A Perfect Stepping Stone
User Rating: 8 | Yooka-Laylee PS4
I received a copy of Yooka-Laylee days ago for my birthday, and it's been a very refreshing change of pace compared to the over saturated First and Third person AAA dump we've been stuck with. My experience was as authentic with the original release as it could be since I didn't install any patches or data to play the game. As strange as it is to see a collect-a-thon platformer in this generation, Yooka-Laylee takes a large portion of my childhood and gives it a brand new feeling combined with a rush of nostalgia. My first impression was that it was a clone of the Banjo-Kazooie titles from the Nintendo 64. This wasn't bad, however, as upon starting the game I felt like I was playing the first BK game for the very first time. Similar in feel, enough was different to make me need to get a handle on the controls and environment. With newly Incorporated physics and a different slew of collectibles and moves, the game added a level of challenge different to that of its spiritual predecessors. The challenge of the title doesn't stand in how many of the items you collect (although that is a part of it). Instead, the challenge mostly spawns from how well you can use every ability you're given. Most pagie challenges involve combining moves from different levels and chaining together new ways to platform and tackle everything that Playtonic throws at you. This brings me to my next point; Yooka-Laylee won't be played the same way twice. Because there's not a lot of restriction on where you can platform, you'll constantly find new ways to complete challenges a lot quicker and a lot easier. With a brand new perspective, the game was harder at the beginning than it was at later points. If this was because the levels simply got easier, this may come across as a bad thing. However, the levels only get easier because the game introduces you to many different ways of using every mechanic at your disposal. Aside from all of the gameplay features, how does the game hold up aesthetically? Not my favorite, but that's OK. Knowing that the game was made in Unity, I knew to expect frame rate issues and graphical errors. These have all since been patched, but without the patch during my play through I had the misfortune of experiencing one or two harder moments. Musically, this game is fantastic. All of the tracks from Grant Kirkhope and the rest of the Playtonic music team are very memorable and classic in their own right. Moody Hollow especially being my personal favorite. Each and every track has a slow moving build up to the really memorable folkish tunes that have the distinct rareware touch that spawned Playtonic in the first place. My only hindering issue with the game is the lack of stages. Most current generation games take anywhere from 15-30 gigabytes of install memory, whereas Yooka-Laylee takes only 4 gigabytes. There's a lot of empty room for a lot more game to be made, despite expanding the levels. This is what sets the game back as great, but just an introduction to a new series and even new generation of gaming. Overall, Yooka-Laylee has me excited for the future of the platformer genre. It serves its purpose as a fantastic revival, and the team behind the game is just as hard working and honest as ever.
