Rodea the Sky Soldier Review

Rodea the Sky Soldier is one of those games I have been looking forward to for a long time. Originally, the game was to be released on the Wii in 2010 and a few years later it was announced for the 3DS. Now after 5 years, all three versions of the game are released at the same time (The Wii version bundled with first print copies of the Wii U version). Has the game been worth the wait after all this time?

You play as the main character, Rodea, who is a robot that is knocked unconscious for a 1,000 years and has awoken with amnesia. Your mission is to stop the evil Naga Empire from taking over the world. To give you a little background about the development of the game, Rodea is from famed producer Yuji Naka. He is famous for the Sonic the Hedgehog series, NiGHTS into Dreams and Phantasy Star Online. Right from the start you can feel both Sonic and NiGHTS in this game. 

Rodea is really an open-ended flight game, similar to Nights into Dreams. In each semi-open level, Rodea can move around on foot, jump, hover, boost attack enemies, and fly into the sky. He has a limited flight time and once the meter is drained, you have to either jump off of a solid object or land on the ground. There is a learning curve at first, but after a few minutes or so you will get the hang of it. 

You have a boost attack (think Sonic's homing attack) that is pretty fool-proof, you just aim and hit the button. There is gunplay, but it feels outdated, which shouldn’t be surprising with a game that should have been released 5 years ago. Zones, while pretty, suffer from pop up, slow down and occasional glitches that take away from the gameplay and make it hard to plot a course too far ahead when flying. Sadly, it can take you out of the game. 

There are 25 levels in the game, the ability to upgrade Rodea, huge boss fights and more. The game is dubbed, but there is an option to have original Japanese language which I always appreciate in games like this. I find it feels more natural to play the game in the language the developer originally intended. You can expect to put about 20 to 25 hours into the game.

Overall, I really like Rodea the Sky Soldier. I was a little disappointed that the game had that last-gen feel, but I still had fun and highly recommend the game to anyone who is a fan of NiGHTS or Yuji Naka games. Keep in mind, there is a bit of a learning curve with the controls but once you get the hang of it, it will become easier over time.

Score 3 out of 5

Rodea the Sky Soldier is available on the Wii U/Wii for $59.99 and the 3DS for $39.99

Thanks to NIS America for supplying a code for review.  Wii U version was used for review.