Yooka-Laylee

fun to play with ur kids

Starts off slow and beautiful but soon becomes terribly frustrating. Lots of puzzles needing future moves, but no hints as for what is needed. Poor camera interferes with tricky platforming moves plus overly repetitive enemies. Humor is not as good as in Banjo-Tooie. Worlds are not interconnected and have tricky navigation. Arcade games are for the hard-core only. Only get this if on sale and you are an excellent platformer.

A far from perfect 3D-platformer that I think gets a lot of hate. For a crowdfunded game, I think this one does a lot well, but it's also held back by its resources. The levels and puzzles are fun, the characters are quirky, and there are some funny moments (one in particular centered around an old asteroid looking thing). But the combat is lackluster (all you do is spin, I never found a need to ground pound and I also didn't think to "stun" until more than halfway through the game), and the levels also seemed held back from what could have been.

After I beat the game, I saw the gameplay trailer for the remake "Re-Playlee" and it looks like it's going to solve my criticism, not all, but at least some of it. In the end, the biggest detractor for this game is that it's held back too much. I hope the remake will revive this to get more 3D-platform-centric games in the series.

super game goty

This is a fun spiritual successor to Banjo Kazooie would highly recommend if you like platforming games with a bunch a collectibles

It's not bad. Honestly!

I will say this: especially pre-world expansion, worlds can feel aimless due to how Quills are placed, not unlike Banjo-Tooie - which does make world traversal a bit awkward at times. I also think roughly half of the worlds can be a bit on the generic side. But with that said... I still think there's some charm here!
First of all, even fi I'd have preferred having more levels in general, I do like how they handled the concept of world expansion, how they chose to straight up add areas (like the awesome Icymetric Palace) instead of simply made things bigger! Furthermore, a good chunk of those missions make for some fun challenges - and to me, the casino world is an absolute stand out in terms of originality and creativity!
For as much as the game is VERY derivative from Kazooie, I do like how they handled the movesets, the bosses, the Jinjo equivalents, the hubworld and more - again, both in terms of level and visual design!
So yeah, all and all, Yooka-Laylee, even if it's a bit awkward at times due to some janky controls and the above design quirks, is quite fun to play! It looks pretty alright visually and musically, though neither really stood out to me, barring a few standout tracks which were (probably) penned by David Wise.

So... yeah honestly? Yooka-Laylee does have many rough quirks - and understandably doesn't stand out all that much from its Banjo-Kazooie counterparts - to really make it better than either Kazooie or Tooie (when it's not being a sprawling mess). But on its own merits, I found it to still be a charming, occasionally funny, and fun platformer that isn't too strict with its collectables requirements! It's really got too much hate, and it's a shame! Even if I don't think it'll blow anyone away...

Yooka Laylee is meant to be a nostalgic throwback to the Banjo Kazooie/Tooie games since it had some of the original developers. I looked forward to playing this game up until I saw the mixed reviews.

Sadly this game is not optimised for keyboard and mouse. Yes, I did read the 'A Controller is STRONGLY recommended to play this game.' note. Third-person games and platformers can work extremely well on PC if the developer makes it happen.

I didn't play much since I found the layout of the maps confusing and the pace being quite slow. Overall it just wasn't fun to play and the art design just seems off.

I stopped playing this and tried to get back into it but I found it to be very empty and boring.

A nice and fun Banjo Kazooie Successor

I have to admit. Back when this game was announced I was a backer on Kickstarter. I actually never received my copy which turned me off from playing it post release. The game also got bad press and a less than stellar review from both players/reviewers. Being a big fan of Banjo Kazooie and Tooie I avoided the game because i didn't want to feel let down. Since then i've learned to just actually play games and not trust reviews given how people weaponize them now.

I paid 5 bucks for my copy. Only 4 hours in and it's been a blast. It obviously doesn't meet the peak of the originals but It more than scratches my itch for goofy ass animals collecting things. I can't recommend this game more especially if you were a Banjo Kazooie fan

I'll recommend it under the specific condition that you are a collect-a-thon fan. Apparently, I'm not one. I don't seem to vibe with them as much as I enjoy other 3D platformers, and I have no idea until I played this, Jak & Daxter, and Banjo-Kazooie. I had to know what they were all about, and it's just not my thing I guess? Maybe it's a preference of more clear direction for the player rather than giving the player they have freedom in choosing where to go next only for a specific plan to actually be in mind. The levels and the hub world are both made like that. I guess I'm just not into that sorta thing. But if you are, then by all means, show your support... or wait for Replayee...

