Rodea the Sky Soldier Lands this September

Rodea the Sky Soldier has had a long, troubled history. In 2011, producer Yuji Naka announced that the Wii version of the game was complete, and just needed to be published. However, Japanese publisher Kadokawa Shoten never released the game. After a few years of uncertainty, the game has finally been completed and published, and NIS America has announced that Rodea the Sky Solider will be coming to Nintendo 3DS and Wii U on September 22, 2015. It already released in Japan earlier this month, on April 2.

Naka has compared Rodea the Sky Soldier to the NiGHTS and Sonic the Hedgehog franchises, and a quick look at the gameplay trailer reveals why: the game combines the high speed of a classic Sonic game with the aerial acrobatics of a NiGHTS game. Naka is best known for being the former head of Sega’s development super-squad Sonic Team, where he was a programmer on the original Sonic the Hedgehog.

In February, NIS America launched the first official trailer for the game’s North American release. It featured footage from the Japanese version of the game along with English subtitles. The plot is focused on a “machine soldier” named Rodea who is tasked with defending the Kingdom of Garuda from the Naga Empire. About 1,000 years later, an inventor finds and repairs a broken robot, who turns out to be the famous Rodea. With the Naga Empire threatening Garuda again, Rodea sets off to become the kingdom’s protector once again. Players will control Rodea as he blasts through the sky defeating Naga’s forces.

Rodea the Sky Soldier is an action-platformer with a classic JRPG story, colorful visuals, and dizzying gameplay. A limited edition is now available for pre-order, and it includes an art book, an original soundtrack CD, a collector’s box, and a limited edition pendant, and a copy of the game for either Nintendo 3DS or Wii U. For a limited time, the Wii U version will come with a copy of the original Wii game, which is compatible with Wii remote controls that aren’t supported on the Wii U version. Finally, the much anticipated Rodea the Sky Soldier is set to land in North America this year.