Yuji Naka's missing Wii game 'Rodea the Sky Soldier' still in limbo

Rodea the Sky Soldier from Yuji Naka's Prope studio has been done for a year, but hasn't been published.

Former Sonic Team leader Yuji Naka, founder of studio Prope, says his company completed work on its Wii game Rodea the Sky Soldier last year, but he has no idea when — or if — it will ever come out. With the Wii U coming out later this year, Naka seems concerned about the fate of his company's still-to-be-released Wii game, which has no release date and no publisher outside of Japan.

Polygon spoke with Naka at Prope earlier this week, inquiring about the fate of Rodea the Sky Soldier, which was officially announced in 2011 for the Wii and Nintendo 3DS.

"I want to ask the same question!" Naka said. "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."

Kadokawa Games is responsible for publishing Rodea and developing the 3DS version, Naka says.

"It might be close to being finished," Naka said of the 3DS version of Rodea, "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."

"There's no game out there that lets you fly free in the blue sky. I'm the only person that could create this kind of game."

"That has to get cleared up," he said. "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."

With the Wii coming to the end of its lifecycle, Naka sounded worried about the fate of Rodea the Sky Soldier and its chances for success.

"One unfortunate thing about the Wii U announcement: It doesn't come with a Wii remote," Naka lamented, "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."

Despite Naka's worries about the Wii U harming Rodea the Sky Soldier's chances, the former creator behind the Sonic the Hedgehog series seemed positive about Nintendo's next-gen console.

"Whenever there is new hardware, I feel like creating something for it," Naka said. "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. Kinect looks interesting, as well."

Prope recently released Buddy Monster for iOS and Android platforms via Mobage. Prope's Digimon Adventure for PSP is out this week.