An amazing game genre brought back life, honestly there has been nothing that felt this much like the most recent Banjo Kazooie (Nuts and Blots) to me, I understand the controversial outlook on BKN&B due to it's very different approach from the great classics. But that doesn't take away from the joy of it's most recent title, I hope in the future the classics will be brought back in their truest form too. But this game is great, and it just has an atmosphere wonder to it, same as Banjo Kazooie had that wonder. I really this game, I wouldn't judge it according to the classics, but in itself it's a masterpeice, or tries to be and does pretty well. I'd reccomend trying it out, don't get any spoilers, but enjoy it. It goes on sale very often so you can try it, if the budget to give it a shot.

I truly wanted to like this game, to see what most people didn't, but this game only exists in two states: boring or annoying. The more I played, the more my good impression of the beginning started to fade as the game persuaded more and more to want to end already. I'm truly glad that the next game was better received and that this one is getting a remake (because it really needs it), but I can't recommend this one.

Super charming and fun. I really enjoyed it. I spent like 3 hours on attempts at beating the last boss, but it's really not that bad, after you get dialed in. Sucks to get all the way to the final phase, and then die though, but that's the retro platformer way. I love that this game does justice to the Collectathon genre, without trying to reinvent it for a "modern" age, or something. More often than not, I want a game that's just gonna do something really well, rather than attempt to shake up why the genre is loved to begin with. I don't always want roguelite elements, or procedural generation, or randomization of what's to be expected. Sometimes I just want a game full of levels to explore, and a solid character to explore them with. That's what this game delivers.

I feel as though too much of this game is a slog. The hub is way to big and if you want (need) to backtrack to get a pagie that was locked behind an ability you didn't get until later in the game, you have to travel for minutes to get to the world. I feel like a lot of the worlds in this game are too big to the point where I am rolling around everywhere just to find something to do. I enjoy platformers and challenges but there are many times in this game where I said out loud "Why do I have to do this, it's not fun". Granted, there are good spots to the game (graphics, quirky writing, design) but I don't think they balance out the mundane gameplay and mechanics. I also hated Dr. Quacks Quiz's, it is not engaging or fulfilling to take a 1:3 guess for a random statistic and I always looked up an answer key; this part was not fun for me any of the times. or This game is worth it on a steep sale, not for more than $10.

THERE'S A SPLATOON REFERENCE PEAK PEAK PEAK PEAK EPEAK EPAKPK EAK PESK PAEK PSEK PEAK PESK PSAEK PEKPEAKPAEKPE KPWP KAE KPEAK PEA KPAE KPEAPK R KPA KPADK PEPF K FJPEJGWEFN IQWJ JIHQQWDJBIJKSMNGJBU HQKLJHDBCJXNL

There's something about this game that feels like old-school design, but… that ever-present emptiness never leaves you. Is it just a design choice, or is it simply boring? I tried finishing this game a long time ago, gave it another shot recently, and got bored again within 20 minutes.

The problem isn’t about challenge—it’s about direction. What do you do next? The objectives feel uninspired. Searching for hats buried in snow, only breakable after obtaining a truck from another part of the level, is tedious. Then, you spend half an hour fulfilling a snowman’s request for a specific hat. Finally, you reach the top of a tower, only to realize you've been there before. Then comes more platforming… just to backtrack again. And again. And again. The game is obsessed with backtracking—often ten times over.

On the bright side, the music is fantastic—especially in the minecart sections. If the game had been just a fun arcade-style minecart racer with these soundtracks, it could have been great!

However, the second-player mode is a complete disappointment. The "bee-team" mechanic is frustrating, adding no real help against enemies or collectibles. You might as well just jump through the game solo.

Final verdict: 3/10 minecarts.

Another game aimed at children with its cutesy style of animation but is really for the ballers and pro players.

While the mechanics aren't actually bad, there are too many of them and sometimes interfere with going about your business. Flight in this game is one of the worst experiences ever as it skews to the side making it difficult to fly and sometimes it also messes with the camera, regardless of what camera setting you have. And if you want to disengage flight, you HAVE TO ground pound.

Kartos is the most obnoxiously annoying character. Is he supposed to sound like the characters from South Park when they were saying that they "Took our jobs"? Also jumping onto a higher set of rails almost never worked and then there is the potential infinity loop track.

Not having a map is just bad design. it didn't need to be detailed but most of the levels are an utter mess that can look samey.

