Rodea the Sky Soldier

From the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog and NiGHTS into Dreams, this game has a very interesting development history: back in 2011, it was already finished so the team went to look for a good publisher, but they had many issues in the process causing its release to be delayed a few times until it was eventually released in 2015, first for Japanese customers, followed by an international localization seven months later. Part of these delays was due to the existence of WiiU and 3DS consoles on the market and the eventual publisher did not want to leave them behind. However, this version literally beats the other releases in many aspects, especially in terms of gameplay and visuals, not to mention they decided to limit flying time in the WiiU/3DS versions increasing its difficulty as a result.

The plot here is about some robot named Rodea who goes unconscious and 1,000 years later is awakened by a young girl named Ion who finds him and repairs his robot body, later on she reminds him about self-love and caring about other people, basically what she means with 'having a heart'. Even with this life lesson, the robot goes on a mission to save Garuda and its villagers from evil.

The game is a mix of the aforementioned titles in terms of gameplay, this influence is very noticeable in the available powerups, attacks and movement in general (we should thank Yuji Naka for bringing these goodies to this otherwise obscure gem). Curiously the so-called Gravitons, despite acting as rings in Sonic (or orbs in NiGHTS) don't serve for any purpose at least in this version, since the other releases have some sort of shop implemented, where the player can spend them for upgrades and costumes. The game also features medals that can be found at various places, picking up all nine of them in each stage rewards the player with some costumes for Rodea which are used in level replays and multiplayer mode. I made sure to pick up all of those.

And a final note I want to add: the localized Wii version suffers from a weird bug that causes a softlock right after the ending and credits roll. However, your progress is still saved even if you happen to encounter this bug.

0:00:00 - Start
0:00:36 - Prologue: Flames of Remembrance
0:07:18 - C1: Garuda, the Sky Kingdom
0:16:56 - C2: A Piece of Heart
0:31:20 - C3: Crisis! Trouble on the Ion Wawe!
0:44:18 - C4: Reclaim Your Village!
0:55:18 - C5: Deogordam, the Steel Titan
0:57:45 - C6: Beneath the Desert Sky
1:13:45 - C7: His Name is Orthos
1:29:02 - C8: Ten Seconds Till Destruction
1:47:46 - C9: A Heart-to-Heart Promise
1:58:56 - C10: Belhemous, the Mighty Sand Dragon
2:02:02 - C11: Volcano Under the Blazing Skies
2:16:43 - C12: Operation: Rescue Ion!
2:32:14 - C13: Rylus Aboard the Airship
2:45:36 - C14: Infiltrate the Crater Base!
2:58:50 - C15: Zolendark, the Crimson Steel Beast
3:03:17 - C16: Snowbank Amid the Frozen Skies
3:17:30 - C17: Beyond the Melting Memories
3:33:00 - C18: Revelation! All Out Bombardment!
3:46:24 - C19: The Promise
4:00:33 - C20: Odeon, the Glacial Mech Beast
4:08:52 - C21: The Ancient Naga Empire
4:21:15 - C22: The Hyperdimensional Fortress
4:34:40 - C23: Fly! To the Emperor's Throne!
4:45:21 - C24: Geardo, the Machine Emperor
4:52:21 - C25: The End of a Promise
5:02:40 - Ending & Credits