![]() ![]() And that's precisely why there has been some trepidation leading up to its release on Nintendo's hybrid. Playtonic's debut is a sprawling platformer with a focus on exploration and the jump to modern hardware has enabled its designers to create worlds much larger and more complex than the games which inspired it. (Source: I run a pub trivia night at a local bar.After months of anticipation, Yooka-Laylee has finally arrived on Switch and it feels right at home. Asking me the name of a minor NPC that I didn’t even know had a name, or what my current playtime is and giving me the option of three times that are very close together doesn’t make for a very entertaining quiz. That said, there are a handful of annoying tasks, particularly a handful of trivia challenges that take the quiz scene from the original Banjo Kazooie, which many (myself included) consider to be the worst part of that game, and double down on the frustration. From minecart challenges that harken back to Donkey Kong Country to some fun and clever boss fights against giant enemies brimming with personality, each one forcing me to master a handful of Yooka’s abilities. ![]() For example, a locked castle in the ice world suddenly opens up, offering dozens of new and unexpected challenges.Įach of the worlds is massive – easily bigger than any of the stages in the original Banjo – and apart from the casino, they’re crammed with interesting activities to engage with in exchange for doo-dads and knick-knacks. The constant cycle of exploring and gathering currency which can then be used to expand the levels, allowing you to explore and gather more is really satisfying, as is physically seeing a location change. I got a lot of satisfaction out of exploring a level, learning its intricacies, and collecting everything I could get my hands on, only to watch the entire thing double in size and offer up a whole new bunch of challenges. And while I’m definitely disappointed in the scant amount of worlds, I really love that each one can be expanded by spending some of the collectibles you find. Thankfully, the other four worlds each pull their weight, from Mayan ruins that sprawl out on a series of floating islands to an icy castle that’s home to a series of fun and surprising challenges that call back to early, lesser-known Rare games from the ‘80s. Given that this world is 20% of the total game, it’s absolutely a letdown. This place is flat, dull, and filled with banal, chance-based tasks like slot machines that grind the pace of the adventure to a halt if you don’t have awesome luck. The fourth, a sprawling casino, is disappointingly lifeless considering the gaudy source material. That’s definitely a disappointment, especially when you factor in that one of the five is flat-out not good. This happened to me a bit too often throughout my adventure.Ĭamera aside, one of my main gripes with Yooka is that there are only five worlds to explore outside of the hub. It’s not 1998 anymore, and the second a game’s camera becomes noticeable is when it becomes an issue. While it’s never outright bad, there are moments when it becomes increasingly frustrating when it stacks with a camera that occasionally gets locked in geometry and actively fought back as I tried to get a better view of my surroundings and challenges. That’s a problem, considering that platforming is the crux of everything you do here, including the exploration. There were several times where I failed challenge, not because of a fault of my own, but because of slight collision, timing, and camera issues. The whole time, though, you have to wrestle against the fact that the controls and physics never feel quite as polished as the old-school Mario, Banjo, or Ratchet games. It was satisfying to come to a puzzle, experiment with the objects nearby, and eventually come to creative solution. Powers like this make for some really interesting puzzles, especially when paired with other temporarily abilities like shooting out flaming projectiles. For example, Yooka can temporarily assume the properties of certain objects that you lick in environment - applying your tongue to honey, for instance, makes you sticky, allowing you to walk across slick surfaces. ![]() Standard platforming stuff like double jumps, flight, and a ground pound are joined by some surprising new additions that I really appreciated. Their relationship is both cute and functionally similar to that of Banjo and Kazooie: Yooka is a heroic lizard who does most of the heavy lifting, while Laylee is a sarcastic bat with abilities like a sonar ray that unlocks invisible objects, and a brief invincibility barrier that act as support. I’m a big fan of the sheer amount and variety of abilities that the two characters you control simultaneously, Yooka and Laylee, amass over the course of the campaign. ![]()
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