Iron Storm (Saturn video game)

Iron Storm is a Sega Saturn game released in the West by Working Designs, in the period where Working Designs was producing Sega games because of Sony's policy to discourage 2D games. Originally titled World Advanced Daisenryaku: Koutetsu no Senpuu, the game is a 2D hex-based tactical wargame where the player can take the part of the Japanese, the Nazis, or the USA in World War II. Campaign mode follows the country to victory or loss; standard mode uses a preselected set of battles from the campaign mode. Playing as the US and winning gets you to the actual end of the war; successfully finishing the game as one of the Axis powers leads to a final battle of Nazis versus Japanese when they meet up in India.

Although the game is for hardcore tactical game players, several aspects about it do not make sense as an actual simulation; for instance, units have the same range in number of hexes even though the real-life size of the hexes can vary by orders of magnitude. There is weather, but it stays the same all over the map and you can turn it off.

The game is considered uncommon and can fetch prices on eBay similar to its original sale price. It is one of the few Daisenryaku games ever to receive an official English release (the other one was Daisenryaku VII for the original Xbox).

Working Designs was planning to bring over the sequel as well, but this never materialized.


 * Comical Translation: Working Designs did this much less than in some of their other games, but the battle of Midway was "Operation Hawaiian Punch" and India was "Operation Ghandi-Kabob".
 * Fascist Italy: The stereotype of the military of Italy being useless is played with; if the player plays the Nazis he can eventually get a chance to invade America. The player is told in a casual aside that he will be helped by the Italian navy.  Given the setup, it doesn't last long.
 * Nintendo Hard: The only reasonable way to get a complete victory was often to save before every individual fight within a battle and load if the fight didn't work out.
 * Nuclear Weapons Taboo: The game avoids the awkwardness of a Japanese game letting the protagonist bomb Hiroshima by shifting to the European front before it would happen. Although the war in Europe ended before Hiroshima was bombed, it doesn't shift back.
 * Shown Their Work: Working Designs went through great pains to get the translation of real-life aircraft and ship names correct.