Final Boss fight was a pain and could of been broken in to two parts rather than forcing the player to slog through all of it again when they die in the later sections

The ability to walk underwater was a waste. You get it and then immediately enter a level where most of the water is poison and you cannot swim in it.

The tonic that helps you find stuff should of been literally anything else rather than an annoying cartoon wolf whistle. This isn't Gex or even Bubsy. It's a less sexy version of Banjo Kazooie.

Also the helicopter transformation controls terribly especially when some of the other vehicles actually control decently like the snow plow or pirate ship

this game is disliked because its so similar to banjo kazooie, despite the false hype and fans of smash bros love of the characters from banjo kazooie, everything about it is quite hated, as a result this game is hated.

however I say it is good to play

Fun spiritual sequel to Banjo-Kazooie and other 90's 3D platformers. Follows the same script; traverse the hub world, enter different levels, and find all the collectibles. I thoroughly enjoyed the game, start to finish

Banjo Tooie was my childhood. I absolutely loved that game, and still do to this day. There is just something inherently fun about collecting and unlocking stuff that seems to have translated into my love for metroidvania games today. So back when I head that a spiritual successor was in the works, I was absolutely stoked. Of course I bought it first chance once it came out, played it and... got so frustrated with the game that I stopped playing in world 2.

Now I wanted to give this game a fair chance again, and actually play through it. And not just that, but 100% complete it. And exactly that I did. So now, after having seen everything that the game has to offer, I have to say that I do not like it. Near the end it really hit me, realizing how so many things in the game are just unfinished.

There is too much wrong with this game for me to put into words here, but I will try to give a quick summary.
Now, not everything in this game is bad. There were things in this game I genuinely enjoyed, and a bunch of pagies were actually fun to get. But all that is quickly drowned out by the issues that you do run into. It sadly does not really matter if 90% of a game is great when 10% of it is utterly frustrating.

Here are (most of) my issues:
1. The Camera. My god, the camera. This is definitely the biggest issue. The autocam is... not good, so I quickly switched to manual cam, which is better. Sadly often times your camera is stuck in auto cam anyway, for instance while you are flying. Other times the camera object just clips through a wall or the ground and gets stuck there, giving you a super weird viewing angle. And that happens often. I want to be able to look around as I am exploring, and see more than just the character. The camera is generally too close to the character as well.
2. The controls. The game feels really weird to control. It is genuinely hard to explain it, but a lot of mechanics just feel strange to control, almost like you are on ice or something. Flying especially is weird, where steering left and right just turns your character left and right, instead of making you fly in the direction you are pointing in. Walking is fine but pretty much everything else feels unsatisfying or even frustrating in some way.
3. Now, this is something that I don't even know how to address, but I struggled with knowing where my character was in relation to other things, especially while in the air. The dropshadow seems hard to see a lot of the time, and when you are in the air it is really hard to tell if you are in front of, behind or directly above something. This was not super bad, generally, but a lot of moments of a little bit of frustration still add together quickly.
4. Some pagies are really, really frustrating to get. Such as stuff that is reliant on the game's weird physics, especially while on a strict timer. Some of them just take too long to get, like the race in the last world. The minecart levels are also really frustrating in later worlds, to a point where I just cheated my way through the last one because I wanted to get it over with.
5. Speaking of cheating, the only other time I cheated in the game was during the last boss fight. Now, I would consider myself a pretty calm guy. But... my god, that fight is just plain bad. By which I mean that it is just genuinely terribly designed. Nothing about it is fun. Especially with the issues I mentioned before, where it is hard to tell where you are in relation to other things + the terrible camera. I also had wished to see a fight that would cleverly use the mechanics that you already ran into during the game in a satisfying way, where you'd have to use a bunch of them in different ways to deal with the boss. That would have been super satisfying. But instead it's just a couple of phases of mostly the same stuff, where it is also strangely unclear what you even have to do. They also, for some reason, decided to make that bossfight WAY, WAY harder than the entire rest of the game.
6. The game does not respect your time. There are no warp points or anything. So if you want to go anywhere in the game, you have to walk. No teleport to certain worlds, and no teleport to certain areas within worlds. There are also certain points where dying means you have to start from the very beginning again. Having additional respawn points would be very nice (which is an issue I had with Banjo Tooie as well). Some collectibles are also absurdly hard to find. Like, really, hiding a couple of quills right at the entrance of the world, which you have to break free with the transformation, which you can access at the other side of the world? It is just a waste of time and does not feel satisfying. Overall the game should have made sure there were less moments that felt like "Ugh, finally I found it, jesus christ" and more like "Hey, there it is! Nice!". It is also beyond me why the progress in worlds is not saved with a lot of things. If you collect a pagie, that is saved of course. But if you, for instance, collect a pagie piece, that is not saved. Collecting a ghost writer is saved, but then doing part of a bigger task, like giving one of five snowman their hat, is not saved.
7. This is a bit of a strange issue, but the worlds feel... too big? I'd rather have smaller worlds that are interesting and easy to traverse than a huge world where I spend a full hour circling around trying to find that last quill that someone decided to hide somewhere in a hidden nook around the edge of the map. May be a bit nitpicky though

