The Verdict
Rodea the Sky Soldier is not without its annoying flaws, and it's certainly no Mario Galaxy, but it serves as a fitting swan song for the dearly departed Wii. It's a game that embodies everything great about the Wii, taking a simple concept and running with it, bringing us a unique and fun game.
That's what makes this so tragic though. Rodea the Sky Soldier is genius in concept, passable in execution, and begging for refinement. Unfortunately, the delay by Kadokawa and their ass-backwards attempt at creating a Wii U port have doomed this property to obscurity and infamy.
I recommend the Wii version of Rodea the Sky Soldier to anyone that enjoyed the early Sonic the Hedgehog 3D games, arcade games, games where you shoot with the Wiimote, or those that just want something different. Also collectors, because this game is going to be extremely rare in a few years.
The best thing I can say about the Wii U version is that it comes packaged with the Wii release in the first print run, and can be sold to brick and mortar game stores. Stick with the Wii version, and never look back.
The Positives
- The controls are simple and easy to use. If you're good at using the wiimote for shooting, you'll be able to soar through the skies with ease after a short learning period. When you string a chain of attacks together, the game feels absolutely wonderful in your hands.
- Level design is simple and somewhat linear as you fly between floating islands in the sky, but there are plenty of hidden collectables to hunt. The game teaches you with its design and encourages experimentation. Also, there are several areas spread throughout where the levels suddenly open up and it provides just enough change to make it interesting again.
- The boss battles vary in size and scale. Some fights focus on Rodea vs his fellow Naga R series robots, while others are against gigantic mechanical creatures that wouldn't be too out of place in Shadow of the Colossus or Xenoblade. Each encounter escalates, requiring more mastery of the controls as you go along, but never becoming cripplingly difficult.
- The multiplayer may be more fun than the single player campaign. It's essentially Sonic Adventure 2: Battle's racing stages with more paths and better controls. Up to 4 players can race to the finish, each trying to collect and steal crystals to unlock teleportation shortcuts. It's simple and straightforward.
The Negatives
- The absolute worst part of Rodea the Sky Soldier is when the camera screws up. This is mostly limited to confined areas, which are fairly uncommon, but it's still frustrating. Escaping an exploding base through the vents, a confined area, is downright annoying when the camera doesn't cooperate. I knew what I had to do, I just couldn't do it.
- The controls work great until you need to turn. The camera controls are competent on the open field, just a bit sluggish, and iyou need to be very precise to turn the camera with good speed and reliability. I really wish the Nunchuk was used and the control stick was implemented for the camera. An extra button would have been nice too, so my item button wasn't the same as my spin attack button.
- Boss battles, while entertaining, are often too short. They only require a few hits each, and an aggressive player can kill them in an embarrassingly short amount of time. This is better than the other end of the spectrum, where boss encounters last forever, but it really undermines their boss status.
- The story is a throwaway excuse to fly around destroying robots like a Japanese Peter Pan mech. The English voice acting is also about as good as a Sonic Adventure game. If you just want to fly around like a boss or you enjoy camp, these aren't problems, but if you want more you'd better look elsewhere.
- A game like this shouldn't be derided too harshly for its graphics, it is a Wii game, but they too have been beaten with the blandness stick.All they have going for them are the liberally applied bright colors.
The Neutral
- Rodea's creator, Yuji Naka, made Sonic. And you can tell. The game is essentially a really long string of 3D Sonic's homing attacks once you're good. The settings share the same vibrant colors, the opponents are all somewhat cartoony robots, and even the capsules housing the game's equivalent of rings are the same. This is 3D Sonic with better controls, a slightly better camera, and less furries.
This review was supposed to be over the Wii U version of the game, but in honor of Yuji Naka, the creator of the Wii version and the man responsible for Sonic the Hedgehog before he was garbage. The Wii U version was made by the publisher, Kadokawa Games, without any input from Yuji Naka himself. On top of that, the dated looking Wii U version is allegedly an upscaled port of their washed out 3DS version, which shares the changes to controls, game play, and genre.
Rodea the Sky Soldier for Wii comes with every copy of the Wii U version during its first print. Do yourself a favor. and sell the Wii U copy to save a few bucks on your purchase of the Wii version. This is the last I will say about the Wii U version: Yuji Naka said he wanted to bring a new type of freedom and flight to gaming with Rodea, and I feel he accomplished that to an extent. However, Kadokawa Games for some reason added a flight meter that limits how far Rodea can fly to the Wii U version. That alone goes against everything the game was supposed to be and it really shows how poorly Kadokawa Games understood the idea of the game they were porting. It's Konami bad. What makes it even worse is that they could have just upscaled the Wii version, called it a day, and had a great game on their hands.
Rodea the sky soldier will be released today in North America! ! Please play the Wii version. https://t.co/ZEX6RZfXgb
— Yuji Naka / 中 裕司 (@nakayuji) November 10, 2015
Rodea the Sky Soldier for Wii looks and feels like Sonic Adventure, but with a twist: It's actually pretty good. The controls are incredibly simple. Point at objects with the wiimote, press B to fly in a straight line between them, press B while swinging the wiimote in a direction to fly in an arc that allows Rodea to dodge objects and attacks, tap A to use your current item, and hold A while flying to rapidly spin and fly into your target. The camera is controlled by aiming the wiimote at the sides of the screen. That's all of the controls, the game doesn't even use the nunchuk.
Yuji Naka and the rest of the gang at Prope have created a unique idea, blended it with familiar elements, and made a fairly great arcade action game that focuses on flying about and shooting yourself at enemies. You know the drill, let's break down the original Wii's final game.
