Yooka-Laylee

 PlayStation 4
User Score
6.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 269 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 139 out of 269
  2. Mixed: 51 out of 269
  3. Negative: 79 out of 269
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  1. mrnice
    Apr 8, 2018
    5
    Creative enough to appeal to genre fans. The cheery presentation and characters deserved a more fun game. For example, I laughed out loud at my own frustrations during a mini-game about driving a mine kart through an obstacle course. The minigame was reused five times in the game, one of which had a bossfight locked away behind the minigame. So I had to beat it although I wanted toCreative enough to appeal to genre fans. The cheery presentation and characters deserved a more fun game. For example, I laughed out loud at my own frustrations during a mini-game about driving a mine kart through an obstacle course. The minigame was reused five times in the game, one of which had a bossfight locked away behind the minigame. So I had to beat it although I wanted to ragequit and get rid of the Yooka Laylee disc. The minigame exemplifies much of the annoyances with the overall game. It looks like fun, and it should be fun... but somehow, it's just tweaked a bit towards annoying the player. When it works and it doesn't annoy, then there are some great moments of basic platforming fun. But the joys are spread thin and the game has a lot of backtracking and confusingly laid-out mission 'hunt'... where the player can go look for next mission, but find that it requires better power-ups, only to have to return to earlier levels and try to find something there, and then traverse all the way back to newer levels with the required power-ups... etc.. I see no reason why the game shouldn't have been a linear, laser-tight experience without the gimmicky filler content. The game has enough ideas for an epic campaign, but the gameplay is spread out in a slightly confusing way, and technically the game does not assist the player in an enjoyable way, rather it can sabotage some moments spread throughout the game.

    I fondly remember Banjo-Kazooie, and Goldeneye... but it seems like the classic studio took a long time off and didn't keep their skills sharp... so naturally when they reunited to build Yooka Laylee, their resources didn't really fit the ambitions very well.

    It's a pretty long game, at 15+ hours for reaching the final boss. Getting there requires 100 small missions/tasks. I spent the last few hours of my game time 'scrambling' for decently fun missions to beat. It didn't get too stale or desperate... but I did feel the good content was already used and the only option was to think strategically about where the last few good missions could hide.    … Expand
  2. Vapor96
    Dec 29, 2019
    6
    While the game has a lot of charm and personality, Yooka-Laylee is so true to its genre roots that it tells the player pretty much nothing. Often playing it consists of roaming around huge areas hoping to find some challenges to beat, and this is just not my idea of fun. Add to that some grindy repetition and major camera problems, and you have yourself a throwback that falls right intoWhile the game has a lot of charm and personality, Yooka-Laylee is so true to its genre roots that it tells the player pretty much nothing. Often playing it consists of roaming around huge areas hoping to find some challenges to beat, and this is just not my idea of fun. Add to that some grindy repetition and major camera problems, and you have yourself a throwback that falls right into mediocrity, despite funny characters and a great soundtrack.… Expand
  3. majr
    Apr 17, 2017
    5
    While far away from a bad game, it has its fair share of flaws (mainly the camera). I would love to see a tooie and see if they can fix the issues and maybe cut back on the forth wall breaking a tiny bit.

    Well worth playing, but if you can wait out for a sell. I got mine for $30 and I feel I should of waited for a bit to get it closer to $20
  4. SOLIDSNAKEN64
    Jan 19, 2018
    6
    As a Banjo-Kazooie fan who has found memories of playing it back on my N64 as a kid. I was really stoked when i found out that the creators of the franchise decided to make a spiritual successor since they couldn't make a squeal. I do love platformers but this game was just ok to me, the story doesn't really pull you in and make you want to read every dialogue box. I do like the mainAs a Banjo-Kazooie fan who has found memories of playing it back on my N64 as a kid. I was really stoked when i found out that the creators of the franchise decided to make a spiritual successor since they couldn't make a squeal. I do love platformers but this game was just ok to me, the story doesn't really pull you in and make you want to read every dialogue box. I do like the main characters and there are a lot of memorable NPCs. The world designs are decent but the main world design was terrible trying to figure out where the next tomb is was more of a challenge then some of the in-world puzzles. Speaking of puzzles they ranged from really easy to hard, and I can say I enjoyed solving them and exploring the different tombs that you have to unlock by collecting the Gold Pagies. Environments ranged from really cool looking, detailed and unique to dull and lifeless. The enemies are more annoying than threatening, they could really use a more verity of enemies as well. Controls definitely need work and tightened up, camera was atrocious, never pointing in the direction that i need even when im the one directing it. The final boss is a cheating piece of **** I was about ready to rage quit! I feel like if platonic decides to create a sequel to YL there is plenty of room to improve on.… Expand
  5. Contempt
    Sep 6, 2017
    5
    First and foremost this game was released incomplete and the consequences to my experience was dire.

