Yooka-Laylee

Yooka Laylee was a let down for me. It repeats the same failings that 3D platformers have been plagued by since their conception. - Terrible camera. Impossible to precisely judge distances when jumping from platform to platform. - Shoddy hit boxes and collision detection. Very first world i was able to glitch my way into an area i wasn't supposed to reach yet by abusing the janky collision when jumping on rocks. - No point in fighting enemies as they don't give you drops or XP and the fighting mechanics themselves are as bare bones as it gets. - Dying will spawn you at the entrance of the level, tedious backtracking ensues. - Characters and story are a s paper thin as you'd come to expect from this genre. Every joke is either a pun or a 4th wall break. It gets old fast. - The world themselves feel lackluster. I never felt like i was exploring a living breathing world, every moment i was fully aware that i was surrounded by nothing but dead polygons. - The boss battles are junk. - Even the transformations are junk. They greatly limit your abilites and inhibit your movement and become not fun to use as a result. A transformation should be an OP reward, not a chore, how can you screw this up. - While i personally didn't mind the babble talk i think the game would have benefited form proper voice acting. Conker had voice acting and it helped a great deal to deliver the jokes and provide plenty of memorable lines. Great Mighty Poo. Nuff said. - Don't even get me started on the mini-games. Whoever thought imprecise controls equals "party game" needs to be fired. Into the sun. By the time i reached area 3, swamp world, i just gave up. I didn't feel any motivation to keep on playing. All in all the whole game feels rather unpolished, almost like an unfinished beta. I can only see someone with severe nostalgia for Rare's glory days enjoying Yooka Laylee. Everyone else would be better off with Psychonauts, Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc or any of the Mario games.

Let me tell you, I really wanted to love this game. I really did. I backed the kickstarter campaign, followed the updates, enjoyed the Toybox Demo and waited patiently for the good ol' times of 3D platform games to return home. Well, it did, but it did so bringing along some unnecessarily archaic design choices and other major problems with it. Firstly, the horribly spastic and stubborn camera makes 3D platforming tedious at best and a nightmare at worst. The problem is, it simply does not stay where you place it, as it keeps changing angles and distances. For example, without spoiling the game, when using the last special move you can acquire in the game, it goes haywire when trying to make accurate air movement or when getting close to level geometry. The camera will get in the way at the worst possible times. Secondly, there are some terribly obtuse game design choices, leading at times to much frustration and some infuriating moments. Again, I do not want to spoil the game, but it suffice to say that there are some unnecessary difficulty spikes caused by a combination of a wonky camera (angles), inconsequential object hitboxes, questionable physics, arbitrary game logic and downright obtuse design. I wonder how some of these elements have gotten through Q&A without being modified or removed. Lastly, there are other elements like unskippable, annoyingly slow dialogues, drawn out check points, performance issues (e.g. frame rate dips and long loading times) and occasional glitches. All these problems combined, lead to a very sweet-looking game tasting rather bitter. These are problems that will make many rage quit, which is a shame since the game has every potential to live up to the days of Banjo-Kazooie, which I loved. Yooka-Laylee has great art direction and music, but it simply lacks the polish and quality of games like Super Mario Galaxy. In conclusion, it pays homage to the good ol' days of 3D platforming without learning from the genre's best offerings.

Insanely big worlds, better graphics, good tunes and excellent control and playability. Some FPS drops here ad there It is true that the humor and the jokes are not as good as in banjo-kazooie, but the setting is cool, COOL. There are less worlds (5) but have two versions, the first and expanded one and a lot of collectibles and puzzles (I would say triple of the amount o banjo-kazooie). Overall it is really great and I am so addicted now: exploring and collecting everything is son fun and rewarding. Do not listen to people saying collecting items is boring, it is so great to jump everywhere and find the way to get something, collecting all feathers gives the game more depth. Regarding the comments about the policital setting: Seriously??? I do not see any politics at all xdddd. This is more like an anti-marketing campaing agains the developers. Reading these reviews I think I will buy also a console version or more copies of the game as gifts for my friends.

I played the game for some hours now: It is much better than the mediocre reviews in the press. I feels like a truly followup to the Banjoo Kazooie Games. Everybody how loved those games should give it a try.

This is an amaying game if you loved the old N64 platformers. i for sure was hit with strong nostalgic feelings and i adore this game now. hopefully this will revive the old 3d jump and run formula of the the good old nienties.