Yooka-Laylee

 Xbox One
User Score
5.5

Mixed or average reviews- based on 129 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 62 out of 129
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 129
  3. Negative: 50 out of 129
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  1. duperghoul
    Apr 11, 2017
    7
    A gimmicky camera, I can handle. You get used to it after several hours. Only having 5 levels outside the main hub to explore, is doable. This is because there are tons of objects and tasks to do in the worlds.

    The main thing I can't stand are the fodder enemies. There seems to be a small amount of them. Not to mention, all fodder enemies look and act the same. They'll act scared of you    A gimmicky camera, I can handle. You get used to it after several hours. Only having 5 levels outside the main hub to explore, is doable. This is because there are tons of objects and tasks to do in the worlds.

    The main thing I can't stand are the fodder enemies. There seems to be a small amount of them. Not to mention, all fodder enemies look and act the same. They'll act scared of you and then run at you moments later.

    I don't care about the JonTron controversy with the game. JonTron was promised to be a voice actor, but got cut due to his political views, so what? He wasn't in Banjo-Kazooie games and he said himself that he respects Playtonic Game's decision.
    The so-called voices annoyed my father within seconds. As kids the mumbling voices were fine, but now depending on the person, it hasn't aged well.    … Expand
  2. 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
  3. AJ_antipop
    Jun 30, 2017
    7
    The main criticisms that seem to sprout from this game overall is that it's "just a banjo-kazooie clone" and that "it doesn't try to build off of past elements in any way"... to which I say, while yes, it IS the true spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie and yes, it does share many elements from that game including the overall sound and visual design in general, but look just a little bitThe main criticisms that seem to sprout from this game overall is that it's "just a banjo-kazooie clone" and that "it doesn't try to build off of past elements in any way"... to which I say, while yes, it IS the true spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie and yes, it does share many elements from that game including the overall sound and visual design in general, but look just a little bit further past that and I'm confident you'll find a truly rewarding, relaxing, and uplifting 3D platformer experience in this title. Not only is this game incredibly engaging and hilariously clever in it's script-writing, but it's jam packed with an absolutely VAST variety of challenges and obstacles to overcome within it's stunningly gorgeous worlds. Add in the adorable character designs, and often ridiculously funny voice sounds, and you've got a fantastic hit all-around, in my opinion at least.

    On a side note, these average scores make me kinda ashamed to be part of the human race lol    … Expand
  4. BenLink
    Jun 1, 2017
    6
    The game had a lot of potential. I really liked the characters in the game. The writing is witty and funny. My problem with the game was the direction and checkpoint system. If you die, it's very punishing. You spawn way back at the beginning of the level, or back at the last loading screen you came out of. It gets very frustrating. If you make one little platforming mistake and fall. BackThe game had a lot of potential. I really liked the characters in the game. The writing is witty and funny. My problem with the game was the direction and checkpoint system. If you die, it's very punishing. You spawn way back at the beginning of the level, or back at the last loading screen you came out of. It gets very frustrating. If you make one little platforming mistake and fall. Back to the beginning. Not sure how this was overlooked. Also, there is not really any direction or feeling of completion within each world. I explored almost everything in World 1 and 2 but never got prompted to move on or go fight a boss. So I found myself roaming around wondering what to do next. As a result I got extremely bored after awhile and ended up wanting to quit. Which was weird because I really did like the characters. To end my review I must mention the camera. It's pretty bad. It catches onto geometry and gets you killed a lot. The camera definitely needs improvement. I would be willing to try out a sequel but the design needs to match the characters and writing to be something special.… Expand
  5. jthegamer96
    Apr 26, 2017
    7
    A lot of people like to compare Yooka Laylee to Banjo Kazooie, as the game was meant to be a spiritual successor made by people who worked on the original. While that is not a bad comparison, I believe that the game should be compared to Banjo tooie, as Banjo tooie is more similar to Yooka laylee than Banjo Kazooie is.

    To sum up my position, Banjo tooie was not as good as Banjo Kazooie,    A lot of people like to compare Yooka Laylee to Banjo Kazooie, as the game was meant to be a spiritual successor made by people who worked on the original. While that is not a bad comparison, I believe that the game should be compared to Banjo tooie, as Banjo tooie is more similar to Yooka laylee than Banjo Kazooie is.

    To sum up my position, Banjo tooie was not as good as Banjo Kazooie, but it was an excellent sequel and introduced new mechanics that made the game fresh and interesting. Yooka laylee seems like it wanted to follow the path of Banjo tooie, but the game was too ambitious with what it was trying to accomplish.

    First off, the maps were simply too large, especially when extended. While the idea is interesting, it just creates empty space, increasing the travel time to get to all the challenges and unnecessarily extending the playtime. The player does not receive an efficient means of travel until on the path to World 5.

    Next, there are simply too many useless collectables. The quills become useless after all the moves are bought (the same for pagies and opening/extending worlds), and you end up with an excess of a few hundred quills, 70 extra pagies, 5 secret collectables that don't do anything, and play coins, which (along with the arcade itself) felt like it was added in to extend the playtime. The only collectables that are worth getting 100% are the health/energy extenders, as they make your life easier. over the course of the game.

    Third, the challenges felt too simple and felt isolated from each other, rather than each world being cohesive like Banjo Kazooie, and to a lesser extent, banjo tooie. Since there are a large amount of collectables, some of the challenges get repeated, only reskined and the execution is made more difficult.. Because of the variety that Banjo kazooie and tooie offers, no challenge repeats itself, and each puzzle is unique to it's environment.

    Overall, it's not a bad game. Like other kickstarter projects, it just got too ambitious, with too big of worlds, too many useless collectables and to simple challenges. It seems like the type of game a parent could use to introduce their child into the world of gaming in a friendly environment, rather than the Banjo Kazooie successor that everyone was waiting for.

    For the hardcore fans, I recommend either buying banjo kazooie and tooie again for the Xbox one (both combined are cheaper than yooka laylee) or buy the rare replay (also cheaper than yooka laylee with tons more value) and wait for the price to drop before picking up Yooka laylee    … Expand

Awards & Rankings

30
#30 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2017
24
#24 Most Shared Xbox One Game of 2017

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 39 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 39
  3. Negative: 1 out of 39
  1. Official Xbox Magazine UK
    May 29, 2017
    70
    Wickedly funny and not afraid to make you work, Yooka-Laylee is diabolically fun. [June 2017, p.69]
  2. Worth Playing
    May 12, 2017
    80
    Yooka-Laylee is classic 3D-era platformer. It brings an updated presentation to the genre, and it provides some solid and familiar platforming mechanics. The large levels provide a nice playground for those abilities, and while the combat isn't anything special, it's a lot of fun to complete the various tasks to collect pagies. If you can deal with the problematic camera, Yooka-Laylee is worth checking out.
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  3. Windows Central
    Apr 14, 2017
    80
    Hopefully Playtonic continues to support Yooka-Laylee with updates and refinements. But even with a few rough edges here and there, this is still a huge game that platforming fans must not miss.
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