Yooka-Laylee

 Switch
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 167 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 103 out of 167
  2. Mixed: 33 out of 167
  3. Negative: 31 out of 167

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Fezehim
    Apr 7, 2018
    6
    An otherwise decent game, let down by some dreadful boss fights. Worth picking up, but feels unpolished in places
  2. coolgamer123
    Apr 28, 2021
    6
    Alright. This game is not super good. Kids will like it, and most people who dont play video games will enjoy it. Its kinda like a very bad sonic game mixed with gex. The 2d gameplay isnt bad, but the 3d gameplay is very slow and tedious. The beetalion idea is cool, but it gets old after a while. The gameplay itself is okay, but i hated those paywalls when you needed to collect the hiddenAlright. This game is not super good. Kids will like it, and most people who dont play video games will enjoy it. Its kinda like a very bad sonic game mixed with gex. The 2d gameplay isnt bad, but the 3d gameplay is very slow and tedious. The beetalion idea is cool, but it gets old after a while. The gameplay itself is okay, but i hated those paywalls when you needed to collect the hidden coins, took me forever.… Expand
  3. MMPP99
    May 29, 2022
    7
    It's a descent game to play, however, it just looks like a Mario 64's generic game. So, don't expect a something extraordinary. The good aspects I would point out are the controls and the graphic, considering the switch's hardware.
  4. hawkeye369
    Dec 16, 2017
    6
    Yooka Laylee is an enjoyable experience that feels uncertain on what it desires to be. It seemingly relies on its predecessor, Banjo, more than it should really. Disclaimer, I have never played any Banjo game and rating this game on its own merit.

    To begin, I'm going to start out positive. I just adore Yooka and Laylee together. I love how they're animated and their relationship to one    Yooka Laylee is an enjoyable experience that feels uncertain on what it desires to be. It seemingly relies on its predecessor, Banjo, more than it should really. Disclaimer, I have never played any Banjo game and rating this game on its own merit.

    To begin, I'm going to start out positive. I just adore Yooka and Laylee together. I love how they're animated and their relationship to one another. Yooka is pretty level headed while Laylee is a bit of a **** sometimes, which I love. Bad puns are thrown left and right along with 4th wall breaks that'll make you chuckle. The collectibles are satisfying to collect; the pagies, quills, ghosts, and other unique collectibles. These aren't just given to you, sometimes you'll have do a little side quest, a race course, a mini game, and puzzle solving. With each world you unlock, you unlock a new move that can not only be used to get to the world, but also be used in previous worlds to collect other collectibles you couldn't before. There is a strong sense of progression and for each world is a boss that isn't a three hit knockout (except for one). These bosses and how you defeat them vary tremendously from one another, which is a lot of fun.

    However, this game has many faults. For instance, the camera doesn't go through walls meaning if there is a rock in the way of your camera, it isn't going anywhere. You will be fighting the camera through the whole game and be forced to work around the problem to make it work. I've missed a few jumps before because I couldn't get the angle I wanted. Furthermore, characters from previous worlds are reused in others and the new characters you do meet aren't fleshed out as little as not at all. Earlier I said you will unlock new abilities that can be used to collect other pagies and such in previous levels. This would be fine, however, the game doesn't tell you if a particular pagie or other collectible is out of your reach! You may find yourself wasting time on a particular part without realizing it's something to collect for a later time, which really can be infuriating. And the quiz levels, oh how I abhor the quizzes... There are sections in the game when you are progressing through the next world, Mr. Quack will stop you in your tracks and force you to answer at least 10 questions right (5 if you answer the questions fast enough) and I can't help wonder if they had made a boss fight in these sequences instead. The quizzes usually come down to how many collectibles do you have, what's this character's name from the previous one or two worlds, etc. These quizzes are just boring and goes back to what I said about this game not knowing what it wants to be, because apparently Banjo had quizzes, too. Naturally, the devs felt compelled to do the same, but in reality, they would be off so much better without them. Also, the soundtrack is the most inconsistent I've ever heard. Either it's underwhelming or overwhelming according to where you are and what you're doing. The hub world, for example, is overwhelming. The music is loud af and you're not doing anything. You're in the hub world for crying out loud! Tone it down two notches or something.

