Not sure if Impossible Lair is "possible" but this is a fun side-scroller none the less.

User Rating: 7 | Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair PS4

The first Yooka-Laylee was a throwback to 3D platformers but the Impossible Lair pays tribute to an even older genre. This second title in the Yooka-Laylee series instead turns out to be a side-scrolling platformer. Sprinkle in a bit of top-down adventure between stages and you're in for a good mix or variety. As a hardcore fan or side-scrollers its easy for me to say I enjoyed this title even more than the last one. Its a surprisingly long and mostly enjoyable experience yet thats not to say it is without flaws. The game's story revolves around lair referred to in title, an incredible challenge that only the most persistent will see all the way through to the end.

Capital B is causing trouble again and its up to you to stop him. He has created the impossible lair, an incredibly challenging stage with a series of different evolving challenges. You'll need to help rescue bee warriors for the Queen B in order to restore the Beettalion. Every soldier you rescue means one more hit you can take while attempting the lair. You will find a bee at end of all each stage. There are twenty chapters and each has a altered version which can be unlocked. A couple more bees can be found in the over world along with various tonics. Although the tonics are great for normal stages they can't be used in this final stage. You can attempt the impossible lair at any time but to really develop the necessary skills you'll need to play through the whole game.

Tonics are abilities you can equip going into a stage that apply various effects. Some of the effects are just cosmetic such as changing the characters' appearance or they apply various color themes and filters. Others will actually change the gameplay; a few examples are slow motion, increased movement speed, and no checkpoints. The tonics that affect gameplay have an effect on the amount of quills you'll receive at the end of the stage. So tonics that make things easier will have and negative effect while a couple of challenging tonics do the opposite. Quills can be collected all throughout each stage and can be used to purchase the tonics you find in the over world. Their are multiple little ghost quills challenges in each stage offering handsome quill bonuses.

The over world plays like a top-down adventure game where as the stages themselves are side-scrollers. Exploration is a key element throughout this title and you'll need to thoroughly explore every level to find all five T.W.I.T. coins each stage has to offer. These coins are necessary to open up more regions in the over world and therefore more chapters. You can find tonics that will make the coins easier to find but you're own your own when exploring the over world. Where the stages offer a challenge in platforming and combat the over world plays out more like a series of puzzles. You'll need to solve these little puzzles to unlock many of the alternative stages and more valuable tonics. Thankfully there are a series of signs in the over world that will at least give you hints for most of these tonics.

Turns out Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair lives up to its name. I enjoyed the 15 hours I spent practically obtaining a 100% play-through and yet I could not beat the final stage. The Impossible Lair was such a difficulty spike from the rest of the experience that it requires a whole 'nother level of patience; a level these days I most definitely do not have. Yet I mostly walk away from this title pleased because it was both a very good length and properly challenging up till the Impossible Lair. If you grew up with side-scrolling platformers like Mario and Donkey Kong I'm sure you'll enjoy this fine game.