Rodea the Sky Soldier

Rodea The Sky Soldier has had a difficult route to release: originally developed by Prope under the leadership of Yuji Naka - a founding father of Sonic the Hedgehog - it was apparently largely complete for the Wii and 3DS, yet publisher Kadokawa Games was largely silent. Prope dropped away and, somewhat surprisingly, Kadokawa re-emerged late last year with a firm release date, shifting the title to Wii U alongside the expected 3DS version.

Quote how much of the project has changed since Prope completed development - from its perspective - is unclear, though the Wii U version will have certainly been pulled together by Kadokawa. Almost as a reinforcement of the fact the Wii original was completed a while ago, it'll be a free extra with early print copies in Japan when it finally arrives this Spring.

Kadokawa Games has been keen to promote the title in recent weeks, unsurprisingly, even talking up the likelihood of a Western release. It's now released a fresh video that shows plenty of gameplay and coverage from a hands-on event in Japan, the latter of which has brief glimpses of the game on 3DS, too. It reminds us a little of 3D Sonic titles - with targeted attacks - and a low-tempo Kid Icarus: Uprising; perhaps some optimism and hope of three years ago is gradually returning. Visually it looks fairly mediocre, but it's the gameplay we're interested in.

Check out the footage below and let us know what you think.

[source neogaf.com]