Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

Yooka-Laylee: The Impossible Lair manages to outshine the franchise’s debut effort in every major way. The game’s design remains open to an extent, but greatly focuses in on what you need to do – cutting down on a lot of busy work. The fast-paced action feels perfect and manages to out-Donkey Kong Country the Returns series as a result of nailing the pacing that made the original DKC trilogy so addicting on the SNES. The action meshes perfectly with the lush graphics and robust soundtrack to create one of the finest side-scrolling platformers on the market today. The Impossible Lair is a must-buy for any platforming fan.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is essentially a spiritual successor to Donkey Kong Country that ends with a difficult Super Mario Maker-like dungeon. It friggin’ rocks.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is one of the best 2D platformers available. If you're looking for something filled with refined gameplay and fun levels, this is it.

I enjoyed my time with The Impossible Lair. Even with it’s minor issues, I still managed to keep having fun, and that’s really what it’s all about. Yooka-Laylee works much better as a 2D platformer and I hope Team 17 will continue to develop these characters in this style. This game is a great starting point for the new direction and I hope we see more sequels like this in the future.

With charm, wit, and brimming with positivity, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a fantastic new direction for Playtonics dynamic duo. It features classic gaming tropes while remaining fresh, simple yet fun puzzles, responsive and easy controls, and a difficulty curve which feels tough but fair. This is a love letter to side-scrolling games while still being wholly unique. It has amazing underwater controls, a pun-filled sense of humor, and some of the best music I have heard in gaming to date. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair strikes gold, and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for their next adventure.

This game makes up for the first game's shortcomings, it rare to have a platforming game this good outside of Nintendo's own first party offerings.The Impossible Lair is very balanced between inspiring from the best, introducing its own ideas and building its own identity. it is one of the most unique games of its genre in the last years.

If the franchise's wonderful conversion to 2,5D is the exceptionally juicy cake, the engaging story, colourful worlds and strong level design form the delicious layer of icing on top.

The fun thing is, you can try to take on the Impossible Lair as many times as you like and each time you die, the game leaves a little marker indicating how far you got. My skills were most definitely not up to the challenge of beating the Impossible Lair without the Beetallion, but I sure had fun trying. I genuinely had a blast with Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair and you will too if you have any love for the genre at all. The game was pure fun.

I love Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. It feels fresh while keeping some of the great traits of the first game. The changes may even change the minds of players which did not enjoy the game that preceded it. It controls very well, looks great, sounds great and is a lot of fun. Just give it a shot, I think you will like it.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is one the best surprises of this year. An epic tribute for DKC that everyone should play.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is an excellent 2D platformer full of surprises and delights for fans nostalgic for the glory days of the genre. With some clever approaches to the final boss fight, the overworld map, and refreshing levels for repeat playthroughs, this one sits in the top tier of platformers just below the likes of modern classics like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

After inheriting the Banjo-Kazooei's 3D environmental platforming DNA, now Yooka y Laylee goes behind the 2D skin of Donkey and Diddy Kong. The chamaleonic Playtonic proves their mastery going back to its Rare legacy, offering a very sweet and enjoyable platform game that tastes like classic honey.

This great 2D platformer delivers a crowd-pleasing adventure regardless of when you started enjoying the genre.

All the more pleased I am that the second appearance of the funny chameleon and the cheeky bat really surprised me positively.

If you’re fine with never completing the Impossible Lair, you’re still left with a great game. It’s a massive improvement over the original and a much better direction for the series. The way in which it handles its overworld is masterful, as is the way it interconnects with each level. Not to mention Grant Kirkhope and David Wise’s amazing talent is once again on display with another stellar soundtrack. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a wonderful platformer that could have been even greater if only it stuck the landing.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a solid and fun platform. The new gameplay formula solves some of the main issues that plagued the previous episode.

As a huge fan of the original game, I'm amazed by how much more fun Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is. It's a wonderful 2D platformer that provides plenty of challenge and completionists will spend a long time trying to unlock everything.

A much more inventive and thoughtful affair than the duo's previous outing, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is the closest you'll get to Donkey Kong Country on PS4 and you should embrace it with the accordant warmth.

An incredible platform adventure that, from the first moment of playing it, reminds you of the prestigious Donkey Kong Country. However, it is not a "copy", and this title goes beyond incredible game mechanics and a huge world that must be explored from beginning to end to solve all the puzzles that appear along the history. In a nutshell, we could say that it is a varied, fun and extremely challenging game. If you were looking for a degree to have a good time, then without a doubt you should give it a try.

A beautiful parenthesis in the videogame history of Yooka and Laylee as well as, surprisingly, one of the best exponents of the 2019 platform game.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a competent platform game, full of ideas and funny characters.

Yooka-Laylee finally succeeds in bringing the platformer to the next level. With an original structure, made of puzzle and reverse narration, this new episode brings a fresh OST and some great ideas, while being sometimes too difficult or unprecise. A really good game for nostalgics and newcommers.

A polished, challenging and colourful 2D platform game that recalls the best of Donkey Kong Country on the SNES, even if it doesn’t really move beyond it.

Playtonic Games attempt to catch a second flash of retro magic in a bottle with Yooka-Laylee and The Impossible Lair. The 2.5D action may seem like a step back considering the origins of the Chamelon-Bat duo, but at the heart of the Impossible Lair is a distinct thread of innovation, a rare feat for the often-attempted platforming genre.

In many ways the first Yooka-Laylee felt like the developers were trying to make up for lost time and bring audiences the Banjo Three-ie everyone wanted. With this follow-up, you get a distinct sense that the game has been allowed to breathe and find its own identity, and it’s an overwhelmingly positive thing.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair will sometimes shamelessly steal from other iconic platformers, but it adds enough ideas of its own to get away with it. The sequel works better in terms of gameplay and level design than the three-dimensional original.

Charming, silly and full of cleverly placed secrets: Platonic’s 2D platformer is a worthy successor to Donkey Kong Country, but loses its grip toward the end due to the dissatisfying Tonika system.

Side-scrolling sequel Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair has creative ideas, assuming you have the patience to wrangle with its difficulty.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a work of great courage and respect for the platform genre. It is not revolutionary but manages to be a simple, but refined pastime made with all the trappings of the genre.

A cartoony feast for the eyes and ears, with a great overworld and lovely design. The platforming could be better, but it’s engaging enough to be worth your time. [Issue#168, p.79]

It’s evolution through devolution for Playtonic, going back to 2D platforming from the 3D design of the first Yooka-Laylee, a change that is definitely for the benefit of the franchise. The Impossible Lair is much more competent, offering a fulfilling experience through its breadth of levels, and a cleverly designed overworld map which is a game within a game. Nevertheless, we hope that in their next endeavor the British developers will create something with its own personality and avoid being so overtly “clingy” in the Donkey Kongs or Banjo-Kazooies of the past.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a game for those who adore the genre and want something bright, colourful and full of self-referential puns to end a long day at work. However, you have to be able to overlook some game design and quality-of-life flaws that can make the game frustratingly hard.

A clear improvement on the original, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a pleasant surprise. It struggles to balance difficulty, but the end result is a robust and compelling platformer. It feels much more cohesive than its older brother and, free from the need to play to nostalgia, gives the characters and the world a better identity. It isn't perfect, but it's certainly a step in the right direction for Playtonic Games.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair ends on a puzzlingly frustrating note that heightens its most egregious errors that consist of its imperfect controls and stymied progression system. The botched finale doesn’t make those stumbles any more forgivable and mainly just points them out, but that doesn’t undo its positive qualities.