    I bought this software upon release with the idea that I would 100% complete the game with no hesitations. This resulted in me being stuck on the Casino level looking through every pixel to find the very last Pagie. After a frustrated Google search I came to find that it was in fact    First and foremost this game was released incomplete and the consequences to my experience was dire.

    I bought this software upon release with the idea that I would 100% complete the game with no hesitations.

    This resulted in me being stuck on the Casino level looking through every pixel to find the very last Pagie. After a frustrated Google search I came to find that it was in fact the programmers fault as it was a glitch keeping me from enjoying the final Pagie. I put the game away and over the months it collects dust.

    After approximately three months the news of a massive patch is released for Yooka-Laylee, with reluctant persistence I place the CD back into the Ps4 and try again. After a few hours I get to the final boss and defeat him after many attempts, most of which being from dying from the buggy controls rather than a lack of platformer precision.

    After the boss is defeated I am enthralled as I assume I will be able to unlock the final tonic, the one that makes the game look like it has N64 graphics. How hip I think to myself as I rush to the nearest tonic dispenser. However, the tonic is still locked away. Despite having a score of 100% on the PlayStation network.

    After another angry Google I am to find the tonic is still locked away as the developers have yet to complete to mode in question. Sorry; am I old fashioned or am I in my rights to be experiencing an anger blackout over this situation? Why have the promise of the tonic in the game if it cannot be unlocked?

    So to this day I have searched every pixel and completed Yooka-Laylee as far as humanly possible but the constraints of lazy programming have not once but twice stunted my gamer experience. Imagine if classics such as Bloodborne or Mario Kart needed to be patched before you could enjoy the fruits of your labour? This is not a direction in which we want our hobby, the humble console gamer to be going in. We as a community must make sure that we never ever fall into the trap of rewards being 'Coming Soon' as this will surely put off future generations of platforming fans. if the reward is in the making then do not have any hint in the product until the entire mode is unlockable.

    Regards,

    Panther.    … Expand
  6. leetl1
    Mar 4, 2019
    6
    I love Banjo Kazooie, but this game is lacking because the controls suck and the game feels even more flawed than Banjo Kazooie, which is sad because this is a 2017 game.
  7. AltruXeno
    Apr 12, 2017
    7
    Yooka-Laylee is precisely what it promised to be: a 3D platformer for the people who grew up playing 3D platformers. If you remember Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, and other collectathon games fondly, this game may be for you. If you've never heard of these games or their ilk, then its probably be best to stay away. I still regularly play N64 platformers at the behest of my 3 year oldYooka-Laylee is precisely what it promised to be: a 3D platformer for the people who grew up playing 3D platformers. If you remember Banjo-Kazooie, Donkey Kong 64, and other collectathon games fondly, this game may be for you. If you've never heard of these games or their ilk, then its probably be best to stay away. I still regularly play N64 platformers at the behest of my 3 year old son, so I am acutely aware of what this game had to offer, both good and bad... because for better or worse, Yooka-Laylee is true to its origins:

    Pros:
    Nostalgia - Sure, not really something one might be looking for in a review but I've no doubt that if you enjoyed 3D Rare games when you were a child (as I did) that you will have fun playing this game. In almost every way this is a graphically updated version of those games.

