Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

A love letter to the Donkey Kong Country series, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair goes beyond a standard homage, and crafts something beautiful of its own. Fantastic challenging platforming, spanning across 40 imaginative levels, and a charming graphical art style. This is an essential 2D platformer that should not be missed, even more so by the fact that it is being sold for budget point.

Yooka-Laylee smartly ditches 3D to instead focus on perfecting 2D platforming. [Issue#184, p.77]

Yooka-Laylee and The Impossible Lair manages to surpass its predecessor in almost every aspect. The change to the two dimensions has been great.

Yooka & Laylee are back with a outstanding platformer. This is a great take on the Donkey Kong Country formula, but also with its own personality. If you like this genre, you cannot miss it.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is very enjoyable and should appeal to many with its distinctly memorable characters and almost limitless customisation opportunities. It certainly has a high entertainment value bringing a more up to date and fresh approach to a genre that other developers have tried to revive with somewhat less success. The music is exciting flowing seamlessly through different areas and never becomes irritating. No part of play gets frustrating because of the ability to skip or customise levels and the depth of design in every character and their dialogue brings it all together so seemingly effortlessly. A confident thumbs up.

The dynamic duo Yookay and Laylee returns in a new adventure, although this time in 2D. A worthy sequel with a classic and deep gameplay that manages not to fall into monotony. All in all, Yookay-Layee and the impossible liar is a great platform title.

While I’m annoyed that the Lair itself is more frustrating than fun, it’s that very quality that keeps you coming back to beat it.

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.

If there’s one gripe to be had, which could be said of the original Yooka-Laylee from 2017 is that some of the stages feel overly large to traverse – which can adversely affect the pacing. That said, that’s only a minor gripe as Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair succeeds in delivering a fun, challenging, and rewarding old-school romp. By incorporating some of the classic 2D design of previous generations this once N64 throwback has matured and grown into its own slice of platforming gold.

It’s challenging, humorous, beautifully designed and offers a surprising amount of variety. However you feel about the insurmountable challenge of its final level, there’s still plenty to enjoy outside of that. If you enjoy platforming games, you’ll find a lot to love here. And did I mention how cute Yooka and Laylee are?

After the first Yooka-Laylee, you could be forgiven for not being desperate for more, but Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a more accomplished and markedly different game to its forebear. And it's all the better for it.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair ironically does justice to the impossible task of living up to the name of great platforming games like Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Country, and Rayman Legends. It’s a joy to play, feeling simultaneously modern and yet nostalgic. The odd omission of boss battles and some issues with variety aside, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a game any self-respecting platformer fan should play.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair really feels like a game designed for all ages. Veteran players will appreciate the standard difficulty of the game, whilst younger ones may benefit from a few Tonics to help them on their way.