covers half the screen. An arcade joystick is better at that than a thumbstick, because you feel each direction click in, and the buttons sit under your fingers so you are not hunting for the weapon switch in a panic.

The Pandora Game Console Platinum Pro uses real arcade joysticks and buttons. On this page you can choose the Pandora Single Panel, the Pandora Dual Panel, or the Pandora Wireless 2 Joystick Separated Edition if you want the sticks apart from each other.

What you get

• A Single Panel or Dual Panel hardware setup
• Platinum Pro board with Sturmwind support
• All the hookups
• An extra set of buttons
• An archival card

Outside of a working Dreamcast and an original disc, there are not many ways to play Sturmwind at home, and this console is one of the few that puts real arcade parts under your hands.

Built on the Pro board

Sturmwind is supported on the Platinum Pro board, which is the board that ships inside this console. The same board runs the arcade, console and Dreamcast titles found on the other game pages in this store, so the shooter is one game in a much bigger library rather than the only reason to own the machine.

**Pandora Game Console consoles do not come with any pre-installed licensed or unlicensed software. Any Added Archive service is provided as-is with no implied warranties or licenses. Performance of archive has been tested and will work with your Pandora Platinum Pro version console. Adding an archive card constitutes your acknowledgement of ownership of original licensed hardware/software and your request of the service permits us to perform archiving for you on your behalf as a service.