Yooka-Laylee

Released on April 11, 2017 for the Nintendo Switch, Yooka-Laylee features 3D platforming in a throwback to the Nintendo 64 classics of the late 90's.

This is less of a review than me figuring things out.
There was a time in 2015 where it seemed like everything old would be made new again. Star Wars, after six years of dreadful prequels, and a decade of silence, finally made a worthy comeback. Perhaps even more surprisingly, ex-Rareware employees announced they had formed a new company, and would be making a spiritual successor to 1998's Nintendo 64 3D platforming classic, Banjo-Kazooie.

Look, Laylee, JJ Abrams is remaking the 80's. Yes, the entire decade!

Banjo-Kazooie means more to me than most games. It came as an island refuge for me during a strange time of late high school isolation. I've got a soft spot for its direct sequel, Banjo-Tooie, as well. They're such comforting games, with their wacky storybook cartoon world, dual protagonists, slightly deranged sense of humor, catchy music, memorable non-player characters, puzzles, jumping and flying challenges, and mini-games populating each of the 3D platformer classic's worlds.
Now, Banjo-Kazooie would be reborn as Yooka-Laylee, trading out the still Microsoft-owned bird and bear for a lizard and bat. The only catch was, this new company of ex-Rare employees, Playtonic, needed to crowdfund the game.
No problem. Banjo-Kazooie means a lot to many, not just me. Yooka-Laylee met its goals nearly instantly, and then far surpassed them. I helped, and signed up for a Wii U version. Playtonic got to work. In the meantime, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. Yes, those Cubs! Anything was possible! When the Nintendo Switch hit stores, though, the Wii U version was cancelled in lieu of a version for the former.

Just gonna fly on over to the Switch here.

No matter--I early adopted the Switch. However, Yooka-Laylee for Switch was given a release date far later than it's PS4 and XBox One brethren.
No matter. I'm a patient guy. Then, reviews come in for the PS4 and XBox One versions. They are underwhelming.
Not a problem. I mostly ignore them, and hear that Playtonic is going to be optimizing the game for the Switch. The reviews start coming out for Switch version. They're a little more positive than the ones for the other consoles. If I can only pull myself away from Zelda for five minutes, I'll download my copy of Yooka-Laylee and give it a go.
I do. I start playing it. Everything old can be new again. The game starts off with just the sort of goofy British humor I've been missing. The main characters' designs are perfect. The first world, based on ancient Central America, is expansive, fun to explore, and populated by a bunch of weirdos. Just like the old games, you can reach an incredibly high point, and look down at everything far below, as the music fades away. I love it. How is this happening? How is everything old new again?

Hey, Yooka, I hear after he remakes the 80's, JJ Abrams is gonna get with your mom, and remake you.

I make it to the second world. Huh. I really want to play Zelda. I know I still need to fight a few more of those Lynels. I play Zelda. Man, Breath of the Wild is good. Like, I think I might like it just as much as Chrono Trigger. This is unprecedented. I never thought I would like a game as much as I like Chrono Trigger.
Okay, I really need to get back to Yooka-Laylee. I've already written a review for Breath of the Wild. Continuing to play it is not artistically beneficial. I need to get back to world two of Yooka-Laylee.
I finally do. It is okay. In Banjo, when you get to magically transform into another creature...or object, it's fun...it feels perfunctory here.World three is pretty good. Someting feels missing, though. Before I know it, here is world four. I hate world four. A bunch of emptiness and wasted space, lousy level design, and a sudden change in the gameplay mechanic that makes Yooka-Laylee less fun. I've picked up enough items in the previous worlds that I can just skip the rest of the fourth world, even though I haven't collected half of its items. People used to call these types of games "collectathons," because progressing through involves collecting a bunch of otherwise pointless items...however, if collecting the items is actually fun to do, then they aren't pointless.

Who doesn't enjoy using a lizard as a treadmill to roll around collecting feathers?

