Yooka Laylee Reviews
It's crushing that Yooka-Laylee does not reach the heights of brilliance of the game it clearly draws its inspiration from. On its own, it is a decent game that is playable, but we were promised characters as delightful as in Banjo-Kazooie, and gameplay as slick and joyful to back those characters up.
Competent and charming, if a little disappointing
Though a beautiful callback to a nostalgic genre, Yooka-Laylee is lacking in some areas that were difficult to forgive.
Bright colors, breezy enthusiasm, googly eyes and collectibles — Yooka-Laylee nails Banjo Kazooie's aesthetic and embraces every last trope from Rare's 3D platformers. It's also firmly disinterested in twenty years of forward progress, doubling as a paean to Banjo's banal challenges, mushy control, and distressing tedium. It's tough to feel bitter—Playtonic delivered what was promised—it's just awfully easy to feel chafed and bored, too.
Nostalgia will hit hard within the first few hours, but once this fades, you'll realise that Yooka-Laylee is never able to live up to the brilliance that was Banjo-Kazooie. You'll get some enjoyment from the open-world platforming aspects of the game, but the unlikable characters, coupled with a clunky camera among other redundant game mechanics will more than likely ruin the experience for you. I don't doubt that even the biggest of Banjo-Kazooie fans will be left wondering what could have been.
Overall, this is a game of inconsistent highs and lows. The simple joy of interacting with a colorful, childish world serves to remind us of a different time for video games. But when stuttering camera angles send you plummeting off a high platform, the lack of polish is painfully obvious. Further patches and updates might be able to salvage the solid foundation that Yooka-Laylee is built on, but in its current state, it does little more than present a charming love letter to its predecessors.
Yooka-Laylee is a nostalgic trip to the past that ignores all the innovations that came after it. There's an appeal to return to a bygone era of platforming, but it's quickly washed away with long stretches of tedious, boring gameplay, and a sense of wit that thinks it's far smarter than it really is.
At its best, Yooka-Laylee is a fun retread of '90s-era 3D platforming. Unfortunately, it fails to move the genre forward in any significant way, and even brings back several pains that should have stayed firmly planted in the past.
It's colourful, there are collectibles, and it's got a rotten camera: Yooka-Laylee is a 90s platformer to a tee. Unfortunately, rather than a rose-tinted look at the titles of yore, this game falls into all of the same pitfalls as its predecessors: it's rough around the edges, often annoying, and at times even a chore. And yet for all of its flaws it's still packing the most important ingredient of all: the compulsion to collect everything is strong here – and it'll remain even when you're grinding your teeth.
Yooka-Laylee shows there’s room for nostalgia-flavored 3D platforming in today’s market by reminding us of the joys of well-built, colorful worlds, and daft, fun characters. Unfortunately, the good work put in by Playtonic to modernise the stagnant genre is hamstrung by glaring technical issues that dull the vibrancy, and cloud over your enjoyment.
The nostalgia is real in this Kickstarter success story from a group of ex-Rare staffers. But so is the clunky camera and repetitious backtracking
Yooka-Laylee is built out of the heart, soul, guts, and bones of Banjo-Kazooie. It's exactly what fans of Rare's classic 3D wanted. Unfortunately, technical issues stick to it like bat guano.
Yooka-Laylee delivers on nostalgia but is held back by outdated gameplay and underwhelming levels.
Evoking the essence of late-'90s platforming without significantly modernising it, Yooka-Laylee is a game with noble aspirations, grounded by clumsily flawed execution.
Fundamentally Yooka-Laylee is a good game, but it’s a shame that Playtonic failed to bring an undeniable great game. The potential was extremely high but they left me a little disappointed. Wonky controls, bad camera work, annoying voice dialogue and issues with performance make Yooka-Laylee nothing more than an average game. It could have been so much more …
Yooka-Laylee is a game which brings us back to the 3D platformer retro roots and brings all of what made those games from the 90s great with it. In doing so though, it also brought with it most of the faults which should have been ironed out a long time ago. I have mentioned the camera a few times, but it really hampers what otherwise could have been a great experience and makes the challenge more frustrating than it otherwise should have been. I love a challenge, but I want it to be a fair one and not hampered by game design issues. If you are after a 3d platformer which harks back to the 90s and brings all of the good and bad points from that era, then this might be for you. Yooka-Laylee are certainly adorable characters, the writing is quite funny, the visuals are nice and the music is lovely. It's a shame the gameplay doesn't quite marry up due to persistent niggles.
All in all, Yooka Laylee is neither as bad or good as most say. It’s a solid platformer that caters to the old school crowd while occasionally getting lost and muddled in the game mechanics of a time long gone. There is charm and wit in its writing, and frustration in its controls. For every positive, there is a negative. The takeaway is an extremely okay platforming experience with extreme amounts of nostalgia and decent potential for a future franchise.
Despite its commendable protagonist and world design (mostly), the reliance on nostalgia hinders its ability to present fresh ideas, and when that issue is paired with the performance issues, you’re better off just dusting off an old N64 somewhere or waiting for it to be deeply discounted.