The Nintendo Switch has changed the way many people play and has fulfilled Nintendo’s goal of opening new ways to play. There are a lot of success stories on the system, but I cannot help but feel that there is a game that can be saved by the Switch. Specifically, a game that was doomed to obscurity on the Wii, and which received a horrible port on Wii U, but would be perfect for Switch.
Rodea The Sky Soldier was Yuji Naka’s spiritual sequel to Nights into Dreams for the Wii. It was in development for years and many had speculated that it would end up as vaporware. People rejoiced when it was seemingly saved from development hell with ports for 3DS and an HD Port for Wii U, but there were issues. The Wii U port was not an actual HD port of the Wii game but rather a port of the inferior 3DS version. While the Wii game was packed in with the Wii U retail release’s first run, it is no longer available to anyone despite being the superior experience.
The Nintendo Switch has multiple playstyles, and the idea of using the Joy Con controllers to recreate the experience is not impossible. t. If Kadokawa Games and Prope were to work together again, they could remaster the original Wii release in true HD and bring it to the Switch. This way, Yuji Naka’s true vision of the game could be experienced by everyone. Tthe game would in fact benefit greatly from the HD rumble to further enhance the experience and some overall improvements could be made.
I realize that this will be a lot of work, and for a niche game like Rodea, this might be risky. This is especially the case since the game didn’t sell very well and the publisher and developer might be hesitant to give this another try. The fact remains though, that the Wii U and 3DS versions were simply not good, while the Wii version was excellent. Add to that, many niche games are finding success on Switch, and the game stands to get an even better audience than it would have had before.
I really want to see the original game get a second chance to wow people. I acknowledge that this is a long shot, but this is exactly the type of game that the Switch can save. It was in development hell for the Wii, suffered on the Nintendo 3Ds and Wii U, but can thrive on the Nintendo Switch. I hope the developer and publisher consider this.