Rodea the Sky Soldier

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 The gameplay and the visuals feel outdated, and even though the game is fun, it's far from the best platformers on Nintendo consoles.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.