At a glance, this looks like a great successor to Banjo Kazooie. The character designs and graphics are spot-on and the music is exactly what fans of Banjo Kazooie would expect. When moving beyond aesthetics, however, the game fails to live up to its predecessors. My biggest complaint is that the levels lack an intuitive flow. The musical notes of Banjo Kazooie were arranged in such a way that they led players through the levels and hinted at the locations of jiggies. The quills of Yooka-Laylee are sparsely strewn about in a seemingly random manner. Progression through the worlds isn't nearly as smooth as it could have been. Secondly, the objectives for obtaining pagies are often more tedious than fun. Running through a series of rings before time expires is repetitively used and feels a bit generic. The snow world has an objective where players must find and return hats to five different snowmen. The snowplow form used in parts of this objective controls poorly and finding them all becomes more bothersome than fun. Finally, the system for projectile power-ups is a step back from the game's predecessors. In the BK and BT, eggs could be collected as ammunition and players could use them at any time. In Yooka-Laylee, consuming a projectile power-up results in a timer beginning and it can only be used for a set amount of time before expiring. Eating an elemental berry and rushing to the area of its intended use before time expires is not especially fun. While Yooka-Laylee successfully captures the look and sounds of a Banjo-Kazooie title, it only succeeds on a superficial level. The actual gameplay and level design are a pale imitation of the game's inspirational material. If you long to once again experience the fun and silliness of Banjo-Kazooie, I would recommend simply playing Banjo-Kazooie.
Since the game comes with the community patch already included, a lot of the nasty bugs have been worked out. The game offers a sizeable land to expore, plenty of skills to learn and some interesting quests (starting a rebellion and killing off the orc opressors of a city, for example). Where it becomes annoying is its level up system. To increase your character's skills (as well as HP and MP), you have to pay gold in addition to the learning points you've earned. Early in the game, it can become painful to have to decide between that new armor or increasing your skills. The game can also be quite difficult before your character becomes well developed. Despite the previously mentioned issues, the game is a rich and rewarding experience overall. If you're an RPG fan and looking for a lesser-known gem, give this a shot.
The game leaves Earthworm Jim's roots and tries (unsuccessfully) to mimick 3D platformers such as Mario 64 and Banjo Kazooie. The game-play stinks, the humor of the earlier games is gone and every single boss fight consists of surfing on a pig and collecting marbles. Avoid this piece of garbage!
The game has clunky controls, a severe lack of music and the worst combat system I've ever seen in a game.
