Nice Package! (Rodea the Sky Soldier)

Maintaining an acknowledgeable level of interest in Rodea the Sky Soldier has been a tough ask the last couple of years.

After all, back when it was first unveiled (in 2010) as a Wii game, it had Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka's name attached to it and NiGHTS-esque hype surrounding it. Today, it seems to be more of a Kadokawa Shoten product that was inspired by Naka's earlier, shelved work--which, to be honest, sounds far less appealing to me than the originally announced game.

Still, I'm curious to find out whether or not Rodea the Sky Soldier found a way to survive this painfully drawn out hand-off and wind up a halfway-decent title.

One thing that's already clear to me: Rodea's box art didn't survive that same transition. Don't believe me? Feast your eyes on the following cover mock-up, which apparently was created for the Wii version of the game.

And then check out the two pieces of box art below, which are for Rodea's 3DS and Wii U releases, respectively.

Actually, the 3DS cover illustration above isn't the worst thing ever, but that big, blocky and crude logo does all it can to ruin the experience, in my opinion.

Also, both the 3DS and Wii U box arts serve to reinforce my dislike of Rodea's protagonist. There's just a bit too much going on with his design, don't you think?

The Wii U cover also reiterates for me that the branding that's used on all of the system's cases pales in comparison to the simpler, more elegant branding that appeared on Wii cases. I find that teal-and-yellow "swoop" that appears at the top of every piece of Wii U box art to be visually jarring, and even when it doesn't clash with the art beneath it, it still threatens to pull your eyes away from it.

What do all of you think? Do you find any of these covers appealing? And are you at all interested in the games that are going to be packed inside of their cases?

I'll be pre-ordering the 3DS version of Rodea: The Sky Soldier, too--as soon as somebody allows it

How's this for a blast from the past? A game that first made noise all the way back in 2011, but has barely been heard from since, is roaring back onto the scene courtesy of the latest issue of Japan's Famitsu magazine.

The game in question is Rodea: The Sky Soldier, a unique-looking action game that, a couple of years ago, was being prepped by former Sonic Team-er Yuji Naka and his team at Prope for an eventual release--courtesy of Kadokawa Games--on both 3DS and Wii.

Unsurprisingly, the Wii iteration has been moved to the Wii U. Aside from that, though, it appears that little else has changed in regard to the "NiGHTS into Dreams meets Shadow of the Colossus meets Sonic the Hedgehog" action that was showcased in this old trailer:



The only thing that doesn't thrill me about all of this: I'm still not the biggest fan of the design of Rodea's protagonist.

Still, I'm all set to put some money down on the 3DS title--as soon as somebody allows me to do so. Considering Rodea doesn't yet have a specific release date (it's supposed to be released "next spring"), I have a feeling my pre-ordering is going to have to wait at least a few months.

In the meantime, I'll save up a few bucks, as the 3DS version is set to be released with a 5,800-yen (about $50) price tag attached to it. (The Wii U game will cost 7,200 yen.)

(Via neogaf.com)

Earth Seeker has some seriously sexy box art

My original headline for this post, by the way, was: "Earth Seeker, the Wii RPG that's being made by the guy who produced the first Monster Hunter game and that will never see the light of day outside of Japan, has some sexy box art." In the end, though, I decided that was a bit too wordy and went with the shorter-and-sweeter version seen above.

With all of that out of the way, let's look at this Crafts & Meister-developed, Kadokawa-published game's supposedly sexy box art, shall we?

If I knew Japanese I'd totally take one for the team and buy a copy of the game (which hit store shelves in Japan on June 23), but since I don't I'm just going to grouse about the fact that it's unlikely to be released in a language that I understand.

For more information on this intriguing game, check out any of these articles at andriasang.com or this discussion thread at NeoGAF.com.