    Visual Style - As mentioned above, this is basically a more beautiful version of an N64 platformer. The visual are stunning, the characters gorgeous, and the environments fitting. The draw distance is basically infinite and I've noticed no pop-ins or other artifacts to distract from the beauty (as a game developer myself I am sensitive to these things and unfairly find them jarring).

    Difficulty - I find the difficulty to be just enough. Most of the "Pagies" are pretty straight forward and easy to get. However, I came across a few puzzles or areas that I had difficulty completing or reaching and those are where I had the most fun. Again, I've been playing these types of games for over 20 years so any introductory puzzles or barely hidden secrets were going to get completed and found almost instantly, but I was pleasantly surprised by some of the challenges that this game presented.

    Humor - Again, if you followed this game through its Kickstarter campaign and beyond you knew exactly what to expect: cheeky characters, strange voices, and fourth wall breaking dialogue. I was, for the most part, not disappointed. Sure, there were a few places where I think they tried too hard but in most cases I gave an audible chuckle.

    Cons:
    Camera - Let's just get the obvious one out of the way. I would almost venture that the camera is WORSE than in the 64 era, but only because the Nintendo 64 restricted the camera movement more (you could typically hit the left and right C-Keys to rotate a pre-determined amount around the character). Because of the freedom allotted by the new hardware the camera often gets stuck or pushed around by objects in ways that not only take away from the gameplay, but can often break it completely (i.e. riding up an elevator and as soon as you jump off of it the camera does a full 180 and instead of moving left towards the ledge you move back towards the platform from which you jumped! If there was one thing I was hoping that this game would fix, it was the camera. I was disappointed.

    Backtracking - The worlds that you get to explore are huge and each present their own unique challenges. However, as a person who feels that they need to collect everything before moving on I often found myself trying to get to places that I could not yet reach. The game itself readily advertises that you can unlock additional moves in any order, but then proceeds to lock abilities in different worlds (essentially forcing you to go through other levels and unlock abilities to get enough resources to unlock further levels.) I often found that I would come back to earlier worlds once I unlocked new abilities, trekking through places I've already sniffed out thoroughly, only to find that the abilities that I unlocked aren't what I need. I'll have to come back a third time with a new ability to get this. A relic of the games of yore, but because the levels are much larger, and the need of almost every ability in every level, this particular case seems hyperbolic.    … Expand
  8. SuperkenGaming
    Apr 18, 2017
    6
    Yooka Laylee
    From Great to disappointing
    3D platformers were all the rage in the late 90s all the way through the PlayStation 2 era and then they faded away... Of course everyone misses the good ole days, so some veterans from the banjo kazooie team brought it back with yooka laylee, a game with potential that never delivers… In yooka laylee you play as yooka the iguana and laylee the    Yooka Laylee
    From Great to disappointing
    3D platformers were all the rage in the late 90s all the way through the PlayStation 2 era and then they faded away...
    Of course everyone misses the good ole days, so some veterans from the banjo kazooie team brought it back with yooka laylee, a game with potential that never delivers…
    In yooka laylee you play as yooka the iguana and laylee the bat, you set off on an adventure to get all of the pagies and stop capital b and dr quack from snatching all of the worlds books.
    You start out in a hub, with 5 levels inside... to get to each of the 5 levels you need new powers... so to get these powers you enter the levels 1 at a time to explore these sandboxes, complete all of the tasks around the world for the initially charming characters in return for a pagie, and collect the quills to purchase new super moves from the trowzer snake
    or trowzer the snake..
    Yeah... idk, the humor is questionable in this game... I’m not sure who this game was really made for…
    The first world is the best world in the game…
    There’s heart here, nostalgia, humor, character…
    A sense of adventure…
    ghost creatures hidden in the world to collect... items to find for characters…
    fun platforming sections, a race…
    And then the game just falls apart…
    Collecting pagies is important to unlocking new levels, and the quills are important for unlocking moves to complete the tasks here…
    But pagies can also be used to extend the levels...
    These extended versions of the levels add new missions, characters and a boss battles to help you on your journey to collecting 100 pagies needed to get to the games end…
    And that journey to 100 pagies, is an uninteresting and frustrating grind…
    Sadly the levels literally get worse as you go..
    characters are recycled…
    missions are recycled…
    the levels feel like little to no effort were put into them
    the game starts to feel lazy…
    it introduces new moves in every world but nothing cool is ever done with these abilities…
    It’s just becomes a joke by the games end…
    The 2nd to last level is just a bunch of time your slam right slot machine games…
    And the final level had a space theme
    fitting because of how empty it felt.
    Yooka Laylee has good bits to it...
    The hub world is great…
    forcing you to unlock new moves and the idea that these moves will keep you coming back to past levels is great…
    there’s arcade games in here to play with friends for high scores
    The first level is great and exactly what I want out of a 3d platformer…
    But beyond level 1, the hub world, and the hook of bringing your new moves back to past levels…
    Yooka Laylee is a pretty mediocre game…
    I Give Yooka Laylee
    a 6/10    … Expand
  9. TheHumbleGamer
    Jun 28, 2017
    7
    To start, I'd like to say I was a backer of this game on Kickstarter. I won't disclose how much I backed it for here, but I'll say it was quite a lot. I'd also like to say I honestly don't regret backing this game, even though it turned out not to be as good as I (and many others) expected it to be.

    I can't say I'm not disappointed with this game, but I want to be one of the reasonable    To start, I'd like to say I was a backer of this game on Kickstarter. I won't disclose how much I backed it for here, but I'll say it was quite a lot. I'd also like to say I honestly don't regret backing this game, even though it turned out not to be as good as I (and many others) expected it to be.

    I can't say I'm not disappointed with this game, but I want to be one of the reasonable people who tells you it isn't as bad as many have said. It certainly isn't flawless, but it still has a charm to it. There are parts of the game where you can clearly see the effort that went into it. As far as I'm concerned, this game was pretty much what was promised by Playtonic, although most of us agree that may not have been the best thing now that we've played it.

    I'd like to take you through my personal quarrels with the game before telling you the things I liked.
    For starters, the story was not as charming as classic rare titles, the characters didn't really have that same importance or personality that characters had in classic titles. The game does nothing new with the 3D platformer/collectathon genre and just simply copied Banjo-Kazooie (for the most part) in its style. I think this is what ticks me off the most about this game, it's entire style is a rip-off of Banjo, and that isn't what most of us wanted. We wanted a Banjo style game yes, but we wanted something new with that formula, not the exact same stuff. The game has a neat variety of levels to explore, all expandable by using pagies you collect (this games jiggies), but here's the issue, the worlds follow the Banjo-Tooie Style and not the Banjo-Kazooie Style, they are vast expanses that can take a while to fully explore. My major issue with this mixed with world expansion starts with the fact that you don't know when you've collected and done all you can in a non-expanded version of a world, it never tells you what you can and cannot do in a non-expanded world, which makes it really difficult to know if the things your missing are in the expanded version of a world or if you can get them before expanding it and with worlds being as large as they are (and with no warp points like Banjo-Tooie), getting around them to explore and find the last few missing items in non-expanded (or even expanded) worlds is an annoying, unnecessary headache that Playtonic honestly should have realised was bad design. My last real quarrel with the game is Rextro's minigames. Whoever designed a couple of these needs to be thrown into the nearest volcano. Up N Over and Hurdle Hijinx (especially the latter). These two mingames were by far the things that angered me the most out of anything in this game. Hurdle Hijinx is especially poorly designed as a mini-game, it took me over 4 and a half hours to do because I have terrible hand/eye co-ordination. It is hugely flawed and I'm pretty sure thousands of players would agree with me.

    Now with all my personal problems with the game out of the way, I want to tell you what this game does right, starting with how I genuinely felt while playing it. As a huge Banjo-Kazooie & Banjo-Tooie fan I was really hopeful about this game and even through it's flaws I focused on what I found the most fun. For starters, I think the music in this game is fantastic. I know some don't like the tracks, but i think they all fit and are all memorable in there own right. I liked the large worlds (despite what I said above). Whenever I was exploring hunting for pagies and quills (and other secrets!) I felt just like a kid exploring the vast worlds of Banjo-Tooie, or even Spyro. it was actually fun and honestly made me feel like that kid again. The boss of each world was unique (albeit a bit silly in some cases) and were all pretty fun to fight and really reminded me of the banjo-Tooie boss fights. I Loved the hub world (Hivory Towers) and slowly getting through it was fun. Many of the pagies were extremely rewarding to collect and that feeling of success I had solving many of the harder puzzles is unrivalled in all of my gaming history.

