Yooka-Laylee (Playtonic Games, April 11, 2017) Video Game

From Playtonic Games (a studio made up of former Rare developers responsible for such classics as Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Donkey Kong 64, and, of course, Banjo-Kazooie) comes this loving throwback to the 3D, character-based, collect-a-thon, sandbox platformers of the 64-bit era. Starring Yooka the chameleon and Laylee the bat, this smashing Kickstarter success looks like it is going to be a ridiculous amount of fun.

Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, Linux

 

I cannot wait for this. So glad I backed it on Kickstarter way back when. Feels like forever ago but now it's finally nearly a month away from release.

 

I can wait for this, and am hoping it's an evolution of the classic formula, instead of a simple retread.

Either way I'm buying it when it's on sale for ten bucks or less.

 

I think the biggest evolution from the Banjo-Kazooie days is that you can spend extra Paigeies (Jiggies) on unlocked worlds to expand them and add new areas/things to do. Other than that, I think sticking to the same formulae as Banjo-Kazooie was the goal of the Kickstarter campaign so it's probably going to feel retread-y by design.

 

Great bit of gameplay with developer commentary.

 

I hope this is as good as I'm picturing it. Banjo Kazooie is an all time favorite.

 

Might get this for the Switch. Feel like it would be a good Switch game.

 

Yeah unfortunately it won't be out for Switch on launch day and I can't wait any longer than I already have been for it haha. It would be great to play what is essentially an N64 throwback on the Switch but I'm getting my backer copy for PS4.

 

Yeah that's a bit disappointing, I didn't know about that when I posted. Just checked. I might still wait, hopefully it won't take too long and I have so much to play right now I don't mind.

 

Yeah they actually scrapped a planned Wii U version and moved development over to the Switch instead, which likely accounts for the delay. Smart move on their part, being that the Wii U is finished, but it means anyone hoping to buy it for Switch has to wait.

 

Yooka-Laylee
Twoka-Laylee
Yooka-Laythree

THIS COULD HAPPEN

 

Yeah, I think I'm going to wait and see if they put a physical copy of Shovel Knight on the Switch too. Switch's portability is turning out to be a bigger factor in my game purchases than I expected, ha.

 

Interview with Gavin Price from Playtonic about working at Rare, Platonic's office philosophy, and Yooka-Laylee specifically. This comes out on Tuesday for everyone (backers with physical copies have started getting them and digital backers will get codes on Monday). Super, super excited.

Also, Price talks about how Playtonic is planning on making a connected universe with its games where all the characters live in the same universe and some of the NPCs in Yooka-Laylee may be starring in their own games in the future. Awesome.

 

But everyone is basically saying its not good.

 

I'm still mildly curious despite seeing a lot of bad impressions around but hopes aren't especially high. Seems like a game I'll pick up on a whim when it's $15 or less during a PSN sale.

 

Yooka-Laylee Review – Reviving A Classic Genre

8/10. So, not everyone.

Yooka-Laylee

Also, it has a 74 on Metacritic. That's pretty good.

 

Probably gonna pick this up because I've been wanting to play it for awhile now. I see the main issue reviews bring up happens to be with camera/controls. It's not an excuse, but the original Banjo-Kazooie games had all sorts of weird camera/control issues that made it frustrating at times. I loved those games, so I'm sure I'll, at a minimum, appreciate this one.

 

I got my download code yesterday and played a good bit of the un-expanded World 1. Enjoying it thus far. It hits all the nostalgia notes just right, from the grunting gibberish to the quirky characters, the banter between Yooka and Laylee, the moveset, everything. Plus it's a gorgeous game visually.

That said, the camera is really, really rough in spots. It can spazz out and get janky at some really weird moments where I would never have expected camera issues. It's a serious problem, although admittedly it isn't detracting from my overall enjoyment of the game much. It's just such a joy to be playing a game like this again. It's definitely a genre I was hadn't fallen out of favor.

 

I've seen online that there will be/there is a patch available to fix the camera issues.

 

Game is far from perfect, probably wouldn't recommend spending more than $20 on it. But still had a lot of fun on this. At least until I got to the final boss and then rage quit because it was annoyingly tedious and way too long.

How hard is it to a) Not make your boss fights significantly harder than the rest of the game and b) If you do have hard sections in your game, keep them relatively short. Nothing worse than having to spend five minutes redoing the earlier stages of a fight/section.

overall if you like 3d platforming and collectathons, I'd still say its worth the pickup if it goes on sale.