There’s a lot of history behind Yooka-Laylee.
It’s being developed by the recently formed Playtonic Games,
comprised of former Rare employees responsible for platforming classics
like Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie.
It’s not only a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie,
but a tribute to 90s era 3D platformers
like Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot, Croc, and Gex.
The game is also another Kickstarter darling,
funded in record breaking time,
but can Yooka-Laylee possibly live up to its lofty pedigree?
The plot follows the duo of the chameleon Yooka and his bat companion Laylee
as they’re swept into a corporate conspiracy after the nearby Hivory Towers,
lead by Capital B and Dr. Quack, starts snatching up all the world’s books,
including Laylee’s precious tome.
The story is a simple one with plenty of tongue-in-cheek dialogue
that tries to poke at the older tropes the game embraces
while simultaneously mocking modern game tropes.
It has its moments, but many of the punch lines are too obvious
and fail to elicit more than a chuckle here or there.
True to its promise, Yooka-Laylee certainly harkens back
to an older, now almost forgotten style of platformer.
It owes a lot to its predecessors, specifically Banjo-Kazooie,
from which Yooka-Laylee heavily derives most of its best moments and features.
The opening section briefly conjures up memories of Spiral Mountain
as you enter the new hub environment,
but its sprawling areas with hidden secrets and pathways
don’t quite capture the same magic.
Playtonic Games completely squanders the opportunity
to show what hub worlds are capable of,
instead delivering a dull and uninspired effort.
What you’re left with are five worlds to explore that come in various flavors.
These fare much better than the hub environment,
but not every world is a winner.
Each is a large, sandbox environment filled with a laundry list of activities
to undertake in your quest to obtain various collectibles
needed to unlock new worlds, expand existing worlds,
or purchase new abilities.
It’s not quite the collectathon that plagued
some of the old Rare platformers back in the day,
but there’s still an abundance of stuff to obtain.
Among your objectives are boss battles, races, and solving puzzles.
It’s the typical fare with little in the way of new or innovative activities,
though there are a few standouts.
The fact that Yooka-Laylee relies so heavily on its predecessors
ends up being one of the biggest problems.
Everything here feels like it’s not only been done before,
but it’s been executed much better, too.
Yooka-Laylee doesn’t really put the sandbox environments to good use most of the time.
The better worlds work
not because you’re having to criss-cross a giant environment to solve puzzles
or engage in connected activities,
but rather because they keep each objective isolated and in its own space.
The few worlds that try to achieve a greater level of depth mostly fail to get it right.
Too often you’re left wandering around aimlessly or excessively backtracking,
taking the joy out of exploration.
When similar games in the past have more than double the amount of worlds,
the inconsistent quality is hard to overlook.
The new ability to expand each world
significantly alters each layout for the better,
but it’s not enough to compensate for the other shortcomings.
The basics of Yooka-Laylee’s platforming abilities are serviceable,
though they could have used a bit more refinement
as handling the duo can feel very loose at times.
The advanced moves aren’t very original or innovative, either.
Once you unlock them, though,
they help provide replay value by allowing you to access and complete objectives
in previous worlds that might have seemed impossible on your first go around.
However, there are several crucial situations
where the controls and camera work are highly problematic.
During a boss encounter that requires you to fight while transformed into a ship,
the game inexplicably flips the directional controls
as you try to move in a circle to dodge projectiles,
resulting in needless confusion at the worst possible time.
Then there are the countless times when the camera sets you up for failure
while trying to do the most basic of activities,
as well as odd default camera positions when transitioning between certain areas.
There’s also one returning gimmick
that should have never seen the light of day ever again,
and that’s the quiz segments.
After completing certain worlds, in order to progress to the next area of the game,
you are forced to complete these mandatory quizzes.
You have to answer enough questions correctly in order to pass,
but if you answer wrong three times, it’s back to the beginning.
The questions are extremely specific and often designed to trick you,
so it’s easy to slip up.
These quizzes might have been an amusing novelty back in the 90s,
but now they come off as aggravating and they’re a total put off
since they completely ruin the game’s pacing.
Visually, the PC version of Yooka-Laylee doesn’t appear to suffer
from the framerate issues reported by others with console editions.
Everything runs at a very smooth framerate,
with only a handful of minor drops over the course of completing the game.
For the most part, the game nails the look and style of its predecessors,
though the hub environment is definitely the weakest effort.
Many of the NPC and enemy designs are also rather uninspired,
though there are a few exceptions.
It’s hard to deny there are high expectations
for the game’s soundtrack given the composers brought on board,
and they don’t disappoint.
Wise, Kirkhope, and Burke deliver tunes that not only tug at your nostalgia strings,
but are just downright good tracks with upbeat melodies and catchy themes.
However, when it comes to the game’s sound effects,
returning to the past wasn’t the best idea.
The strange grunts and noises from every single NPC that stand in as voice work
just don’t have the same charm anymore.
It was an odd choice back in its day,
but it worked due to its comedic factor and novelty.
Without offering a more modernized take on the concept,
the repetitive squeaks and squawks are just annoying.
It’s clear there are some kinks that still need to be ironed out in Yooka-Laylee,
but its flaws are more than just a few mechanical issues.
Whether it’s a sign that some of these older design choices
went the way of the dinosaur for a reason
or that the development team simply weren’t able to achieve their goals,
Yooka-Laylee fails to rekindle the magical spark
that its predecessors provided two decades ago.
What it manages to faithfully recreate from the past
is merely a facade that quickly shatters
as you dig deeper into the game and stumble through its numerous faults.
All that’s left is a platformer that fails to rise above mediocrity,
in this day and age or any other.
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