Developer: Playtonic Games
Publisher: Playtonic Friends
Platform: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Switch 2
Tested on: PC
Yooka-Replaylee – Review
We’ve been with Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee from the beginning. In fact, we backed the Kickstarter campaign for the original game way back in 2015, hoping to obtain a copy on the ill-fated Wii U. By the time the game debuted in 2017, the console had already been rendered obsolete, but we were able to upgrade our pledge to the then-newly released Switch. Back then, there weren’t a whole lot of games worth playing in the Switch library yet, so we spent plenty of our gaming time in the company of the titular bat-and-chameleon duo. After completing Yooka-Laylee, we moved on to Super Mario Odyssey, and so Yooka and Laylee slowly but surely drifted out of our gaming consciousness. Until now, because our heroes are back: Playtonic has released Yooka-Replaylee, a remastered version of their debut title. Has time treated our old friends well, or are there wrinkles showing beneath Yooka-Laylee’s coat of new paint?
Story
Although the core of Yooka-Replaylee’s story remains largely unchanged, the surrounding framework is new. It’s a particularly clever idea too: Yooka and Laylee are retelling the events of that first game. This approach allows for some creative liberties and slight changes to the story, with the underlying logic being that our chameleon and bat friends aren’t the most reliable narrators. While we’ll leave explaining the finer details of the plot to Yooka and Laylee themselves, the basic idea is that our heroes are on a quest to recover the lost pages (or Pagies) of the One Book. This magical macguffin was stolen by the nefarious Capital B, who plans to use it for evil purposes. Their journey will take our heroes across all five Grand Tomes, each of which houses a world of its own.
Graphics
As with any remaster, visual improvements are the first thing that catches your eye. We booted up our old Switch copy of the original Yooka-Laylee for comparison’s sake, and the difference is night and day. Environments are more colorful, vibrant, and detailed than ever, thanks to the richer lighting and texture work that make the Grand Tomes feel alive. The game’s cast has received a glow-up as well, with the characters coming across as more expressive. In terms of performance, there are some hiccups, with occasional stuttering and frame rate drops, but these aren’t game-breaking in the grand scheme of things. A performance patch or two would be appreciated down the line, but don’t let these minor niggles get in your way of picking up the game.
Sound
We were already fans of Yooka-Laylee’s soundtrack, so we didn’t expect to be blown away this much for the remastered version. The Prague Philharmonic Orchestra completely re-recorded the compositions by Grant Kirkhope, David Wise, and Steve Burk, resulting in a warmer, richer sound that enhances the nostalgic feeling of the game’s different worlds. Elsewhere, environmental ambiance has seen enhancements too, with improved spatial awareness being the standout feature. Hearing things happening around you benefits immersion, especially when you’re wearing headphones. Characters still don’t really voice “act”, instead speaking gibberish, but that was a charming feature of the original that hasn’t lost any of its luster in the new version.
Gameplay
The original Yooka-Laylee was billed as a “3D platformer Rare-vival”, harkening back to the collectathon platformers of yesteryear, particularly those developed by Rare. Being a remaster, Yooka-Replaylee preserves much of that Banjo-Kazooie and Mario 64-inspired gameplay of the original. There has been some streamlining going on to make the overall experience more refined and accessible, however. The result is a game that is much smoother, more accessible, and more refined overall, though not without some trade-offs. Before we get into the nitty and the gritty of these changes, let’s take a step back and quickly recap what Yooka-Replaylee’s gameplay is all about: in this 3D collectathon platformer, you take control of both chameleon Yooka and bat Laylee. You make your way through Hivory Towers, the game’s hub world, as well as the Grand Tomes, five large open levels. Along the way, you collect Pagies, which unlock access to new areas, and ultimately face off against Capital B in a final boss fight. The focus is mostly on exploration and sniffing out hidden collectibles, and less on combat. Yooka-Replaylee covers a lot of the bases of the genre, with simple environmental puzzles, timed challenges, and even the obligatory minecart levels.
For returning players, the biggest change in Yooka-Replaylee is that all of our duo’s abilities are unlocked right from the get-go. In the original game, your moveset had to be gradually unlocked by purchasing moves from Trowzer the snake, but now you can glide, roll, and jump right away, meaning you don’t have to backtrack because you don’t have a move yet. Coupled with a tighter control scheme -both with controller and with mouse and keyboard- and an improved camera, Yooka-Replaylee feels much smoother to play. Navigation has been modernized as well, with fast travel points and ways to keep track of Pagies you’ve collected via checklists and a map system. There are now double as many Pagies to collect, and that’s without even getting into other collectibles like Quills, used to buy upgrades, and Coins, which can be traded for cosmetics or Tonics that modify gameplay difficulty or appearance. Completionists will have a field day trying to 100% the game.
Not all of the changes to Yooka-Replaylee are positive, mind you. The remake removes one of the more unique mechanics from the original. In Yooka-Laylee, you unlock bigger, harder versions of each Grand Tome by spending Pagies, but here the worlds are fully expanded from the start. This ties into Yooka and Laylee’s abilities being immediately available and is a result of the game’s pacing having been tightened. The caveat here is that you aren’t eased into the worlds anymore. Finding your way can be overwhelming and since these worlds weren’t designed for open access in the first place, difficulty spikes can really knock newcomers for a loop. On the other hand, you still only need 120 Pagies to unlock the final boss battle, and with the number of available Pagies being much higher, progression can feel too fast and even anticlimactic. The game can be completed in roughly 15 hours, although sniffing out every secret doubles that. It’s really up to you, the player, to pace yourself and get the most out of what Yooka-Replaylee has to offer. At €29.99, Yooka-Replaylee still offers a very attractive prospect, even if you’ve already completed the original.
Conclusion
As a whole, Yooka-Replaylee is an improvement over the original, and not just because of the audiovisual glow-up the game received. With tighter, more responsive controls, improved navigation, and a whole slew of new Pagies to collect, there is plenty to chew into here, both for newcomers and for returning veterans. The caveat is that the superior pacing of the original game was lost in translation. That’s a sacrifice we’re willing to make given the improvements, and we have no qualms labeling Yooka-Replaylee as the definitive version of a game that was already good eight years ago.
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