    This game had some serious potential, and it does a heck of alot for copying the banjo formula. My hope would be that Playtonic learns from the flaws of this game and (if it makes another) decides to make something truly worthy of the title 'Rare-vival'    … Expand
  10. ThereIsNoSpoon
    Apr 13, 2017
    5
    30FPS is horrible for this game, and makes it so much more difficult than it should be. This is a platformer--it needs to be smooth. I sold this version and picked up the PC version instead, and it's worlds better. I don't understand why they couldn't hit 60fps on PS4. This isn't Uncharted 4. It just feels laggy all over.
  11. FromKanga
    Jul 12, 2017
    6
    Yooka-Laylee was okay, as a fan of Banjo-Kazooie and Conker's bad fur day, I must say I am dissapointed in this game, it's not as bad as other people said but it's still pretty weak.

    The story is ridiculous but charming, it feels like the good old days were the stories were simple but funny enough to keep you playing. The game's downfall is the gameplay, the camera is annoying and the    Yooka-Laylee was okay, as a fan of Banjo-Kazooie and Conker's bad fur day, I must say I am dissapointed in this game, it's not as bad as other people said but it's still pretty weak.

    The story is ridiculous but charming, it feels like the good old days were the stories were simple but funny enough to keep you playing.
    The game's downfall is the gameplay, the camera is annoying and the controls are very slippery, banjo-kazooie and donkey kong 64 had the same problems, but the levels in yooka-laylee are weaker, it has a great first level but the other levels are forgettable, it's not fun to explore the hidden places like it was in the old games.
    This game is way too forgiving with the power-ups making the game really easy (exept that final boss), it's never challenging so it takes away all the fun of the other RareWare Games.

    I do want to point out, the reason why I can forgive the camera and controls on the nintendo 64 games is because the games came out in late 90's-begenning 2000, so it's understandable, but we're in 2017 now and I expect more out of games, I hope playtronic will learn from their mistakes and make a much stronger sequel, because there is still a lot of potential here.    … Expand
  12. roo7788
    Apr 12, 2017
    5
    El juego se puede resumir basicamente como banjo kazooie 3 para el n64 realmete es un juego de n64 recrearon todo incluso los problemas que tenian los juegos de n64 en especial la camara la cual es molesta y tan eratica que lastima.
    es un buen juego y espero que solucionen el problema de la camara pero mientras no lo solucionen tiene el juego una baja calificacion por que no voy a jugar    El juego se puede resumir basicamente como banjo kazooie 3 para el n64 realmete es un juego de n64 recrearon todo incluso los problemas que tenian los juegos de n64 en especial la camara la cual es molesta y tan eratica que lastima.
    es un buen juego y espero que solucionen el problema de la camara pero mientras no lo solucionen tiene el juego una baja calificacion por que no voy a jugar algo que lastime la vista por la camara    … Expand
  13. metachirrup
    Apr 17, 2017
    7
    This is pretty much what I wanted from the Kickstarter campaign (I'm a backer) but I feel like there was too much box-ticking and not enough vision and enthusiasm in design. Everything is there but not organised with the enthusiasm I believe they had when creating Banjo-Kazooie. I guess they just weren't inspired by this genre anymore?
  14. TatsMcGee
    Sep 8, 2018
    5
    This is probably going to go down as one of the biggest disappointments of my life. At least the gaming part of my life. I love Banjo-Kazooie, its one of my favorite games of all time (definitely top 5) so when I heard that the makers of Banjo-Kazooie were making a spiritual successor. I lost my mind and was convinced that this was going to be my favorite game of all time. I know that’sThis is probably going to go down as one of the biggest disappointments of my life. At least the gaming part of my life. I love Banjo-Kazooie, its one of my favorite games of all time (definitely top 5) so when I heard that the makers of Banjo-Kazooie were making a spiritual successor. I lost my mind and was convinced that this was going to be my favorite game of all time. I know that’s putting a lot of pressure on this game but all I wanted was it to be Banjo-Kazooie but with upgraded graphics and better controls. The controls weren’t going to be too hard because all it had to do was not be on the Nintendo 64 and that not so great controller.

