The original release of Yooka-Laylee arrived to a mixed reception. With complaints of a wonky camera, empty level design, and tedious progression, it’s safe to say that it left a little to be desired for some. However, with Playtonic’s release of the re-mastered Yooka-Replaylee, I’m pleased to say that the promise of a modern collectathon has been fully realised and the original vision has fulfilled its potential.
Gone are the metroidvania-esque mechanics of unlocking new moves and abilities, with all of your acrobatics available from the very beginning of the game. As the unlikely comedic pairing of chameleon (Yooka) and bat (Laylee) you’ll be rolling, running, jumping, and flapping your way through five unique worlds, now able to tackle any task in any order that you wish. This alone makes for the frictionless experience that I’ve always wanted it to be and encourages you to fully complete every challenge and find every hidden item in an area before moving on.
Your main drive to find one of the hundreds of collectibles will be to regain Pagies, sentient book pages with magical powers to unlock new worlds to explore, whilst all the while being hounded by Capital B, the megalomaniacal CEO of a corporation intent on using the magical tome’s power to its own nefarious ends. Practically, this means you’ll spend hours hunting down collectibles and completing a vast array of unique activities before a final showdown against the big bad bee himself.
It’s in this myriad mix of challenges that I think Yooka-Laylee truly shines. From races against a gang of clouds in tropical climes to playing roulette in a glitzy casino or chasing ghosts around a spooky lit Halloween swamp, there’s always something new to see and do every second. It’s up there with some of the greats in its prolific use of interesting ideas. From Rextro levels, takes on nostalgic gaming genres of ye olden days to riddle based hunts for medieval pig adventurers, I’ve never been bored during my playthrough. The sheer inventiveness is astounding. Some of these tasks are throwbacks to classics of the genre including minecart runs reminiscent of old school Donkey Kong levels that tug on your nostalgia strings in just the right way.
Getting around the expansive and ever expanding hub world of Hivory Towers is a doddle thanks to the bookmark styled warp points seemingly dotted everywhere, keeping backtracking to a minimum, unless you want to just enjoy the excellent traversal of your adventurous pair. Throughout your journey, you’ll interact with numerous quirky characters including Trowser, an entrepreneurial snake (yes, ha ha) who’ll sell you upgrades, cosmetics and more, assuming that you have the quills for it and Vendi, the purveyor of tonics, potions that will affect your gameplay in numerous ways. It’s in the use of these tonics that gameplay can be tweaked to your liking.
Finding things a little too easy, why not add fall damage? Fancy changing up the look of the world, just make everything have a greyscale finish instead! There are plenty of options to choose from to make your playthrough just a little more unique. With expanding options the further you progress on your travels, as well as the opportunity to add even more tonics at a time, it’s delightful to see what can be done to switch things up, spending the newly added Q.U.I.D.S currency. This coinage is literally everywhere, Yooka-Replaylee showering you in the gold stuff at every opportunity. With Coinelious the pig ever present, why not give him a boot and see what mini coin collecting challenge he has for you next? They’re just another fun way that this excellent world has been expanded.
It’s worth a mention that the soundtrack is catchy as hell, with remixed orchestrations of old classics and brand new tracks that you’ll find yourself humming whilst doing the laundry. Having Grant Kirkhope and David Wise on the team, bringing this much nostalgia to proceedings, will do that to a person.
Just being in these imaginative worlds is a delight. Gone are the more sterile feeling open areas of the original release, with reworked levels being vibrant and full of life. There’s always something to find around the corner, even if it’s often just more things to hoover up. With various coin challenges to test your platforming prowess, inventive areas such as the aforementioned Icymetric Palace (where you’ll explore its corridors in a fixed isometric view, reminiscent of old Spectrum classics) or match the picture challenges to test something other than your digits, I’ve always been charmed by new ideas at every turn.
A love letter to both the 2017 release and 90s collectathons, Yooka-Replaylee takes the original vision and improves on almost every aspect imaginable. Featuring re-worked challenges, a sorely needed map system (with fast travel), new content in every world, and a streamlined ability progression, this is the game that Yooka-Laylee was destined to be.
With more than double the Pagies to collect, loads quills and five beautiful worlds to explore, you’re sure to enjoy your time as much as I have. Full of heart, a cute cast, a seemingly endless array of goodies to grab and new ideas at every turn, Yooka-Replaylee is a required purchase for any fan of the platforming genre.
