Rodea the Sky Soldier

Rodea the Sky Soldier really hits that sweet spot when it comes to evoking the wonder of flight, but the troubled developmental process is tangible in the final build. For those of you who can stomach older experiences however, you'll likely overlook some of its issues and find a lot to love.

The Wii U version of Rodea is simultaneously a game with a lot of charm and one that’s difficult to love as much as you want to. When Rodea works and all of its gears are cranking along smoothly, it’s an exhilarating joy to play. But everything can come crashing down at any time: an enemy encounter reliant on overly finicky aiming or a misplaced attack that sends you careening into the abyss can sour the sense of wonder in a flash...Rodea’s high points are lofty indeed, but the experience as a whole has too many pitfalls to be wondrous.

The new project from Sonic’s father Yuji Naka brings an adventure on sky, pretty difficult to control, with beautiful but simple landscapes and an amazing story. Sadly, we expected more from the little robot Rodea.

We were expecting more from a game with someone like Yuji Naka. The gameplay and the visuals feel outdated, and even though the game is fun, it's far from the best platformers on Nintendo consoles.

When it comes to unique gameplay and classic Yuji Naka charm the title truly soars. Unfortunately it also suffers from frustrating camera problems, a steep learning curve and some frequently aggravating combat.

Fans have waited a long time for Rodea the Sky Soldier, but unfortunately the final experience never comes within range of Yuji Naka’s past masterpieces.

Rodea the Sky Solider has an interesting story and cast, with a colorful world that is fun to fly around in. Yet that flying around should feel even better, and it just lacks that polished feeling.

A game with fascinating concepts, but has a hard time taking flight.

The gameplay delivers its best traits only sometimes, when everything clicks together. But that doesn't always happen, spoiling the fun.

Suffering from technical gaps, imprecise controls and a predictable and clichéd plot, Rodea still manages to display an interesting concept and gives the player a degree of freedom that is unusual in similar titles. Pity that its qualities don’t weigh enough to redeem its flaws.

Oh god, how the mighty have fallen. Why? What has Yuji Naka done with this game? The controls are a disaster on WiiU, and there are a ton of problems. This is a game that should have been treated way better, and whose potential was completely wasted.

It would be harsh to call it a mess, but Rodea: The Sky Soldier is an utter disappointment with brief glimpses of a good game smothered by poor design choices and a long and ultimately damaging development time.

Despite a nice story and art, the game is dull, unispired, old. Rodea is a game of 10 years ago distributed today, even on Wii U, a more-than-capable HD console, with poor controls and problematic gameplay.

We’re not likely to find out exactly what troubles the team at Prope faced on Rodea’s rocky road to market. The end product is evidence enough to suggest that something went wrong along the way, and it’s a real shame. With a little more refinement and even the lightest of facelifts, Rodea could easily have been a Nintendo exclusive worth owning.

Somewhere buried within The Sky Soldier is the kernel of an idea that defies gravity, as well as our expectations. Sadly, despite Naka’s best intentions, Rodea never hits those heights.

I do believe that Rodea could have been a good little game. The ambition it has going for it is certainly appreciable, but ambition not put to good use is ambition wasted. Unfortunately, despite being one of the few high profile third party Wii U games, Rodea is a dud.

If you're looking for something that reminds you of the great classics, it's better to let Rodea pass.

Rodea the Sky Soldier is simply a game that really needed more time, and a course correction. A lot of promising concepts are seen and experienced throughout, but the flying and Sonic homing-style combat would have been executed so much better with a bit more polish.

Horrid visuals and unintuitive gameplay make Rodea the Sky Soldier one of the worst action games I’ve played in a long time.

Any intriguing ideas that Rodea the Sky Soldier contains are unfortunately offset by botched controls, mechanics and presentation, resulting in a major disappointment.

Rodea the Sky Soldier on Wii U is a good idea, but a broken game with a frustrating control scheme. Visually it's a game of almost a decade ago. Forget it.

It flies so low than you will crush playing it.

Rodea The Sky Soldier arrives 15 years late with poor controls and even poorer graphics.

Rodea the Sky Soldier has to be one of the biggest letdowns of the year. It's missing quite a bit, including comprehensive gameplay, solid visuals and any sort of option to play like the original Wii version does. It's sad to say that this high-flying adventure falls flat before it stands a chance to get started.

Wow. This can't be happening - Yuji Naka at his worst. Even the weaker Sonic games feel solid compared to this. Visually not appealing - no, let me rephrase that: plain ugly and "blessed" with fidgety controls, I see no reason why anybody would spend time with this.

I was really excited to play Rodea: The Sky Soldier because I feel like there aren’t enough new IPs coming out and publishers are going to the well too often on sequels and reboots. So I'm extremely disappointed that I could barely find anything redeeming in my experience.

While the cinematics and storyline are fairly eyebrow raising and interesting, the rest of the game is a broken platter of inedible stale pastries.

A tragic failure that attempts to revive the wonder of NiGHTS and Sonic The Hedgehog, but falls victim to publisher melding and terrible controls.

Abysmal. [Jan 2016, p.71]