    So yes I had high hopes for this game but all I wanted was an updated Banjo-Kazooie but what we got was Donkey Kong 64. The major problem with the game is, there are too many collectibles and at a certain point. It just starts to feel tedious and it stops being fun which is incredibly disappointing because this game has a lot of charm.

    Looking at this game, I love the way it looks. It so much fun to look at this game and look at the characters and the worlds. I also love the music, this is probably music of the year. So this game probably wins 3 categories this year, best-looking game, best music and most disappointing.

    This is going to be a shorter review because I can’t talk about this game too much. It breaks my heart when I think about it. I do want to be clear about one thing though. This is not a bad game, it’s just too much of a collectathon for me. So I burnt out halfway through and I don’t see myself finishing.    … Expand
  15. M0NST3R_G4MING
    May 4, 2019
    7
    Yooka-Laylee is a wonderful 3D platformer, which should be fun especially for former Banjo-Kazooie or Donkey Kong players. The feeling of the old Rare-games was also conveyed in my opinion. Of course it's by far not as good as Banjo Kazooie or Donkey Kong, but Yooka-Laylee has its own charm and is a lot of fun! Yooka-Laylee's main goal are the veterans of the old Banjo Kazooie games.
    I    Yooka-Laylee is a wonderful 3D platformer, which should be fun especially for former Banjo-Kazooie or Donkey Kong players. The feeling of the old Rare-games was also conveyed in my opinion. Of course it's by far not as good as Banjo Kazooie or Donkey Kong, but Yooka-Laylee has its own charm and is a lot of fun! Yooka-Laylee's main goal are the veterans of the old Banjo Kazooie games.
    I decided to give Yooka-Laylee 7/10 points because there are still some mistakes that could have been avoided with today's technology.

    First of all I would like to go into the game world. It looks very nice. Especially the first world I liked very much. You are mostly free and can explore this world at your own discretion. In the world one looks for as collecting objects "feathers" and "Pagies". If one has already found many feathers in a world and therefore only few are missing, then these are difficult to find. This can be very frustrating.
    In addition there are different tasks in each world to get Pagies. Most of the tasks are actually simple - except for the mini-games. If you want to play Yooka-Laylee at 100% you will despair. The mini-games are so frustrating. In addition there is often the spongy control of the minigames. This makes the mini-games often unplayable and it is annoying to play them in every world again and again.
    Another point that really bothered me was switching between worlds. You couldn't "teleport" as you know it from other games: No, you had to go back to the upper world and search for the entrance to the desired world. This was also very annoying - and especially frustrating if you didn't find the entrance to the world.
    The controls are really good for a 3D platformer. You could execute the different learnable moves well and without any problems. But what I didn't like at this point was the camera work. It was terrible in many situations, especially in confined spaces. A big problem was that objects didn't become transparent.
    I really liked the dialogues in Yooka-Laylee. It was just the typical rare humor! There were always those funny noises, which were different with every character. These give each character its own charm.

