Upon launching in 2017 after a massively successful Kickstarter campaign, it became clear thatYooka-Layleedidn’t live up to its advertised potential as the “spiritual successor” to the originalBanjo-Kazooiegames for the Nintendo 64. With Playtonics hoping to remedy this by releasing a remake eight years later,Yooka-Replayleeis an attempt to correct the glaring issues that bogged down the original as it brings the game to a new generation of consoles, and from what we saw during our hands-on demo at this year’s Summer Game Fest Play Days, there’s still a lot that needs to be done before they get there.
The Lizard and The Bat are Back
For a game that is, by definition (and title), simply a chance to “replay” the original with an improved and polished player experience, the issues that popped up in our demo can’t be ignored. There were plenty of problems that can be attributed to the build’s pre-release status, such as the abysmal frame rate and stutters that plagued the entire play session, but the sloppy combat mechanics, egregious dialogue sounds and plenty of other areas that could have used a completely new approach are hard to ignore (or at the very least, not worthy of being shown as a step forward worthy of being displayed in previews).
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The game still bears that “made in Unity” essence in gameplay and presentation, with choppy and rigid camera movements and environmental animations putting a damper on the level of quality and immersion the game may have had. Unnecessarily long transitions to black, then back, between interactions and events are still here despite the lack of load times. There are graphical improvements, but if someone is playing a 3D indie platformer with a cartoonish art style, these kinds of missing parts aren’t going to be that much of a dealbreaker.
It’s still hard to land hits on enemies, and while your full range of moves are available from the get-go, anybody who played the original knows that the full range of Yooka and Laylee’s combat skills were lacking at the best of times. It’s not particularly entertaining or satisfying to defeat enemies, and frankly, it feels more wise to just evade them altogether instead of going for a combat encounter. Interactive characters still bear grading and squawky voice sounds that gnaw at your ear, unlike the charming and memorable yapping ofBanjo-Kazooie’s characters.
Returning to Hivory Towers
Yooka-Replaylee is labeling itself as a remake, with changes more akin toThe Last of Us Part IorPaper Mario and the Thousand Year Doorthan the recent string of game-changing Resident Evil remakes. But at a time when single-player games with rough launches, likeCyberpunk 2077,are releasing major mechanical overhauls and content updates for free to improve the experience, claiming that Yooka-Replaylee’s “additions” are worthy of a second full-price purchase feels a bit much.
Yooka-Replayleeis an attempt to correct the glaring issues that bogged down the original, and from what we saw during our hands-on demo at this year’s Summer Game Fest Play Days, there’s still a lot that needs to be done before they get there.
A lot of the biggest changes in the new game come in the form of immediately granting the player things that were trapped behind progression in the original, such as the full range of player moves and fully-built levels. Other changes come in the form of rebalanced puzzles and challenges, which seem to be simple changes in speed or other variables, rather than redesigns. The actual changes, like the addition of Fast Travel points or a basic map feature, are obvious enough that they should have been implemented into the original in the first place (even as a free update).
Our time playingYooka-Replayleewas an overall unenjoyable experience, as the remake (at this stage in development) failed not only to deliver the exciting and high-quality experience that the original Kickstarter campaign promised, but even to repair the original game’s glaring issues. Hopefully the team can turn things around and at least provide players with a “fixed” version of the original when it arrives some time in the back half of 2025.
Yooka-Replaylee
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