Yooka-Laylee

 PC
User Score
6.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 339 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 196 out of 339
  2. Mixed: 43 out of 339
  3. Negative: 100 out of 339

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  1. PeakZach
    Sep 30, 2022
    5
    Fun to play exploratory and collective game, but the water is inevitable. The water graphics, rippling effects, and difficulty to control made me have to put the game down once it wasn't an option and became a forced mechanic.
  2. BrutalPlayer
    May 12, 2022
    8
    Sorry I must cut points for bugs and glitches. If you do not look at it, it is great game. Challenging puzzle platformer with tough bossfights. Recommend.
  3. zyllus
    Mar 16, 2022
    5
    Got it for free on Epic but I did not like it. The graphics and sarcasm used throughout the game are great but what kills the joy is its clunky controls. I love games that break the 4th wall and are funny at the same time and this game hits all other factors of a good game but if I don't have proper control over my character then it feels more like a chore which is not what I am seekingGot it for free on Epic but I did not like it. The graphics and sarcasm used throughout the game are great but what kills the joy is its clunky controls. I love games that break the 4th wall and are funny at the same time and this game hits all other factors of a good game but if I don't have proper control over my character then it feels more like a chore which is not what I am seeking while playing a game… Expand
  4. GameBoyAdv4002
    Aug 24, 2021
    7
    This game is good and that's about it. This game does not build upon the Banjo-Kazooie formula as much as it just makes a new game using alterations to the games' mechanics. The benefit of this is that the game is still a very fun collectathon platformer. The downside is that this isn't all too much better than Banjo-Kazooie. Still a fun time for fans of the genre, but not worth fullThis game is good and that's about it. This game does not build upon the Banjo-Kazooie formula as much as it just makes a new game using alterations to the games' mechanics. The benefit of this is that the game is still a very fun collectathon platformer. The downside is that this isn't all too much better than Banjo-Kazooie. Still a fun time for fans of the genre, but not worth full price. Get it on discount.… Expand
  5. slime_matt
    Mar 30, 2021
    9
    The only reason I can't give this a 10 is because of a few minor gripes I had when playing through with certain areas and objects like the Fire breath ability being slightly obtuse, and also the obvious fact that it did not do "enough" to "innovate" which is a very minor point IMHO as an enthusiast of the N64.

    However, that said, I seriously consider this on the same level as Super    The only reason I can't give this a 10 is because of a few minor gripes I had when playing through with certain areas and objects like the Fire breath ability being slightly obtuse, and also the obvious fact that it did not do "enough" to "innovate" which is a very minor point IMHO as an enthusiast of the N64.

    However, that said, I seriously consider this on the same level as Super Mario 64 and the original Banjo games. It definitely recaptures what made those games great down to the exacting physics and whimsical world design.

    Everything has been kept just as it should be and not updated beyond recognition. An almost perfect example of what modern retro platformers should aspire to be.    … Expand
  6. Tobie
    Jun 21, 2020
    7
    The first four or five hours of gameplay felt a bit repetitive and grindy, mainly because there's no strong story to move things forward. But the further into the game you get, the more fun it becomes. Stick with it to discover why it's actually a really nice game!
  7. Chashmodai
    Jun 21, 2020
    3
    It's mediocre. Pretty much a ripoff of old Rare games. One can say that it's a "tribute", it's paying homage to, it's inspired by.. but it's just a ripoff.

    Bonus point for having the most cringeworthy "voice acting" in any game ever, though.
  8. ZetaJiffils
    Dec 31, 2019
    0
    Copia descarada de Banjo-Kazooie, tanto en la música, personajes y dialéctica de los mismos.
  9. kuehnau
    Dec 3, 2018
    4
    Yooka-Laylee is inspired by retro platforms like Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario 64 or Gex. It's another run of the mill collect-a-thon games that require you to run, jump and swim through worlds, collecting random odds and ends in order to unlock newer worlds, events and skills.

    It's a beautiful looking game and when you turn the settings up to max, it really outshines even some of the    Yooka-Laylee is inspired by retro platforms like Banjo Kazooie, Super Mario 64 or Gex. It's another run of the mill collect-a-thon games that require you to run, jump and swim through worlds, collecting random odds and ends in order to unlock newer worlds, events and skills.