    Conclusion: I like Yooka-Laylee very much despite some technical problems. I had a lot of fun walking through the different worlds and collecting feathers and pagies. The only big problem was some technical problems (which I discussed in more detail above). I can recommend Yooka-Laylee to anyone who enjoyed the old Donkey Kong and Banjo Kazooie games. Don't expect too much, though. That would be a mistake.
    I would be looking forward to a successor without these technical problems!    … Expand
  16. wesker2012
    May 9, 2022
    7
    Yooka Laylee is good in the sense that theres hardly in games like it during the current generation of gaming, but it doesn't live up to the popular games of the 90's it's trying to emulate. They nailed the genre humor in the game, but overall the game felt too formulaic and simple in terms of fun factor. Wish there was less content and more quality than vice versa. The controls andYooka Laylee is good in the sense that theres hardly in games like it during the current generation of gaming, but it doesn't live up to the popular games of the 90's it's trying to emulate. They nailed the genre humor in the game, but overall the game felt too formulaic and simple in terms of fun factor. Wish there was less content and more quality than vice versa. The controls and camera were also kind of wonky which made the game frustrating to play at times. The magic just seemed to be missing and after awhile the game felt more like a chore to play than fun. The hd cartoony visuals were nice to look at. And the music was relaxing and fun to listen to. The visuals could have used some more detail though.… Expand
  17. smahlt
    May 9, 2019
    6
    A solid core surrounded by questionable decisions. The energy meter was a poor decision. The level design choices of having huge levels with tons of collectibles makes the game drag on. Some of the puzzles are annoying (looking at you ice castle maze). Controls are loose at times.

    As a longtime fan of Banjo-Kazooie, I'm slightly disappointed in this game, and hopeful for a sequel    A solid core surrounded by questionable decisions. The energy meter was a poor decision. The level design choices of having huge levels with tons of collectibles makes the game drag on. Some of the puzzles are annoying (looking at you ice castle maze). Controls are loose at times.

    As a longtime fan of Banjo-Kazooie, I'm slightly disappointed in this game, and hopeful for a sequel because with some improvements, we could have another fantastic BK style game.    … Expand
  18. KayVen17
    Sep 26, 2018
    6
    Deutsche Review - Kritik Der folgende Test ist in 5 Kategorien zusammengefasst. Diese 5 Kartegorien ergeben die Gesamtpunktzahl von 0 - 100 Punkten. Um einen passenden Userscore zu geben wird auf oder abgerundet. Bei 84 Punkten ergibt das einen User Score von 8. Bei 86 einen von Userscore von 9. Falls eine 85 kommt entscheide ich ob ich es eher positiv oder negativ nehme. RegelnDeutsche Review - Kritik Der folgende Test ist in 5 Kategorien zusammengefasst. Diese 5 Kartegorien ergeben die Gesamtpunktzahl von 0 - 100 Punkten. Um einen passenden Userscore zu geben wird auf oder abgerundet. Bei 84 Punkten ergibt das einen User Score von 8. Bei 86 einen von Userscore von 9. Falls eine 85 kommt entscheide ich ob ich es eher positiv oder negativ nehme. Regeln verstanden? Dann sind hier meine Punkte. Mein persönlicher Score = 64/100 Mein User Score = 6/10… Expand
  19. Neper
    Jan 27, 2019
    6
    Unfortunately, I have to say that I didn't enjoy this game too much. I was a backer in Kickstarter so I played it with lots of interest, but Y-L kept disappointing me. It has some good ideas here and there, but sometimes its worlds feel dull and empty, with no really fun platforming most of the time. There's almost zero challenge to it as well, which adds to the overall 'meh' feeling IUnfortunately, I have to say that I didn't enjoy this game too much. I was a backer in Kickstarter so I played it with lots of interest, but Y-L kept disappointing me. It has some good ideas here and there, but sometimes its worlds feel dull and empty, with no really fun platforming most of the time. There's almost zero challenge to it as well, which adds to the overall 'meh' feeling I get.

    tl;dr I had some fun with Yooka-Laylee, but it feels old and clunky and it gets boring as well as a bit frustrating towards the end. Only for hardcore fans of nostalgia.    … Expand
  20. funkrockwarlock
    Aug 29, 2021
    5
    I grew up on the 64 era platformers and was a huge fan of banjo kazooie. I was incredibly excited when I saw this came out and bought it to play right away. Why is my review years late? Well I got to the 4th level which is casino themed and just sort of lost interest. Years later while making list of my backlogged games I remembered it and was determined to beat it.

    The good Art    I grew up on the 64 era platformers and was a huge fan of banjo kazooie. I was incredibly excited when I saw this came out and bought it to play right away. Why is my review years late? Well I got to the 4th level which is casino themed and just sort of lost interest. Years later while making list of my backlogged games I remembered it and was determined to beat it.

