Yooka-Replaylee

Full of heart, a cute cast, a seemingly endless array of goodies to grab and new ideas at every turn, Yooka-Replaylee is a must buy for any fan of the platforming genre.

Playtonic’s reimagining of Yooka-Laylee refreshes the original with smarter level design, smoother controls, and a charming new narrative twist, though limited graphical options and some performance issues hold it back slightly.

It’s a thorough re-imagining, and even just sitting down with it to make the comparison is a fun and engaging exercise. I disagree with the way some of the edges have been sanded off, but Yooka-Replaylee is still a great time. And Trowzer the Snake is still hilarious.

Yooka-Replaylee is clearly better in a lot of places than the game it was based on, and Playtonic have finally delivered a masterclass in the buddy-duo collectathon series. My only hope is it doesn't take another 10 years to get a new game in the franchise. If the developer takes the lessons it has learned from this game and expands upon it further, it's only a matter of time until we see a Yooka-Laylee 3D sequel down the line, or at least something new for retro nostalgia fans.

Yooka-Replaylee has come a long way compared to the original game, and it has become a game that raises hopes for Playtonic Games' next game.

Yooka-Replaylee is a bright and upbeat platformer-adventure starring a pair of fun and likable characters, so it's hard to complain too much about it being overly referential. Each level is a platforming playground with mini-games, a boss encounter, unique challenges to help keep the returning ones fresh and a reasonable play-time to completion. The move-set isn't huge, but they're all effective, making navigating the world feel smooth and responsive. Thematically it's a bit all over the place and skews young for its humor and difficulty, but neither of these take away from the satisfaction of Yooka-Replaylee giving constant rewards for looking in odd places. If there's an interesting spot in the level then there's something there to collect, and more often than not the reward is an item worth the effort of the search. That's exactly how a collectathon platformer is supposed to work, and whether a game is twenty-seven years old or just a couple of days, the formula is timeless.

Yooka-Replaylee smooths over some of roughest edges of its 2017 predecessor, tightening controls, streamlining progression, and generally polishing its visuals. But despite the improvements, shallow level design and lackluster combat remind you that no amount of remaster polish can fix a platformer whose core still feels stuck in the past.