Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair Reviews
While I hope they give the 3D platformer another fair shake, I will be more than happy if Playtonic does more sidescrolling platformers in the future because The Impossible Lair is impossibly good.
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair may have made it into one of the best games of 2019!
Playtonic has absolutely smashed it with Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. It builds on the team's experience with platformers and manages to improve on its predecessor in every way. One of the best platformers I've played in years.
Yooka-Laylee and The Impossible Lair is such a surprise hit. Featuring challenging platforming, the pacing of it keeps up. It’s allows players to consistently push against the challenge. The design of no traditional lives counter really keeps things flowing. Meanwhile the exploration aspect of the hub world offers a totally new experience all on its own, even if it’s not the focus, it’s an addition I ended up loving. While some spin off games from franchises come off feeling like an incompletely experience or lesser experience of the original, I find The Impossible Lair an excellent addition to the franchise. A platformer that clearly takes inspiration from one of the best side scrolling games ever, Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze, and molds it into its own. As a side scrolling fan, this is one I recommend folks not pass up. Charming, colorful, and runs extremely well on the Nintendo Switch, a perfect companion piece to the original game.
Wrapping up, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a fantastic game and well-deserving of high praise. Between the goofy dialogue, lovely cartoony art style, and super-smooth gameplay. I’m ecstatic to be able to award them with the Thumb Culture Platinum Essential award. If you own a Nintendo Switch, you don’t want to miss out on this gem of a platformer. Available now on the Nintendo eShop for £24.99, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is every bit worth your time and money.
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is one of the best 2D platformers available. If you're looking for something filled with refined gameplay and fun levels, this is it.
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is essentially a spiritual successor to Donkey Kong Country that ends with a difficult Super Mario Maker-like dungeon. It friggin' rocks.
With charm, wit, and brimming with positivity, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a fantastic new direction for Playtonics dynamic duo.
Playtonic Games has hit the key again, and we predict new Yooka-Laylee license projects, both in 2D and 3D. It is a new brand of the genre of the platforms that we love, with its own personality, and that in its passage to the two dimensions, has managed to get totally airy.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Yooka-Laylee and The Impossible Lair manages to surpass its predecessor in almost every aspect. The change to the two dimensions has been great.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Even with plenty of superb 2D platformers releasing in recent years, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair easily belongs alongside the best the generation has to offer thanks to excellent level design and platforming that is evocative of past classics from the genre.
Donkey Kong Country fans rejoice: this is the spiritual successor you've been waiting for. The worst thing you could say about it is that the overworld exploration may prove to be too involved for those who are in it purely for the runny-jumpy stuff, but those who are happy to mix platforming with top-down adventuring and don't mind adapting to the constantly changing pace will find the best of both worlds here. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a fantastic sophomore effort that pays tribute to Rare's past and establishes Playtonic as one of the UK's most exciting studios.
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair marries a variety of platforming mechanics in a meaty campaign with tons of challenges ahead. It’s as polished as it is focused and as true to the genre as you can get. Now, sign me up for the next one.
Thanks to its tough-but-fair challenge, Playtonic has made a very rewarding game.
I love Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. It feels fresh while keeping some of the great traits of the first game. The changes may even change the minds of players which did not enjoy the game that preceded it. It controls very well, looks great, sounds great and is a lot of fun. Just give it a shot, I think you will like it.
It is really rare to have a platforming game this well-designed outside of Nintendo's offerings, this game more than makes up for the first one's shortcomings.The Impossible Lair does inspire from the best, while also introducing unique ideas of its own to build something truly unique. this is one of the best platforming games for this console generation.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
A love letter to the Donkey Kong Country series, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair goes beyond a standard homage, and crafts something beautiful of its own. Fantastic challenging platforming, spanning across 40 imaginative levels, and a charming graphical art style. This is an essential 2D platformer that should not be missed, even more so by the fact that it is being sold for budget point.
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is easily the best platformer I have ever played. With a character that feels great to move, level designs that look and play amazingly, an entire overworld that offers just as much fun as the main levels do and great characters and writing it’s impossible not to love this game. And of course the game’s claim to fame the Impossible Lair is refreshing and an actual challenge to complete unlike most other games these days which try to appeal to all audiences by making their games incredibly easy. Yooka-Laylee no longer represents the 3D collectathons of the late ’90s, but rather the unapologetic 2/2.5D Platformers akin to the Donkey Kong Country series while still being and feeling like its own series. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair has paved the way for so much for Playtonic and I can’t wait to see what they put out next!
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is one of the biggest surprises of the year and an absolute must-play. Rare are back. Wait. Playtonic have arrived. There we are.
The fun thing is, you can try to take on the Impossible Lair as many times as you like and each time you die, the game leaves a little marker indicating how far you got.