    The good
    Art direction
    Soundtrack
    old school platform vibes

    The bad
    The old school poor camara
    lack of levels
    Final boss fight

    I played through and expanded 4 of the 5 worlds, that's right there's only 5 levels which is a major disappointment. To be fair the expanded levels are fairly large but if one of the levels isn't fun for you, for me this was the 4th, then 20% of the game is just bad. I only got 3 pagies in that level and got everything else from the others which I did enjoy, even if the expanding bit felt like trying to stretch content by locking half a level away.

    I had a lot of fun, learning moves, solving puzzles, exploring and getting transformed was all amazing but that all ended at the boss fight. This fight was an incredible difficulty jump from anything previous in the game to the point where I felt the game had one vibe and totally switched. I understand it's a boss fight but it gets worse. This boss has more stages than a Final Fantasy battle and the inter-combat dialogue and cutscenes to match. Every death felt like a painful slog through spamming skip and watching 6 different transition scenes. The worst stage was the second which was so long. I often took damage just from the sheer boredom of that particular boss stage.

    In the end I realized I wasn't having fun anymore and I didn't really care to finish. I got what I wanted which was a platformer to go around and collect things and explore a colorfully animated world. What I didn't want was a clumsy and difficult boss fight. That wasn't what I really wanted after a game of smooth sailing and the tedious boss stage 2 and annoying transitions were too much.

    Over all I give it a 5 out of 10. 80% of the levels are really fun it's just that casino which really feels like filler. The soundtrack is good and the art and dialogue is clever. The limited number of levels, one of which is not fun and the terribly designed boss that feels too hard for what the entire game prepared are what really drag it down. It's an okay game and anything more would be me padding the score with nostalgia.    … Expand
  21. KratosKong
    Jun 20, 2019
    7
    A este juego de plataformas en 3d se le notan las costuras y tiene algun que otro problema de diseño. Pero es innegable lo divertido que es y lo gracioso de los personajes con las situaciones que generan. Si te gustan los plataformas en 3D dale una oportunidad. Aunque no haya resultado ser todo lo redondo que hubiera deseado, si hacen secuela, yo por mi parte le dare una oportunidad.
  22. Descole
    Apr 6, 2020
    7
    Its an old school retro game. It promised not mutch and delivers much more. Its really fun to play with an retro soundtrack. If you like 90s games you will like that too
  23. Dr_Unk
    Oct 6, 2020
    6
    The game was OK. The controls seemed off to me, especially when you do that one roll move. One thing I hate about collectathons is when they make you go back to a previous level because you didn't have a move or item you needed. So I wasn't a big fan of going back to every level again. Also at one point, I couldn't stand the music, so I ended up muting it and keeping the SFX on..
  24. Shenandoah
    Mar 20, 2021
    5
    Don’t get me wrong, I love Yooka Laylee, but the technical port of the PS4 version is just a shame. Looks like a PS3 game poorly running at locked 30 fps on a PS4 Pro. Save your money and wait of a remaster of this game or take the new „Impossible Lair“.
  25. Warrior_of_Doom
    Jul 19, 2023
    7
    The overall score is based on how much fun I personally had with every component of the game
    and the overall experience.

Awards & Rankings

58
#58 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2017
78
#78 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
68

Mixed or average reviews - based on 53 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 53
  2. Mixed: 31 out of 53
  3. Negative: 2 out of 53
  1. Power Unlimited
    Oct 19, 2017
    87
    Yooka-Laylee at times feels more like a remake of Banjo-Kazooie than a completely new game, that's how much they are alike. But in this case it is only meant in a positive way. The world needs more games likes this, you know.
    Read full review
  2. Wired UK
    Aug 30, 2017
    50
    When the original is so readily available, and still so thoroughly playable, Playtonic's recreation of the recipe can't help but fall flat.
    Read full review
  3. Playstation Official Magazine Australia
    Jul 7, 2017
    70
    Much more fun than it is frustrating, and don’t go in expecting evolution. That said, this is still a quill in the cap for a genre that is slowly making a comeback. [June 2017, p72]
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