It's finished, so let us play it!

Do you remember Rodea the Sky Soldier from Yuji Naka's PROPE studio, the man who many credit with creating Sonic the Hedgehog? It's supposed to be released on Wii and 3DS, with the handheld version being handled by another developer, Kadokawa Games, the same organisation in charge of publishing the Wii edition. Almost a year ago we reported that the Wii version was finished, with Yaka commenting at the time that it had been finished "for a while".

It's astonishing that, one year later, the completed Wii title is still in limbo with its own creator in the dark about whether it'll ever see the light of day, and indeed whether the handheld equivalent will ever be completed. Speaking to The Verge, Naka admitted that he had no idea about publishing plans, and shared concerns that Wii U not including a Wii Remote in the box would be damaging for its prospects on the new system — after all, Wii U will arrive before the game — as it was designed with the Remote and Nunchuk in mind.

We have finished developing the Wii version and we have already submitted it. That was around a year ago. But it seems like they are still considering the [details of] the 3DS version.

It [3DS version] might be close to being finished, but we havent spoken to Kadokawa in a while, so I'm not sure. Kadokawa never said they're not going to sell it, so I would guess they'll release it sometime in 2013 or so.

That has to get cleared up. Because of that, I'm not sure what's going to happen to the game. However, I'm very confident we were able to create a new type of action game. I really want a lot of people to play this game.

One unfortunate thing about the Wii U announcement: It doesn't come with a Wii remote, so Rodea and all the other Wii titles I created, people won't be able to play it with a Wii remote. They'll have to use the Wii U GamePad.

I created the game specifically for the Wii remote, so it's going to turn into a totally different experience. I'm really down about that because Rodea is a really good game.

It's all rather dispiriting, but on a brighter note Naka made it clear that he's interested in developing projects for Wii U.

Whenever there is new hardware, I feel like creating something for it. Following the announcement of the Wii U, I've been writing a bunch of game concepts. I'm hoping to be able to create a game for Wii U. Any new piece of hardware always looks fun.

Perhaps Rodea will be reborn as a download title, or it could be stuck in limbo forever. We hope that it sees a worldwide release in some form, as based on the original Japanese trailer, below, it looks like it could be a lot of fun.

[source theverge.com]