    Overall, this game is slightly above average. HOWEVER! Despite your perception of how you view 6's, I recommend playing this game. Like I said in the beginning, I 100% this game. I didn't do it because I just wanted to say I did it. I played through and saw everything because I was having fun. I felt accomplished clearing a world of all it had to offer. I genuinely enjoyed playing the game and I really wanted to give this game a 7, but with all its faults, I couldn't do it. If you're wondering whether you should buy this game or not, you should ask yourself if you can deal with the issues I presented like I've dealt with them. There really is an enjoyable experience to be had here, and considering it's $40 instead of $60, I can tell myself it was money well spent without a shadow of a doubt. I may play it again after a little while when I forget where everything is. I hope you've found this review helpful.    … Expand
  5. KevoKazooie
    Feb 18, 2018
    5
    Yooka-Laylee is the biggest disappointment I've ever felt for a game. Banjo Kazooie is my favorite game of all time, so I was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately, they made it more like Banjo Tooie instead of learning from their mistakes. It's not outright terrible, just mediocre. But being mediocre feels much worse for a game with high expectations, made by a team with a highYooka-Laylee is the biggest disappointment I've ever felt for a game. Banjo Kazooie is my favorite game of all time, so I was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately, they made it more like Banjo Tooie instead of learning from their mistakes. It's not outright terrible, just mediocre. But being mediocre feels much worse for a game with high expectations, made by a team with a high pedigree. The classic charm, humor, and music are all still there, but the fun wasn't.

    Right from the outset, I was rubbed the wrong way. Instead of 9 small, tightly-designed worlds that are still sizable and fun to explore like in BK, they went with 5 gigantic levels, even bigger than BT's. This is not a good thing. And every world is expandable, so they go from huge to mega-huge. I popped into the first level and felt immediately lost with no clue where to go or what I could even interact with. The hub overworld is especially labyrinthian and confounding to navigate. My confusion and discombobulation got better as the game went on, but every level wore out its welcome real fast with so many pagies concentrated in each world instead of being spread out. The joy of BK wasn't just completing challenges and solving puzzles, it was in exploring fun worlds. In this game, I didn't really enjoy exploring the worlds very much. They were so huge it just felt like a confusing chore, nor did most of them have much charm. Galleon Galaxy felt like the only fresh, original world. Three worlds were all pretty bland rehashes of Mumbo's Mountain, Freezeazy Peak, and Mad Monster Mansion. Capital Cashino is unique but easily the worst videogame level in history. Not only is it a gaudy, tacky, banal casino, but almost all the challenges are annoying and not fun at all. What were they thinking?

    That brings me to the next big problem: many of the challenges in the game are tedious and annoying without being fun. It often felt like the developers just asked themselves, "what would be a challenge," without bothering to ask themselves if it would also be fun. Rextro's arcade games, in particular, are terrible. Not only are they not remotely fun, but they get frustratingly hard because the controls and hit-boxing are awful. They're half-assed, poorly thought-out, and poorly tested pieces of crap.

    Another big complaint, admittedly very subjective, is that you can't get all the pagies and collectibles in each level from the outset, as some require moves you only acquire in later levels. This forces you to backtrack instead of being able to complete each level as you go, and that's a playstyle that doesn't jibe with everyone. BK never forced you to go back, and they should never have gotten away from that. It's also frustrating because you end up wasting time trying to figure out how you can earn a pagie or access an area, not knowing you can't until later. They could have at least had some mechanism for letting you know you can't access certain areas/pagies until later.

    There are also lots of lazy, bad design choices. If you die and have to face a boss again, you have to sit through dialogue and intro animations all over again instead just spawning right into the fight. You get a flying ability late-game, but there's no way to know what areas you can reach and which you're invisibly blocked from. There's no way to speed up the speed of the dialogue scrolling, and the pace at which it comes on screen is slower than an elderly driver. So many ill-thought out design elements like this make the experience unnecessarily cumbersome and frustrating.

    The game design is also maddingly unmodern and stuck in design choices of the past when it absolutely shouldn't be. There is no map to check your whereabouts which is just insane in this day and age, especially considering the size of the worlds. There's no list of which pagies you've acquired, ala Super Mario Odyssey, which makes it hard to figure out what the heck you missed. There's no retry button to quickly get back into a boss fight. I get that they're making a throwback to the Banjo classic style of platformers, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't integrate modern design/accessibility into the classic gameplay.

    This isn't to say it's all bad. The old charm is still alive and well, and I did enjoy myself at times, just not nearly enough. I finished the game (minus 2 pagies because the final Rextro game is just absurd and not worth it), but it felt like a slog that I only put up with because I so desperately wanted to like it and hoped it would magically get better all the sudden. It didn't; it remained mediocre all throughout, and that was a bitter disappointment.

