By this point, we all know the somewhat bothersome fate of Nintendo’s former partners in crime, Rareware. Everyone was gathered around, wondering what crazy concoctions the two would cook up together going into the GameCube era, and then Microsoft came along. Now, I could sit here all day talking about the pros and cons of this deal, and the successes and failures that Rare has seen under their new leadership, but that’s for another time. Today, I’m interested in Playtonic, and their first ever project, Yooka-Laylee.
As early as 2012, the rumblings of big changes at Rare were beginning to be heard. Over the next year or so, we would learn that several high profile Rare employees, (names such as Grant Kirkhope, Chris Sutherland, Steve Mayles, Gavin Price, David Wise, and many, many more), who had all left the company, were beginning to work on their own game, completely separate from their parent company. Rumors as to what exactly this new project was began to crop up almost immediately, and eventually the name “Project Ukulele” was circulating wildly after an official tease was released over Twitter by this savvy group. Fast forward several more years to 2015, and gamers the world over were finally treated to a proper reveal. The group of former Rare fellows had now started their own development company, Playtonic Games, and were ready to unveil their first proper project under their new banner; a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie known as Yooka-Laylee. What resulted was a smashingly successful kickstarter campaign, a rather lengthy (yet consistently updated to the public) development cycle, and a lot of waiting from fans who were eager for the return of the team that they knew and loved.
Yooka Laylee made it to PC, PS4, and Xbox One in May 2017, and Nintendo Switch a bit later in December. It’s been a while now since the game’s initial launch, the hype has settled down, and the internet has had plenty of time to react to the release. So, I thought that now would be the perfect time to throw my hat in the ring and give my thoughts on this self proclaimed “Retro Rare-vival”. Anyone who knows me (or perhaps has read some of my other reviews) knows that, despite not actually being the biggest fan of Banjo-Kazooie, I am a massive fan of Rare as a whole. So, did this game address some of the issues I had with Banjo while emulating that classic Rare charm we all know and love? Let’s grab our N64 contro- I mean, Joycons, and find out.
Right off the bat, it becomes abundantly clear that Yooka-Laylee does a wonderful job of building its world for the player. Much like its predecessor, the game presents players with a cast of colorful characters and an uncomplicated premise that simply gives players a reason to dive into the proper gameplay. The evil Capital B has begun snatching up all of the books from the valley where Yooka the Chameleon and Laylee the Bat reside. His goal is to create a monopoly where he has sole ownership of these books, and can charge a very pretty penny to anyone who wants to get them back. In the process, Capital B scatters the pages of the One Book, a magical tome which holds together the very balance of this bright and colorful world. Seeing the chaos caused by Capital B’s greedy antics, Yooka and Laylee decide to venture into his fat-cat base of operations, Hivory Towers, recover the pages of the One Book, and put a stop to the old meiser’s plot. This plot may seem overly simple at first, but if you think this is the only world-building the game has to offer, then you are sorely mistaken. The characters in this game are all reminiscent of characters that would have been in one of Rare’s older projects, and the dialogue between these NPCs and our heroes injects much needed life and humor into this game. From a sleazy snake salesman, to a low-poly dinosaur named Retro Sixty-Fourus, to a cameo from a certain other indie sensation, seeing which characters will be there to greet the dynamic duo in each world is a delight. Additionally, the humor is actually, dare I say, even sharper than Banjo, ranging from jabs at modern game conventions like DLC and loot boxes to fourth wall breaks and even Kazooie-style insults from Laylee. Fans of O.G. Rare will undoubtedly find a lot to love here, as Yooka-Laylee carries the same spirit and charm that the greats of yesteryear wore so proudly.
But the question remains, does the gameplay hold up well enough to support the charming characters? The game is a collect-a-thon platformer, opting not to stray very far from the series that inspired it. However, there have been some actions taken to merge the arguably aging mechanics of a game like Banjo-Kazooie with some of the modern conveniences that today’s market has given us. For example, the game implements a quick, unobtrusive, and convenient auto-save system. Finally, players don’t have to worry about doing one solid, unbroken run of a level in order to get a high collectable count for that area. In Yooka-Laylee, you pick something up, it’s yours. Period. This function is a godsend, as the levels are also much larger in scale then in Banjo. Here’s the thing though, my biggest worry with this game before I played it was that the levels looked so big, too big as a matter of fact. Big levels without direction can quickly turn from fun playgrounds to frustrating, aimless nightmares. I am happy to report, then, that Yooka-Laylee does a great job of guiding players throughout its massive, openly-explorable levels while, at the same time, managing to not feel linear. First of all, while the maps themselves may be huge, they are filled with easily recognizable landmarks that help players quickly identify points of interest and paths that may hold a collectable at the end. As mentioned before, Pagies, (yes that’s what they’re called), are the main collectable, needed to open gateways to new levels through the Grand Tomes hidden about the hub world of Hivory Towers. In addition to these are quills, (which allow players to purchase new moves), health upgrades, stamina upgrades, and several other items. Taking into account that there are 25 pagies and 200 quills in each level, the maps need to be big in order to even have space to hide all those objectives, and this is where the design itself comes in.
