Emperor Geardo rules a terrestrial land that is having an energy crisis, so he plans to invade the floating islands of Garuda because they have a limitless energy source.  Once every 1,000 years, Garuda floats over Emperor Geardo’s land, so he plans to use an artifact called the Time Key to make Garuda stop moving.  The princess of Garuda and her humanoid robot bodyguard Rodea snatch the Time Key and split it into two, preventing this from happening.  But when Geardo attacks, the princess and Rodea are separated and Rodea falls into a desert and gets buried for 1,000 years!  He is discovered by a mechanic on Garuda, but when they return home, a hologram of the Emperor threatens to take over again!  Can Rodea protect the floating islands and prevent history from repeating itself?  Rodea: The Sky Soldier is available for Wii U and 3DS, but reviewed on Wii U here.

The history behind the game is kind of interesting.  It was originally made for the Wii, but was never released.  Later on it was resurrected for the Wii U and 3DS, and published in the US by NIS.  The game is like a cross between the 3-D Sonic Adventure games and NiGHTS, which makes sense because all three games were made by Yuji Naka and his team.

The game is a 3-D action game where you play as Rodea.  You can run and jump on the ground, but there isn’t a lot to do down there so most of the action is in the air.  When you double jump, a cursor will appear and you can point it at a direction you want to fly and you’ll soar in the air.  You have a limited amount of energy that you use to fly, so take care that it doesn’t run out.  You can boost while flying, and defeat enemies by attacking them, too.  Be on the lookout for items and rings that you can fly through so you can refill your flying energy or get a boost of speed.  At the end of each stage, you can upgrade Rodea’s stats, giving him more health or flight time, or brand new skills altogether.

While the play control sounds simple, for the life of me I could not get the hang of it for some reason.  Because of that, I can’t say I really liked the game much.  Disorienting camera angles didn’t help either.  But if you enjoy classics like Sonic Adventure or NiGHTS, you might want to check this one out anyway as it has that “Dreamcast feel” to it.  And let me know if you can figure out the controls, because I sure couldn’t!

Kid Factor:

Rodea: The Sky Soldier is rate E-10 with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Mild Language. You can bash into and shoot enemies, but they’re mostly flying robots that explode when defeated.  I really didn’t hear any bad language while playing, so it must be used sparingly.  Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, and younger gamers may get frustrated at the confusing play control.

Tags: Game Reviews