    It's a beautiful looking game and when you turn the settings up to max, it really outshines even some of the more modern releases of games in the same genre.

    With that out of the way, I have nothing nicer to say about Yooka-Laylee.

    The game worlds are huge, often too large, if you ask me. Much of the space is completely empty, leaving you wandering around while you look for the bits and pieces you need to collect to progress in the game. Even enemies are amazingly sparse in the game. If the developers would have made the worlds smaller and more populated I feel as if the game would have been significantly more enjoyable.

    As it is, the game feels like it's 90% mini games and 10% action and adventure. Some of the worst aspects of the game are all of the racing trials the game puts you through. They aren't handled well and are amazingly frustrating, combine that with super poor hit detection and slippery as ice controls and you are gonna be in for a bad time.

    On the surface, this game looks like it would be great for children, on the contrary, the game can be so so frustrating that I can see younger players throwing controllers and melting down in frustration over the game. I myself ended up doing the first racing challange about a dozen times before I was able to beat it and by the time I was done, I was already sick of the game.

    Frankly, I don't know if I can even bring myself to complete this game. Yes, it's a throwback to an earlier games from yesteryear, but even those games knew how to package it and present it to the players. Yooka-Laylee does it all completely wrong and brings out the worst aspects in this genre of games.    … Expand
  10. vipek
    Nov 12, 2018
    8
    A really great 3D platformer game!

    If you liked Mario 64, Croc, Spyro etc. - you'll love this one too!
    But if you didn't - you won't like this one too!

    + Graphics, Music, SFX (64-bit style), level design, huge open levels, character skillset grows over time, enjoyable open-world exploration, lots of collectibles etc.
    - Annoying camera
  11. Shakethejake
    Oct 18, 2018
    8
    I respect a revival of 3D platformers yooka laylee I feel like it has some amazing potential. It's fun to go back and play an old style game like banjo, and with yooka laylee did a good job. The graphics are nice the business jokes where funny and entertaining. The camera was bad, even though it is manageable. I don't understand why everyone hates this game because Jontron is in it. II respect a revival of 3D platformers yooka laylee I feel like it has some amazing potential. It's fun to go back and play an old style game like banjo, and with yooka laylee did a good job. The graphics are nice the business jokes where funny and entertaining. The camera was bad, even though it is manageable. I don't understand why everyone hates this game because Jontron is in it. I don't agree with what he said. However that's his opinion so I'm not going to hate on this game just because a guy that thinks differently than me is in it. Anyway if you like Banjo you would like yooka laylee.… Expand
  12. mikwee
    Jul 8, 2018
    9
    I can’t understand why everybody hates this title. A throwback to the N64 era with gorgeous graphics? I’m in! And I wasn’t disappointed.
  13. Underpants158
    Jul 7, 2018
    7
    PROS:
    -Good humor. Some meta humor too which I know some won't like but I dug it.
    -Nice art and character design. -BOSS FIGHT MEDIOCRE: -Exploring the world is cool at first but with no map and having to backtrack because of unlocking new skills that allow you to progress in area or "expanding" the world leading to new challenges makes exploring the world somewhat bothersome.    PROS:
    -Good humor. Some meta humor too which I know some won't like but I dug it.
    -Nice art and character design.
    -BOSS FIGHT

    MEDIOCRE:
    -Exploring the world is cool at first but with no map and having to backtrack because of unlocking new skills that allow you to progress in area or "expanding" the world leading to new challenges makes exploring the world somewhat bothersome.

    Cons:
    -Collecting crap as a motive is not interesting to me which is the entirety of what this game is....so yeah.    … Expand
  14. TitaniumDragon
    Jun 7, 2018
    3
    Yooka-Laylee is an intentional invocation of old collectathon platformers from Ye Olde N64 days. In particular, it is meant to evoke Rare’s collectathons, most notably Banjo-Kazooie, a game about a bear and a bird, which definitely bear no resemblance whatsoever to the lizard and bat protagonists of THIS game, no sir!