    I hope Playtonic does keep making games and I do hope they make a sequel. I just hope they listen to their fans and critics to fix the issues while still remaining true to BK roots. Playtonic, if you're reading: I love you and I appreciate it you. But please, please, please use Kazooie as your model, not Tooie.    … Expand
  6. Arfon
    Jan 26, 2021
    7
    Fun game. It feels too much like Banjo-Kazooie, but it's not as good as it could have been. Some maps are too big and feel empty. Bosses are cool though.
  7. adamlewis
    Jan 17, 2018
    5
    Maybe Yooka-Laylee for Switch is the "Defenitive Edition".
    But it does not stop being an empty game, lifeless and a little boring game.
    Its not a very bad game, but disappointing a lot.
  8. joehi1
    Jan 11, 2018
    7
    Yooka Layley is the game I have been waiting for since Banjo Tooie and it serves as a fantastic spiritual successor, and while the Switch may be the definitive way to play the game it unfortunately as quite a few shortcomings. Yooka Layley plays great on the Switch and even though in handheld mode it doesn't quite make it to 720P (600P is the resolution in handheld mode) the game stillYooka Layley is the game I have been waiting for since Banjo Tooie and it serves as a fantastic spiritual successor, and while the Switch may be the definitive way to play the game it unfortunately as quite a few shortcomings. Yooka Layley plays great on the Switch and even though in handheld mode it doesn't quite make it to 720P (600P is the resolution in handheld mode) the game still looks great. Yooka Layley gives a great feeling of Nostalgia that fans of the Banjo Kazooie series have yearned for, for so long. The game plays exactly like it with a similar soundtrack style to a similar overworld to similar gameplay, it's easy to see that this game is essentially Banjo Threeie reskinned. The presentation of Yooka Layley is great, the new moves you are constantly learning aid in spicing up the gameplay, and the worlds give off such an amazing atmosphere that may be even better than the worlds in Banjo Kazooie (remember I said may). Overall Yooka Layley is drowning in character from the wonderful cast to the vibrant worlds it makes you wonder how this game could have any problems with it, and then you begin to see the technical problems. The Switch version of Yooka Layley is plagued by awful load times, switching worlds has taken me up to a full minute of load time in order to start playing again which is just insufferable to say the least. Yooka Layley also loses a lot of graphical power compared to other systems although Playtonic did do their best to prevent it from being exceptionally noticeable. The frame rate in Yooka Layley is my main concern because sometimes it is all over the place. I have suffered major frame rate problems in docked and handheld mode and while they don't last for long they happen frequently enough to ruin some of the immersiveness of the game. While I do agree that the graphical downgrade is acceptable considering the Switch is less powerful then other home consoles, the awful load times and frequent frame rate problems cannot be excused. Yooka Layley is a wonderful tribute to the 3D collectathon genre and is truly a very entertaining game. It pays tribute to its roots very well and it's easy to see the immense amount of work Playtonic put into it. Unfortunantly this game loses some of its appeals due to its technical shortcomings, however, that still doesn't mean Yooka is not an amazing game. Instead it's a flawed masterpiece.

    Cons
    Frame rate issues in both Handheld and Docked mode
    Crippling load time between worlds
    Graphics feel a little too blurry in some of the environment    … Expand
  9. Mattdark
    Sep 20, 2021
    6
    Yooka Laylee tries to recapture the feel of old Rare titles like Banjo Kazooie. But in its attempts to relive the teams glory days, the game suffers from more issues than it replicates old fun.

    The game itself starts off fairly strong. Controls mostly seem responsive, the characters are well animated. But a few worlds in, and you quickly start to notice issues come in. A janky    Yooka Laylee tries to recapture the feel of old Rare titles like Banjo Kazooie. But in its attempts to relive the teams glory days, the game suffers from more issues than it replicates old fun.

    The game itself starts off fairly strong. Controls mostly seem responsive, the characters are well animated. But a few worlds in, and you quickly start to notice issues come in. A janky camera that can get stuck on the environment, unsual hit-boxes or collision detection when can have you taking damage for no real reason or falling off platforms you were easily within reach of.

    While this has the look and feel of an old Rare game, it had none of the heart and soul.    … Expand
  10. Onioncreature
    Jan 27, 2022
    7
    A flawed but still generally pleasant spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie series. My biggest complaint is that the worlds lack the level of density that the made the game Yooka-Laylee is based on so enjoyable, and as a result finding collectibles can become a bit of a slog. The controls are passable, but not nearly as smooth as you'd want in a modern 3D platformer. Fortunately, theA flawed but still generally pleasant spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie series. My biggest complaint is that the worlds lack the level of density that the made the game Yooka-Laylee is based on so enjoyable, and as a result finding collectibles can become a bit of a slog. The controls are passable, but not nearly as smooth as you'd want in a modern 3D platformer. Fortunately, the game has a very enjoyable art direction and comedic tone, which helps to make up for it's various shortcomings. The music is also quite good, though not quite at the level of Banjo-Kazooie. While the end result isn't the most impressive product, the passion from Playtonic, the development team, is quite evident, and they've proven to be committed to improving the quality of the series through quality of life updates to the Switch version and a far superior 2D spin-off. I hope to see more from the series moving forward, as there's quite a lot of potential here that sadly wasn't realized with this original release.… Expand
  11. GreenMenace
    Jun 17, 2022
    5
    I loved Banjo Kazooie growing up as the eccentric characters grabbed my attention. I was suspicious of an undisguised clone of the game. This is a late review because, well, I took my time buying this one. Yooka Laylee is a cute game that feels a lot like the game I loved as a kid.

