We join Yooka and Laylee on an adventure to find missing pages from a magic book and defeat the bad guy!
Thanks to Xbox for the code!
Yooka-Laylee is a return in style to the 64-bit platform games of old, made by ex-rare staff that have made some of the classics such as Donkey Kong Country and such. First impressions were that it seemed to be a re-skin of Banjo Kazooie, but Yooka Laylee is a whole lot more than that. Yooka-Laylee is actually a spiritual successor to the Banjo Kazooie Series
The Plot Involves two characters, Yooka who is a chameleon and Laylee, a bat, who have to collect 150 Paiges (pages) from a missing magic book that will unlock secrets enabling the heroic duo to stop the evil Capital B from absorbing all of the world's literature and converting it into profit.
Along with collectible paiges there are also Quills to collect, which are normally found out in the open, and are used to unlock new abilities and also unlock new fun arcade games that can be played in up to four player local co-op. Paiges are used to morph a world increasing its size and unlocking more to do within that world. E.g. extra challenges. You start in the standard Hub world and you can visit any of the other 5 worlds in any order.
The Level design of the actual worlds is great with both the large levels and the interesting ability to morph the levels. Each world is inhabited by an eclectic cast of humorous supporting character and gives the worlds a distinctive feel with a fantastic soundtrack that is just the icing on the cake of nostalgia.
Yooka and Laylee both have their own abilities that are upgraded as you progress through the game and purchase them. One of my favourites was Yookas ability to take the properties of an item that you lick, E.g. If you lick Honey you become sticky allowing you to stick to walls and get to previously inaccessible areas, Whilst Laylee's sonar shows invisible objects, both of these abilities showcase the brilliant puzzle design that is within the game.
The only things that let down the experience for me was the fourth wall comments made by the main characters, which grated after a while, and the game had serious camera issues which were mainly noticeable when you unlocked the flying ability, coupled with the large turning circle, it made flying a chore and occasionally the camera became stuck on objects. Perhaps the developers should have looked at the old style camera system and implemented an improved version.
All in all Yooka-Laylee is held back from the much coveted must byy award due to some silly little issues that could easily have been fixed. It's a worthy addition to the platforming genre and goes to show that the genre itself isn't dead it just needs a revisit occasionally with improved technology.