Yooka-Laylee is the spiritual successor to the beloved 3D platformers of the Nintendo 64 era, most notably Banjo-Kazooie. The game promised a return to vibrant worlds, quirky humor, and tons of collectibles. The game first launched in 2017, and now the team is releasing an enhanced definitive version through Yooka-Replaylee. After playing through the recent limited demo, I can say the remaster offers great new improvements, overhauls, features, and visuals. However, judging by the demo’s poor performance, it has a long way to go in development.
Same Old Story
The game’s story follows Yooka, a laid-back chameleon, and Laylee, his sarcastic bat companion, as they set out to recover the stolen pages of a magical book. The villain, Capital B, a greedy corporate overlord, has used a machine called the “Noveliser 64” to suck up all the world’s literature in his quest for profit and control.
The duo must travel through several whimsical worlds inside the mysterious Hivory Towers, battling minions, solving puzzles, and collecting golden “Pagies” to unlock and expand new areas. Along the way, they encounter quirky characters, platforming challenges, and more. Narratively, the game leans heavily into humor and self-awareness. Laylee, in particular, is constantly breaking the fourth wall, cracking jokes about gaming tropes. While this tone will appeal to fans of Banjo-Kazooie, it can also come off as grating or overly smug to players unfamiliar with that style. The story itself is lightweight and mainly serves as a backdrop for the gameplay.
At its heart, Yooka-Laylee is a 3D collectathon. You control the protagonists as they explore open-ended worlds in search of “Pagies,” the game’s main collectible used to unlock and expand new areas. Each world contains dozens of secrets, challenges, and characters to interact with, and their designs are colorful and imaginative. The environments replicate the creativity of the N64 classics, complete with playful music and sarcastic NPCs. Yooka-Replaylee takes it a step further by offering stunning and crisp new visuals, detailed backgrounds, and impressive models. One would think the game was a remake, judging by the looks alone.
Great Gameplay With Some issues
Gameplay-wise, the core mechanics have undergone significant improvements. Movement is generally smooth, and the duo’s abilities, like gliding, rolling, and sonar attacks, offer variety. The camera issues that plagued the game are now almost resolved, but some sections remain worse than others. However, the controls can feel imprecise, especially during platforming sections that require tight jumps or aerial maneuvering. The levels featured in the demo feature great level designs, with unique puzzles and fun gameplay differences.
The demo also includes the new additions the remaster has to offer. This includes the new coins that are reduced when you die. You can also apparently spend these coins at vending machines not included in the demo. The game also features a brand-new world map and a challenge tracker that helps players stay informed about their location and the tasks at hand. This is incredibly useful, as knowing what to do was always an issue in the original game. It also features a newly rearranged score, numerous customisable options, and more.
Main Problems and Final Thoughts
However, while these changes are incredibly useful, the demo featured tons of glitches, frame rate dips, and even crashed multiple times. While the remaster includes great new features, if the performance of the demo is anything to go by, the full game has a lot of optimisation to work on.
For now, Yooka-Replaylee offers a range of great new features, mechanics, and quality-of-life improvements. However, the demo’s performance leaves a lot to be desired so far and muddles up the experience in an unsavory way.