Take the first map, Tribalstack Tropics, for example. Sure, it’s a massive level, maybe a little overwhelming to be the first area, but the design of the level does a perfect job of guiding the player using nothing other than the environment around them. Players enter the level on a small offshoot island. Follow a short, linear path, and you come to a clearing from which you can see a temple, a massive stone tower, a path up to some ruins, and a village. These places of interest give a sort of reference point that the player can make mental notes of, allowing the levels to be broken down into sets of several key areas, and essentially granting players the ability to make their own checklists of where they have and haven’t been. This is the kind of well-structured level design that permeates most of this game. I say “most” because, unfortunately, World 4 is not built this in this way at all, (ditching this landmark-based design for a large, open square that is as confusing to navigate as it is boring), and it becomes the low-point of the game as a result.
Luckily, the gameplay itself is, (for the most part), strong enough to support the level designs. Control is generally precise and responsive. Yooka has a tight turning circle and stops nearly on a dime if players let go of the analogue stick, and Laylee’s glide makes landing precision jumps a snap. Where the controls do show some signs of faltering, however, is with some of the duo abilities and, more egregiously, the mini-games. You see, each level contains two types of mini-games, a minecart track where players must collect a certain number of gems while riding in Kartos, the God of Ore (I still can’t get over that), and an arcade game courtesy of everyone’s favorite low-poly dinosaur that varies from level to level. But here’s the thing, with just a couple of exceptions, the controls for these mini-games all feel completely nonresponsive and broken in comparison to the main game’s tight input. Tribalstack Tropics’ kart racing game and Capital Cashino’s hurdle jumping game stand out as two prime examples, as both of their controls seem jittery and unreliable, especially compared to the main platforming controls. Additionally, as I mentioned before, a few of the duo abilities, (like the flying ability and the reptile roll) feel a little bit too slippy and fiddly to be totally reliable during use. These issues can cause frustration when they show up, but on the whole, I think they’re minor enough to be largely ignored, especially considering how solid most of the game still is. The act of simply exploring the levels in an effort to find the goodies hidden within them is still a satisfying and rewarding gameplay loop. Add to this the unique mechanic of expanding a level from the hub world after gathering a certain number of Pagies, (opening up new areas and allowing more objectives to be completed), and the game really does strike a winning formula with its gameplay style.
On another note, the game is technically, at least on Nintendo Switch, fairly sound. At the game’s initial launch on PC and other consoles, many players had reported major technical problems, including occurrences such as the game’s physics engine malfunctioning, massive framerate drops, and other glitches. Now, bearing in mind that the Nintendo Switch version had few more months in development, (reportedly to work on optimizing and porting the game after the cancellation of the planned Wii U version), I have to say that I didn’t encounter any of these problems in my 15+ hours with the game. There were some minor framerate stutters here and there, but never enough to really take away from the experience. As far as the other technical aspects go, everything seemed as it should be. The physics never did anything other than what I expected them to, and I never came across any major glitches, clipping through geometry, or anything of that nature. While the graphics themselves aren’t the most impressive on the Switch, and targeting 60fps would’ve been preferable to the 30fps lock we ended up getting, the visuals remain suitably engaging throughout the experience. True, some animations seem a little stinted, and there are minor quirks in systems such as lighting and particle effects, but as a whole the game offers up a fairly solid visual presentation with some truly stand-out set pieces.
Music on the other hand, is a bit more of a mixed bag, in my opinion anyway. Grant Kirkhope, David Wise, and Steve Burke all worked on the soundtrack, and none of the tracks are badly done or annoying. However, some of the tracks aren’t very memorable and seem like nothing more than background music. There are some tracks that are incredibly catchy and will almost undoubtedly get stuck in players’ heads, but when you’re talking about of some the most well respected composers in the gaming industry, the music here simply doesn’t live up to the legacy.
Despite the problems that I have mentioned, I did genuinely enjoy my time with Yooka-Laylee. Some of my favorite figures in the industry were on the team for this game, and it was wonderful to see these minds be able to return to doing their own projects. Yooka-Laylee is flawed, yes, but there are lots of great moments packed within this loving tribute to the kinds of games that Rare used to make during their golden years. Several small technical blemishes and one less than extraordinary level aren’t enough to sour what is a fantastic product of a group of truly passionate people doing what they love most. Yooka-Laylee has, at least in this writer’s opinion, started Playtonic off on the right track, and here’s to seeing what they can do next.