    Unfortunately, while the magic of Kickstarter created this game, it    Yooka-Laylee is an intentional invocation of old collectathon platformers from Ye Olde N64 days. In particular, it is meant to evoke Rare’s collectathons, most notably Banjo-Kazooie, a game about a bear and a bird, which definitely bear no resemblance whatsoever to the lizard and bat protagonists of THIS game, no sir!

    Unfortunately, while the magic of Kickstarter created this game, it lacks some of the magic of the old collectathons – if, indeed, they had magic at all.

    After all, there is a reason why people are nostalgic for them, and it is that they have, by and large, disappeared.

    Yooka-Laylee is a fairly standard example of such a game starting out – you can jump, swim, and have a spin attack to kill enemies on the ground. Over the course of the game you buy additional moves from Trowser, your friendly, not at all unscrupulous snake wearing a pair of pants. Somehow. You gain the ability to jump higher, to glide, do a fast roll on the ground, do a roll boost to break glass, eat seeds to spit at stuff, turn invisible, and eventually, the ability to outright fly and turn invincible.

    And yes, the ability to fly does, in fact, pretty much break many of the challenges of the first four worlds, as why do 3D platforming when you can just, you know, fly?

    But the reality is that this isn’t much of a loss as, sadly, the game never really excels.

    Yooka-Laylee has a hub world which connects up to five other worlds. As with many such games, there are collectibles hidden in the hub world, as well as in all of the various other worlds. The primary collectable of the game are Pagies, pages with faces on them. There are 145 of them, plus quills, which are the equivalent of coins – 200 per level, and collecting them all in each world awards you with another Pagie. The game has four other collectibles, but they’re fairly reserved – a coin to play an “arcade game” in each world, extra health, extra energy for your special attacks, and the “Mollycool”, which enables a different transformation in each world.

    The problem with Yooka-Laylee is that games like this live and die on their worlds, and Yooka-Laylee’s worlds are, by and large, utterly unremarkable.

    The first level – Tribalstack Tropics – is a semi-promising start, and seems like a fairly standard opening stage, but as you go further through the game, the stages start feeling less and less well-integrated, and more and more like a collection of random platforming challenges stuck in independent of each other to form a “level”. The third and fifth levels – the swamp level and the “space” level that doesn’t actually have any real “space” mechanics – are both pretty much explicitly just a bunch of stuff stuck together with no real cohesion to it, and while the casino world feels built up on top of itself, it also manages to be by far the most tedious level to find missing collectibles in due to its 3D nature.

    But perhaps the greatest crime is that the pagies themselves feel completely arbitrary. Why are the game’s collectibles all book-themed? The worlds are ostensibly in books, but the game makes no use at all of this in any way, nor does it seem to have any meaningful relationship to the characters. It all feels very arbitrary.

    But the Pagie puzzles themselves often feel quite arbitrary, and not terribly satisfying to complete. Most of them are pretty easy, some of them are harder, and one of them probably took me as long as five others combined to do thanks to rather poor controls (rolling around a ball can be quite an imprecise thing, especially when wind is blowing at you from all directions in intervals). Many of the puzzles consist of talking to some NPC and doing some inane little task for them, and it just lacks much of a sense of satisfaction – getting stars in Super Mario 64, or the major collectibles in Donkey Kong 64, felt significant, but here, it just felt like ticking off a checkbox. Some of these challenges felt much more significant than others, with some pagies practically being given to you while others took some more significant task to collect, and the whole thing felt weirdly inconsistent as a result.

