In the 1990’s the 3D platformer was king. With the emergence of 3D technology onto the videogame world, every developer wanted a go at it. This time period brought us the likes of Spyro, Donkey Kong 64, Super Mario 64 and the numerous catalogue of games from Rare. Rare was the king of the 3D platformer, bring such classics as Banjo-Kazooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. After disappearing for many years and through the power of Kickstarter, the 3D platformer has made a return to store shelves in the form of Yooka-Laylee. Is it a great revival of a dead genre or does it just wallow in the past?
The story of Yooka-Laylee follows Yooka (an anthropomorphic lizard) and Laylee (a bat). The evil tycoon Capital B has been stealing books from all the worlds, looking for a special book. The special book is in the ownership of the main characters, and the book is taken. As the book is being taken the pages become scattered around the different worlds. Wanting their book back and to defeat Capital B, Yooka and Laylee must travel to the different worlds and collect the pages.
The gameplay consists of the titular characters traveling to different worlds and collecting the quills and pages hidden. The pages can be gathered in different ways. The duo participates in races, in platforming challenges, and defeats enemies in order to collect pages. Along with quills and pages, there are other things to collect. Each, of the worlds, has five ghost writers, who had written in the special book and require different tactics to catch each of them. There are Mollycools, an item that allows the pair to transform and collect more pages. There is also a hidden playcoin that allows the player to play a special minigame in each world. There are also hidden health and stamina upgrades. When the player collects enough pages, the player has a choice. The player can either expand the current world, bringing in more collectables, or open up the next world. This leads to a great progression where the player can chose either to move on to the next world or expand and spend more time in the current world. One criticism I have for the world's though is that they are very big. To some this may be a positive aspect but when you are just looking for those last ten quills it can be a bit frustrating.
One of the defining traits in the 3D platformer and this game are the characters. The stars of the games have their own personality traits. Yooka is more sensible and is willing to help, while Laylee is rough and really only cares about collecting pages. The main baddie Capital B is a mean dude and will often taunt the player as they travel around the hub world. The polygonal dinosaur, Rextro, has an affinity for classic arcade games and can be found in each world with a special arcade machine. The scientist Dr. Puzz is able to use her D.N.Ray and Mollycool to transform the duo. There are also individual NPC’s that only show up in their own world, as snowmen in the ice world and a special guest in the first world. Along with all the other non- playable characters are the enemies. Sadly the enemy variety is lacking there are really only three main enemy types and each are discovered before the third world. One of the most important characters in the game is the snake, Trowzer. This snake in an adventure hat and shorts is found in all of the different worlds and has a very important role. Trowzer gives the player more moves.
Moves are one of the most important parts of the game. For a certain amount of quills Trowzer will teach the player a new move. These moves vary, from one that allows the players to fly for a limited time, to one that uses Yooka’s tail as a spring, to one that creates a bubble and allows the pair to walk underwater. When traveling through the worlds, the amount of moves that are able to be obtained steadily increases. This helps the progression, as it encourages the search for quills. After the last move is acquired, the quills have no use and are only really collected for collection's sake.
Another different part of the game are the minigames. Rextro has an arcade where the player can play eight different minigames. Five of these are themed to the different worlds and can be found in their world. These are a nice distraction, but are not as polished as the main game. There are also minecart sections. The players can come across the cart “Kartos” and participate in 2D minecart sections, similar to the Donkey Kong Country series. Like the minigames, these are best as a distraction and don't contribute much to the game.
The soundtrack is alright but there are no memorable tracks. The sound effects are pretty good and fit well with the cartoon visuals. One sound effect that is a bit divisive are the sounds the characters make. In typical Rare fashion, the characters speak in repeated garble of various pitches. This may be grating to some people, but personally I was not bothered by it.
Over ten hours later, I can say I have enjoyed my time with Yooka-Laylee. Even with its faults, I found the gameplay to be very fun. I enjoyed its progression system and its style. Even though there are good things and bad things, I recommend Yooka-Laylee. It is a great spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie and a great collectathon.
