The Steel Divers travel through various areas including Arctic and jungle settings and are eventually tasked with destroying the enemy stronghold.

The concept of a sub game, however, was, according to Shigeru Miyamoto "Long before that" and stems from his desire to make a flight sim.

[2] He noted that in a true flight simulator players "should be flying a huge passenger aircraft instead of, say, a fighter jet.

[3] Even though the tech demo at E3 2004 had good buzz Miyamoto was unable to expand on the idea until late in the DS's life due to scheduling conflict.

In June 2013, it was announced that Nintendo was working on their first free-to-play game, which would be based on Steel Diver, to be released by March 2014.

[7] The game supports a range of control schemes including the Circle Pad Pro and touch screen for many inputs.

[10] On September 4, 2023, Nintendo indefinitely halted online play for Steel Diver: Sub Wars for "emergency maintenance.

[28] Official Nintendo Magazine awarded it 61%, criticizing its lack of content, saying, "Wait until the price dives for the depths before you consider a purchase.

"[40] GameSpot awarded it a score of 4.5 out of 10, saying "Steel Diver never figures out if it wants to be a submarine simulation or an action romp, and that indecision leads to a yawn-inducing experience.