    It isn’t just the pagies, either – the game as a whole feels very arbitrary. And while yes, many of those games were fundamentally arbitrary, at least they felt like they tried, just a little. Yooka-Laylee constantly leans on fourth wall breaking humor, constantly referring to itself as a game, as if that would be funny – but really, it isn’t. A little bit of fourth wall humor can be fun, but if you do it too much, it just becomes eye-rolling and expected, and loses its surprise value. That’s not to say that a few jokes didn’t land – the game’s final boss being a “crowdfunded capitalist” was an amusing self-jab – but mostly, it just kind of felt like it went with a very juvenile humor, even more so than the N64 games it was emulating.    … Expand
  15. wegie125
    Dec 8, 2017
    3
    This game had so much potential and promise and I don't know what happened but everything leading up to it's launch was just disappointment. Why did they have to remove JonTron from the game? Why did they use the Unity engine? Why are the characters just recycled. This game just reeks of inconsistency. Sometimes the music is great, other times it sucks. Controls are wonky. This game triedThis game had so much potential and promise and I don't know what happened but everything leading up to it's launch was just disappointment. Why did they have to remove JonTron from the game? Why did they use the Unity engine? Why are the characters just recycled. This game just reeks of inconsistency. Sometimes the music is great, other times it sucks. Controls are wonky. This game tried way too hard to be like the previous titles that rare made. Nothing will top those and they were too afraid to venture out of that area… Expand
  16. OzBountyHunter
    Oct 13, 2017
    9
    Una joya de la vieja escuela para los que vivieron la epoca de Rare y N64, jugabilidad y dificultad de la epoca y una banda sonora que nos transporta a los años 90.
  17. ShadowKnight
    Sep 9, 2017
    9
    I liked the game bar a few weird level and character design choices... but it definitely is a great game which definitely reeks of n64 nostalgia pandering.
  18. KingHeavy
    Aug 12, 2017
    8
    I might be nostalgia blind, but I thought Yooka-Laylee was a great game! Even though I can defiantly see some of the problems that people have with the game, such as the mini games and a few camera problems. But overall, it's a very good successor to Banjo-Kazooie.
  19. BadGameGuy69
    Jul 29, 2017
    2
    Somehow a bigger disappointment than my son:
    But unlike my son, this game will not eventually hang itself in a gas station bathroom. The game was so simplistic and was on nostalgia life support, the placement of objects were as sloppy as possible. The numerous useless transformations in the game ruined me, like the helicopter noise not syncing with the speed of the blades haunts me like    Somehow a bigger disappointment than my son:
    But unlike my son, this game will not eventually hang itself in a gas station bathroom. The game was so simplistic and was on nostalgia life support, the placement of objects were as sloppy as possible. The numerous useless transformations in the game ruined me, like the helicopter noise not syncing with the speed of the blades haunts me like the screams of my son going through puberty beating his dog with a sock monkey in the basement and the characters are much like my ex wife who are ugly and do nothing but ruin my life. The sound effects were like a toilet where no matter what there's always garbage spewing out the front. Destroying this piece of garbage won't bring my son back but I'm okay with that. This game is much like my autistic daughter where the more it tries the more it just spits on itself. The voice acting ( if you want to call it that) sounds like my grandfather with turrets dying words but at least in the end he passed on peacefully unlike yooka laylee that feels the need to go on without end... Unlike my son. In the end, this game was like Ash's stoutland and had nothing else to live for and will fade away into obscurity.    … Expand
  20. pikby
    Jun 5, 2017
    8
    Yooka laylee is a fun, enjoyable platformer with quirky characters and fun design,only hampered by the uncoopertive camera and annoying mini games
    85%
  21. Auddy07
    May 23, 2017
    9
    Don't let the negative reviews sway you from playing this game! If you loved Banjo-Kazooie back in the day then you WILL like this game. I am a die hard Banjo fan, and while this game is not quite as good as Banjo-Kazooie or Tooie, I can without a doubt say that I think this game is awesome! The guys at Playtonic did a great job with this game and they will only get better if weDon't let the negative reviews sway you from playing this game! If you loved Banjo-Kazooie back in the day then you WILL like this game. I am a die hard Banjo fan, and while this game is not quite as good as Banjo-Kazooie or Tooie, I can without a doubt say that I think this game is awesome! The guys at Playtonic did a great job with this game and they will only get better if we continue to back their efforts. I gave this game a 9/10 (really a 8.5/10) as there are a couple of things I feel they could have done better (such as some camera flaws here and there (which they are fixing)), but overall it's a solid performance, especially from a company that just started up from the ashes of what was Rare.

    I hope they make a sequel (Twoka-Laylee or Tooka-Laylee) and I hope that one day they will either get the rights from Microsoft to continue making Banjo-Kazooie games, or Nintendo will give them rights to say, idk, make another Diddy Kong Racing or something they used to work on as Rare. I am a proud baker and can't wait to see what they do next! :)    … Expand
  22. darthsitthiande
    May 19, 2017
    8
    It's a nice throwback to the old Banjo Kazooie games but so far there have been two things I'd consider being negative:

    - The water sometimes looks awful
    - The controls are not responsive enough
    - The camera has it's own stupid free will, making boss fights especially difficult
    - during cutscenes the game doesn't stop which sometimes results in you being thrown off a cliff during it
  23. dr9188
    May 16, 2017
    10
    Apparently this game brewed a **** and I really fail to see why. The game is instantly accessible, responsive and most of all fun. It's also incredibly beautiful and stylised... As well as being the rarity of a console-quality platformer on the PC.

    I say this and I never even played Banjo-Kazooie (I was more of a PSX child). I have no idea what has happened to the gaming community as    Apparently this game brewed a **** and I really fail to see why. The game is instantly accessible, responsive and most of all fun. It's also incredibly beautiful and stylised... As well as being the rarity of a console-quality platformer on the PC.

    I say this and I never even played Banjo-Kazooie (I was more of a PSX child).

    I have no idea what has happened to the gaming community as of late, it feels like people like to complain for the sake of it. I have seen games get away with worse than this game's sins, and even at its very worst the game only reaches about the same frustration level as N64-era games. It is no wonder mainstream developers are falling onto making their games a generic "Everygame", as they have more than likely realised that you cannot please everyone even when you give people what they ask for. We are the only ones to blame for the dumbing down of gaming today.    … Expand
  24. WalterDisney
    May 6, 2017
    10
    Exactly what I hoped this game would turn out to be! Being a backer of the Kickstarter project when it was originally announced years ago, I had been waiting in anticipation for this game for a long time. I finally got around to playing it and have to say, it's a blast of nostalgia! It really brought me back to my childhood and felt so similar to the Banjo and Kazooie series that I justExactly what I hoped this game would turn out to be! Being a backer of the Kickstarter project when it was originally announced years ago, I had been waiting in anticipation for this game for a long time. I finally got around to playing it and have to say, it's a blast of nostalgia! It really brought me back to my childhood and felt so similar to the Banjo and Kazooie series that I just picked up the controller and knew what to do. The control scheme is perfect, and it performs well (played on PC).… Expand
  25. bobreviews
    Apr 30, 2017
    2
    Grating dialogue grunting, bad jokes, poor camera control, and graphical glitches simply do not have a place in todays world. And that's after the pre-release patch. I can only imagine how bad it was before hand.

    The Camera is everything in a 3D platformer, and this experience is simply marred with jitters, steering issues, sudden jerks and not looking at where the player is moving. Not    Grating dialogue grunting, bad jokes, poor camera control, and graphical glitches simply do not have a place in todays world. And that's after the pre-release patch. I can only imagine how bad it was before hand.

    The Camera is everything in a 3D platformer, and this experience is simply marred with jitters, steering issues, sudden jerks and not looking at where the player is moving. Not to mention how weird the interactions are - you can stand on some inclines, but not others, some abilities will affect some enemies, but not others where you'd expect they would.

    It feels like it might have been developed by people who never talked to one another or coordinated their efforts at all. And for a follow on for a game built on characters - as Banjo Kazooie was, the ones here have no personality beyond their basic concept drawings.    … Expand
  26. DingoCrash
    Apr 28, 2017
    10
    This game has brought so much memories and fun times I've had back in the 90's, there's a few flaws with the game but very minor, I backed the project when they launched the kickstarter and I regret nothing and expected what I wanted in a game.
  27. Steeldude
    Apr 27, 2017
    6
    One of the only two games (the other one being Tales of Symphonia) that I have played where the further I got the more I wished for it to end. I spent about 36 hours in this game and I did not even 100 % completed it. At first, I was looking forward to playing this game every day. Later on, I was playing just to get to the end finally. The longer I played, the more annoyed I got.