    Pros Fun abilities Solid Formula Beautiful themes Cons Camera issues Levels could be a little    I loved Banjo Kazooie growing up as the eccentric characters grabbed my attention. I was suspicious of an undisguised clone of the game. This is a late review because, well, I took my time buying this one. Yooka Laylee is a cute game that feels a lot like the game I loved as a kid.

    Pros
    Fun abilities
    Solid Formula
    Beautiful themes

    Cons
    Camera issues
    Levels could be a little tighter
    Bland music

    Yooka Laylee offers a coop mode (in case a little child would want to join you) and it even offers a few simple minigames you could play with others. It also confused me by the way it managed to consistently tell adult potty jokes that would surely go over a kid’s head. I can’t tell you who this game’s for. I would guess the game is for children from the art, but there are references to the way games used to be and the progression into the modern era…something that Banjo Kazooie fans would appreciate. Some abilities straight up copy Banjo and Kazooie of old, while others allow you to skip the majority of puzzling/platforming. All were appreciated, however.

    Levels are bigger than I would like, but it was doable. I managed to find workarounds by exiting to the hub after getting a Pagie to avoid traversing the world. I was really disappointed by the music. I don’t have high expectations for this sort of game, but at least Banjo Kazooie aimed to make music that was catchy. I liked the hub world. Expand or explore a new world sounded fun, but it fell short as it was always best just to explore a new world.

    The game’s price tag is unjustified. The game isn’t big enough, nor is it fun enough, nor is it tight enough to charge sixty dollars. The only reason I got it was because it was eighty percent off, and the game exceeded expectations just because it was cute. The themes are what make this game. Period. For once, I liked fighting the same enemy over and over because they were dressed to the world. Without the themes, the game wouldn’t have been fun. What would make the game worth sixty dollars? Fixing the flaws I mentioned, namely the camera. The camera issue has plagued generations of 3d world games like Mario. Fix it, allow the player to be more immersed in your world, and that alone would justify the price. At the very least, make the game feel a lot more sleek than Banjo and Kazooie. This game felt like it could have came out on the Gamecube (yes, I know it was made by an independent company) or the Wii.

    Really random, but I would have also liked the game more if Yooka was female. I know he’s a replacement for Banjo, but really, I would have liked the game more with a female duo.

    I can't give this a higher score because I wanted to like this game for nostalgia's sake. But in today's day in age, I think it's reasonable to expect more in terms of gameplay (the themes were great--I was happy enough with the art). Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed myself since this game has its own collect it all niche on the switch roster, but I wouldn’t be able to recommend this game to someone unless they wanted a Banjo Kazooie fix.    … Expand
  12. AshuraZoro
    Feb 13, 2023
    6
    the final stage sucks. the rest of the game isnt bad, its a 8/10 withoute the final stage

Awards & Rankings

81
#81 Best Switch Game of 2017
39
#39 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2017
66
#66 Most Shared Switch Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. FNintendo
    Feb 26, 2018
    70
    Yooka-Laylee brings back some of the action platforming magic that was so successful in the late 90s in an effort that is full of nostalgic bliss. Being more of a retro-looking work than a trailblazing new platformer, it could use some improvements regarding certain sections that turn out to be too frustrating for its own good, as well as its combat mechanics and the way the camera moves but none of this prevents Yooka-Laylee from striking a chord with the fans of classic 3D platformers.
    Read full review
  2. Nintendo Force Magazine
    Feb 26, 2018
    75
    Playtonic's decision to hew so closely to '90s platformer conventions works both in Yooka-Laylee's favor and to its detriment. [Issue #32 – March/April 2018, p. 17]
  3. DarkStation
    Jan 16, 2018
    80
    Yooka-Laylee doesn’t branch too far from its obvious Banjo-Kazooie roots. It simply takes a bigger is better approach that doesn’t always work in its favor. Despite the flaws, it's a joy to explore the worlds and collect every goody. Yooka-Laylee may not be the most polished platformer around, but Playtonic Games has created an enjoyable love letter to 90's collectathon platforming. Hardcore fans of the genre will want to set their googly eyes on this one.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »