Recently, I got the chance to spend a few hours with Yooka Laylee. It’s safe to say that within a short period of time, I had become a child again; more so than what I already am. I sat for over 90 minutes playing Yooka Laylee all while laughing at some of the silliness in the game and the occasional, somewhat adult undertones within the dialogue.
Early in the game you are introduced to the 2 main antagonists of the game; Dr Quack and Capital B. Dr Quack is but the head of a duck floating in a jar similar to that of celebrities from Futurama; and Capital B is the love child of Felonious Gru from Despicable Me and Penguin from the DC Universe. Dr Quack is the underappreciated sidekick of Capital B, who is a business driven millionaire who answers to no one; except for a board of shady, faceless directors whose instructions sound similar to that of the adults from Charlie Brown.
You initially make your way into Hivory Towers with the assistance of an acquaintance known as Trowzer…who is a snake…so he is Trowzer snake (earliest adult joke). He is a businessman that can be found in all of the worlds who you learn new abilities from by exchanging quills; one of the many collectables within the game. Once in the hub, you use a certain number of Pagies to open up Grand Tomes which act as teleportation devices to venture to different worlds. Within the demo, we explored Tribalstack Tropics and Glitterglaze Glacier.
Characters met in the demo consist of:
Completing tasks for your friends provides you with Pagies; essential for unlocking new worlds. One of the cool mechanics within the game is the expansion of each world. There are only 5 worlds in total in this game’s universe which seems small but each world can be expanded upon once. This allows for new areas of the map to be unlocked through the use of Pagies.
You transverse incredibly beautiful and individual worlds, using an array of specialized moves to explore the land, completing objectives and searching for the huge amount of hidden collectables. The game is a modernization and reimagining of the classic Banjo Kazooie game with many common and distinctive elements. Enough that you catch yourself reminiscing of the time spent playing as the old-gen duo but continuing to be fascinated by the progression and development of this new team. This game aims to be a bridge between the diversity that is the game’s potential fan base. It provides an opportunity for older generation gamers to walk down memory lane with the game’s development party consisting of members from Rare; the original developers of Banjo Kazooie. It is also a unique genre of game that acts as the perfect starting point to entice a new, younger generation of gamers. Despite what the game aims to be, it is a genuinely fun game that I absolutely loved playing and I wish there were more games out there like this.
Yooka Laylee will release on April 11th for PS4, Xbox One and PC. A Nintendo Switch release will come later down the track.