I have seen they are working on a remake of this, and that did look somewhat promising so far. At least they are adding warp points, and it sounds like they did make some good changes in regards to causing less frustration and wasting the player's time less. So... if you were thinking about getting this game right here... maybe wait for the remake?

If all you want to do is casually stroll through the worlds, get what you want and not worry about everything else, and never ever fight the final boss, then this game is pretty decent and I am sure you will have fun with it. If you want to do anything else, maybe keep your hands off of this one, and see if the remake is any better.

I'm in Moodymaze Marsh and losing the will to play.
Brimming with the charm of classic Rare, but not so much when it comes to gameplay.

Listen, I love Banjo-Tooie. So when I say the levels in Yooka-Laylee are too big (before you expand them), it's serious business. This game peaks at world 1. Places are so big that you can easily pass by NPCs.

Many challenges can be sequence broken (maybe?) too easily,
The last ball/seed puzzle in Moodymaze Marsh is ridiculous. Pushing the ball through the windy maze is bad. Very bad.
Streamlining learning new moves with Trowzer is nice....when you can find him.
The enemies are recycled through the whole game, and aren't satisfying to attack.

I appreciate the effort that went into this, but the results are all over the place. There is a lot of fun to be had, but also a lot of frustration and confusion.

I think the game is definitely worth considering in its own right 80% is about right on score, but enjoyment is definitely higher. It captures some of the magic from Banjo Kazooie: music, character designs, jokes, puzzles, maneuvers, etc....as the original developers of that game worked on this game too. If you enjoyed that series you will probably enjoy this series. I'm really glad they brought this to PC, instead of heading over to the console only route. Game runs well and looks good overall. The 'Cashino' is hands down the best book world in the game!

The remake is coming in the near future and based on all the Dev commentary it is shaping up to be a pretty good expanded and revised game. I appreciated their candor and responsibility when talking about some of the issues this game has...so I was kind of aware of some of that before buying.

Cons: camera angles/lack of control, lack of custom keybindings, swimming and flying mechanics are bad, not having skills will block game progression quite a bit as a limited number of worlds total does not give player anywhere else to go to try their luck if they end up stuck on a challenge. Not enough environmental variety (these are still very large worlds to their credit...but if you don't like swamps you might have to deal with it for a bit lol. Quizzes block game progression (no quiz = no access to the next world), quills lose their purpose once you have all skills (with a small quota exception at the end), Scale of game is sizable but is not fully filled with challenges, collectibles, etc. sometimes you really feel like the devs wanted to put something at a location but decided not to...perhaps in favor of time or focus elsewhere...example: there is an entire water area that you will move through in the ice book world that has next to nothing going on save for some alien jelly fish and a few access points to special areas...exploration feels a bit fruitless in those situations...but you know I still feel like doing it anyway lol.

Altogether I understand why the Developers want a second crack at the game, and I wanted to support that development. I am confident they will have an excellent remake this time around. Mind you, I still enjoyed the game for what it was, cheers! Whether you wait for the remake or not is up to you.

banjo-kazooie but better

I'm reviewing this before Yooka-Replaylee comes out and the wave of (justified) angry fans make my opinion be marked as bomb review.

The devs did a very poor job on this game. I had to use a game save file just to skip the intro because it crashed the game every time I tried to play. The graphics are generic at best, the puzzles kinda boring but the main issue is the lack of enemies. Most of the maps feel like a barren wasteland and 90% of the enemies are the same with different skin. Even the first levels on BK had more diverse enemies. How about enemies that:

-throw projectiles
-fly
-come from the grownd
-charge at you at full speed from far away
-use elemental attacks to hit you

See? Is no that hard to think some variety.

