I never played much of the originalYooka-Layleein 2017. It tried to pay homage to classic Rare platformers from the 90s, and it was created by former developers of the studio. Its two protagonists were charismatic, the dialogue was funny, and it had some well-designed levels, but an egregious camera and obnoxious structure broke the deal for me.
Two years later, the 2.5D spin-off Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair blew my mind. Excellent platforming, challenging levels, and satisfying progression were only a few of its strong points. It left me wondering how I would feel about revisiting Yooka-Laylee, but I never did it. Until now.
Yooka-Replaylee, the upcoming remake of the original adventure, sets out to solve all its issues. In a 30-minute demo, I played through the beginning of the game, and I was surprised by its complete rework. While it follows the same premise (you have to collect the pages of a magical book, stolen by villain Capital B), you get to play a tutorial level that shows how Yooka and Laylee found the book in the first place.
Gameplay-wise, there wasn’t anything too special here: it’s a classic 3D collect-a-thon where you have to defeat simple enemies, collect coins, do some platforming, and solve puzzles. Its starting area lacked any major challenge, but it was useful as a tutorial. However, everything looked way better than ever: there was a level of brightness, high-resolution textures, and more vibrant colours that made the art style more visually appealing.
A quick look at the characters’ models already gives you this impression, but hopefully, this can be found everywhere, even in something as basic as the grass.
The progression of the level was linear, and once you got the book, you were introduced to the protagonists’ ship, where the original game started. You receive plenty of new moves and their explanations, which give a variety to the characters' expressions and an exciting glimpse of the platforming to come.
Add a serviceable camera that you can move freely, and you’re already in a much better starting position than the 2017 original. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that Yooka-Replaylee is without its issues.
Performance wasn’t great. My PC specs are more than enough to run it, but I still never maintained a consistent frame rate in any scenario. Every time a new part of the map was shown or something relevant happened on screen, I experienced frame drops. While it didn’t break the game or make it unplayable, it really became frustrating and spoiled some of the visual enhancements previously mentioned.
I also experienced a bug in one of the few puzzles available, which involved lighting some torches in the correct order. I couldn’t complete it until I started a second playthrough.
These issues were also present in the brand-new cutscenes, which had a nice graphical rework, but didn’t run well. There were some weird cuts and problems with the timing of the written dialogue, which harmed the humor.
Outside of the technical aspects, I don’t have many more negative thoughts about Yooka-Replaylee. I still hate that when you enter a new area, the camera takes control and gives you a showcase of all its areas. It’s a design choice followed by many platformers that spoils some of the excitement of exploring a new scenario as you take your first steps.
The demo ends when you enter the first universe, and I was left wanting more. While its frame-rate problems were important, I’m curious about what else has been completely changed in the more advanced levels, and how the developers have tried to solve the game’s obnoxious structure and progression.
Yooka-Replaylee has the opportunity to be a triumphant return to the series, and I’m willing to give it a chance when it releases later this year.