    Some    One of the only two games (the other one being Tales of Symphonia) that I have played where the further I got the more I wished for it to end. I spent about 36 hours in this game and I did not even 100 % completed it. At first, I was looking forward to playing this game every day. Later on, I was playing just to get to the end finally. The longer I played, the more annoyed I got.

    Some notes:
    - bad controls and camera
    - fun gameplay - at first but then it gets tedious
    - nice characters
    - frustrating elements (mostly minigames which are boring and overly hard but required to 100 %)
    - 5 worlds + hub (expandable) - pretty large - easy to get lost - each world may take even 8 hours to finish - it's simply too long - should've made more varied levels
    - if you take your time, the game is actually very long
    - not optimized for PC (K/M) - Xbox buttons instead and the B doesn't even exist!!! - cannot even rebind!! - this means that if you are in a conversation with a Yes/No choice you have to reset and go back to HUB because you get lost in the never-ending loop of "Yes choice"
    - if not for the minigames and gigantic worlds, it would've been a 9
    - no shadow when jumping most of the time! - leads to many unnecessary deaths
    - out of the 5 worlds I only enjoyed 2 (3rd+4th)    … Expand
  28. playken
    Apr 26, 2017
    10
    Finally, a game that goes back to the roots of the 3D platforming that you were begging your parents to buy or rent for you on those weekends off from school with your Nintendo 64. Consisting of the original dev team from banjo kazooie and banjo tooie, greatness was expected, and greatness came after all.

    You get what you expected, great graphics, funny voices and a quirky atmosphere,    Finally, a game that goes back to the roots of the 3D platforming that you were begging your parents to buy or rent for you on those weekends off from school with your Nintendo 64. Consisting of the original dev team from banjo kazooie and banjo tooie, greatness was expected, and greatness came after all.

    You get what you expected, great graphics, funny voices and a quirky atmosphere, topped off with the amazing music stylings of Mr. Grant Kirkhope.    … Expand
  29. fykins
    Apr 25, 2017
    0
    This game is not worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence as banjo kazooie. There are just so many reasons not to get this game, just another early access game that turned to trash. Oh sure they took your money upfront and that's exactly why they don't need to deliver at launch time.

    There's plenty of titles for less than $20 on steam that are better games than this.
  30. duk242
    Apr 24, 2017
    6
    I don't know about this game. I loved Banjo Kazooie way back in the day and this game feels a lot like it. However: Times have changed, I'm older now and the gameplay of it doesn't seem to interest me as much anymore.
    * The Graphics are pretty
    * The voice overs are infuriatingly annoying (all the voices going WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH on repeat) * The controls are infuriating (I don't know    I don't know about this game. I loved Banjo Kazooie way back in the day and this game feels a lot like it. However: Times have changed, I'm older now and the gameplay of it doesn't seem to interest me as much anymore.
    * The Graphics are pretty
    * The voice overs are infuriatingly annoying (all the voices going WAH WAH WAH WAH WAH on repeat)
    * The controls are infuriating (I don't know if it's just me, or if I'm just really bad at using an XBox controller).
    * Story line felt... weak?
    * The characters are kinda cool and quirky.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

38
#38 Most Discussed PC Game of 2017
51
#51 Most Shared PC Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 32 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 32
  3. Negative: 1 out of 32
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    May 15, 2017
    60
    Likeable and (sometimes) funny 3D platformer in an open world does not even try to keep up with time. The acknowledged spiritual successor of the first Banjo-Kazooie is precised up to the last detail to give the same gameplay as its 1998 ”original”. [Issue#274]
  2. GameCritics
    May 9, 2017
    55
    I recently revisited the original Banjo-Kazooie as part of the Rare Replay compilation and still found it to be the best of its genre, and I’m not one of those people who believes that a mascot platformer has no place in the modern gaming scene. I was ready to celebrate the return of this genre, but Yooka-Laylee is simply a chore to play. The folks at Playtonic have demonstrated that they can recreate the spirit of old-school 3D platformers. Now, critically, they need to recreate the quality.
    Read full review
  3. Merlin'in Kazanı (Turkey)
    May 7, 2017
    73
    Quotation forthcoming.
    Read full review
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