I bought this game pre-release, and even bought the sountrack expecting to hear that blessful tune calle jungle challenge from David Wise, but they didn't bother to include it.

I put my hopes an dreams on this company back in the day and I got nothing but dissapointment. Now the devs are going to re-launch the game with some improvements and charge full price for it. They say the original owners will get a dicount but what's the point? Graphical improvements, better animation and more puzzles won't make the maps feel less sterile.

I own many games on steam which had some relaunches and remastered versions over time including small indie devs that trully care for their playerbase and put said re-releases for free to all their game owners. And then you have playtonic, expecting you to pay for the same boring game once again.

If you really want a true platform experience check a hat in time, frog gun, or even some small but fun N64 like platforms that are avalibe, because the Rare we all loved died long time ago. It's spirit isn't at the current Rare or at Playtonic...

its better with a controller or just playing on an xbox fyi
pc is good too

i love chameleons and bats

yay

Bought for coop. Found out coop means the second player can basically spectate as a bumble bee

If you can manage endless puns, then this game is your retreat from "Spyro". It's a level-adventure game where you collect items, fight monsters, unlock abilities and find things within stages. Some of the jokes are a little bit adult humor, however game overall is pretty kid friendly. This game came out years ago, I actually played it for awhile on the switch. It does have co-op multiplayer.

"HEY MA! THEY ACTUALLY MADE BANJO-THREEIE BUT ITS MEDIOCRE AND THEY REPLACED THE BEAR AND THE BIRD WITH A FREAKIN' BAT AND LIZARD THING!"

If you like Spyro The Dragon, then you will like this game

I'm not sure what the top positive review for this is on about but I can guarantee you that this game DOES NOT have the same magic as Banjo-Kazooie, the characters are NOT funny at all, they are actually extremely annoying and I have no idea how this is the same composer because the music is mediocre and not memorable at all.
But most important of all, this game is BORING. There are few games that I have regretted not being able to refund and this is one of them, I really wish I had played less than 2 hours to be able to get my money back. And I got it on sale.

While the visual charm of the Banjo Kazooie games is there the gameplay is lackluster

Besides the god awful camera in this game, Yooka-Laylee is a really solid and underrated 3D platformer! I highly recommend it if you’re into that genre.

Plus, it makes me wanna try out Banjo-Kazooie!

A decent game, fun but annoying too. looking forward to remake.

Not entirely playable. Controls are mostly fine however when speaking to NPC's both selecting "Yes" and "No" act as "No", so I cannot buy anything or start any challenges.

i actually already have this game on switch but it's controls feel a little messy and thought i'd come over to pc before Replaylee comes out here and the switch succesor whatever it ends up being named to see if i can see how good ~~(or bad depending on perspective but i digress)~~ the controls are here which switch controls seem a little better compared to pc but maybe it's just me not being used to mouse and keyboard funnily enough i actually was working on my own BK/YL characters around when Replaylee was announced though more of an origin story then an actual game but i'd love to try and make their own game but that's future me's thing

ugly ass graphics

This game is pretty good, the only gripe I had were the Dr Quack quizzes which were quite annoying so I had to look up a guide for them.

I only got an hour in before i lost interest. Would i bail on Banjo as well if i were to try to play those games again? I don't know, but this just did not hook me. It felt like caricature - all the same general pieces as Banjo, but just not that fun for some reason.

Fun game. I beat it. Too short.

Missing just a little bit more of everything. More worlds. More character dialogue. Needs a little bit better map design. A little bit more and it could capture all of the Banjo Kazooie magic. If Banjo Kazooie was 10/10, this is 7.5/10.

Just fun! Excellent homenage to N64's Banjo!

Yes

Everything is annoying

not good

Mediocre at best

Wtf is with the hate against this game? From actual Banjo-Kazooie fans too, yikes. Game is great! Has the same feel and magic as the original Banjo games, not as many worlds but you can EXPAND each of the worlds, so they became like as big as 2 worlds back in the old games. So it cancels that issue out lol. Characters are funny, graphics are actually pretty nice, and music is from the same composer. Honestly, what's not to love? Game doesn't have THAT bad reviews, but it deserves even more positive ones, so here's mine.

good

I find it tedious and chaotic trying to figure out where and what i’m supposed to be doing next.
Difficulty is definitely higher than I expected.
If you have kids that get frustrated easily by games, I definitely do not recommend this game.
For what I played, it’s well optimized and looks very beautiful.