Yooka-Replaylee makes Playtonic’s platformer better than ever
When it first released way back in 2017, we had mixed feelings about Yooka-Laylee. Coming from Playtonic Games and touted as the spiritual successor to the massively popular Banjo-Kazooie series, it’s a colourful platformer that apes classics from the genre while also working hard to create a legacy all of its own. I’m not sure it quite managed it: eight years later, it’s hardly regarded as a classic. But with the upcoming launch of Yooka-Replaylee, a “remixed and remastered” version of the original, maybe all that will change.
Let’s be honest: I’ve played a lot of games and slept a lot in the eight years since Yooka-Laylee first released. I can’t remember the intricate details of the game, but briefly going back to the original, it instantly struck me how annoying the camera can be. That was one of our complaints in our original review. Playing through a short demo of Yookya-Replaylee, that same feeling was nowhere to be seen: the camera has been fully reworked, making exploring the game’s world easier and more joyful than ever.
It also looks fantastic. This is a game that’s always been colourful and mesmerising, but with an overhaul to the art and animation, it looks more beautiful than ever. Yooka-Replaylee might just be the prettiest 3D platforming game to date.
A graphical overhaul is far from the only thing that this remaster brings to the table, though. It also promises “new and improved challenges”. Existing challenges have been changed, and plenty of new challenges have been added in. Again, we’d complained about these in our original review, calling them (rather harshly) “simply awful”. The demo isn’t quite long enough to make much of a judgment on how much better they are, but I’m optimistic that Playtonic is true to its word.
Honestly, though, it’s not necessarily the improvements that are going to make Yooka-Replaylee worthwhile. A better camera, along with other tweaks, simply make it easier to enjoy the game that’s always been there. This is a colourful, entertaining platformer filled with cheeky British humour (where else will you find a talking snake called Trowzer?) and it deserves to be loved and played. The demo might have been short, but it’s left me very excited to play more — more than I ever was eight years ago — and this time around, Yooka-Replaylee might just be the modern 3D platformer we all deserve.
Yooka-Replaylee is coming to PC and consoles later this year. You can try the demo for yourself on Steam.