Right before I enter the fifth world, I learn how to fly. This new mechanic opens the game up a bit, and the fifth world, a strange amalgamation of 50's sci-fi and the ocean, is a blast, enormous, creative, and jam-packed with fun stuff to do. I am really digging Yooka-Laylee again...I'm not even thinking of switching back to Breath of the Wild (Breath of the Wild, don't worry, I love you so much, and I will never let you go).

It's so dense, every single image has so many things going on.

But wait...this is it. This is the last world?
The final boss fight is unsatisfying. You basically have to get hit in order to hit him. I finally, after begrudging trying again, and again, beat him.
The game is over.
What just happened?
Is it Nostalgia's fault? Do the Banjo games actually suck?
I re-played through both Banjo games recently, and I can confirm that they indeed do not. Kazooie's camera is a little wonky sometimes, but that is essentially the only strike against either of them.
What's the deal than? Either the Playtonic team ran out of time, ran out of gas, or ran out of resources. The first and fifth levels prove that they've still got the magic. Those two worlds are sublime, and I'll put them over even a decent chunk of the worlds in Super Mario Odyssey. Worlds two and three are fairly fun...but they just don't have that magic spark. The more I think about the second world in Banjo-Kazooie, versus the second world in Yooka Laylee, I see why. The Kazooie level, Treasure Trove Cove, has a lived in, comforting feel that's missing from Laylee. Every world in Banjo Kazooie features several NPC's (characters you interact with but don't control), who feel like they actually exist in the world the player is visiting. The challenges feel organic to the world, like they are a real part of it. Contrast this with the tasks and characters in Laylee's second world, Glitterglaze Glacier, which nearly feel randomly constructed. There's a strange section where you have to repair a hot tub...and it's not convincing that anyone traipsing around the level would actually use it.
Now, I'm not being entirely fair. It's not like Yooka-Laylee doesn't have it's share of memorable characters. The Playtonic team were able to present several, incorporating classic Rare's juvenile, yet charming potty humor into their creation. For instance, the character who teaches the protagonists new moves in each level is a snake...named Trowzer.

"Welcome, me old muckers?" British people are weird. 

The fifth world features a wrathful moon queen, intent on destroying Yooka and Laylee for accidentally incinerating her asteroidal husband. The first world's boss is defeated by bashing in his rotting teeth. The characters are there, but maybe, because the worlds are so large, individual components are less memorable, and when several of those worlds feel a bit empty...
The thing is, I had a lot of fun playing through portions of Yooka-Laylee. The controls don't feel as good as the original rare games, just a little too loose, but they still work. Traveling through and completing the challenges of the first and fifth worlds were a blast, and honestly, half of worlds two and three felt the same. When enough items are connected, worlds can be expanded, and though I'd prefer a higher quantity of tightly constructed worlds to a smaller quantity of sprawling, loose ones, it's excited to go back after expanding each world to see what's new. Composer, Grant Kirkhope, does an admirable job of taking the spirit of the Banjo music he composed twenty years ago, and planting it into a more modern skin. He gets an assist from Donkey Kong Country composer David Wise, who creates some lovely music for several of Laylee's minigames, but even there, there's a quality control issue--Kirkhope's bouncy, more retro sounds clash with Wise's more ambient, calypso-percussion led pieces.
Really, that's what this comes down to. The Banjo games were made by large teams of geniuses at the peak of their powers, from Nintendo's premier big-budget second-party studio, over a vast period of time. Yooka-Laylee was funded into production by fans and made by a skeleton crew of veterans of those original teams, over a short period of time, with middleware (by the way, the game looks great and runs fine on the Switch...). Add to that the nearly insurmountable element of nostalgia, and for Yooka-Laylee, it's just not fair.  Hopefully, this slightly above average 3D platformer is just a prelude to some absolutely incredible things to come from Playtonic.
I guess until then, I'll play Breath of the Wild. Still got a couple Lynels to kill.

SCORE: 7.2/10