Ever since the downfall of Rare, 90s gamers have been longing for a 3D platformer in the spirit of Banjo-Kazooie. Their wish was seemingly granted when it was announced that several former Rare employees at Playtonic Games were developing a spiritual successor to the Nintendo 64 classic. Raising over £2 million on Kickstarter, Yooka-Laylee quickly became one of the most hyped games of recent years. When it finally came out in 2017, however, it was generally met with a resounding, “meh.”
While some nostalgic gamers were glad they backed the project, others felt that it merely coasted on nostalgic and failed to evolve a familiar formula. Was Yooka-Laylee unfairly judged upon release, though? Here are five reasons why it deserves a second chance.
5. The Developers Aren’t Entirely To Blame
When Yooka-Laylee came out, numerous critics dwelled on its shortcomings, from the irritating camera system to those dull quiz show challenges. Perhaps the biggest problem is that the game doesn’t supply a map or check list to keep track of all the items you’ve collected, making it easy to get lost. It’s not like these are new problems, however. The original Banjo games also suffered from such issues, but it was the 90s and that was the norm. These problems are much more noticeable now, as games have become more polished.
That being said, we can’t entirely blame Playtonic for being behind the times. For years we’ve put Banjo-Kazooie on a pedestal as if it’s perfect in every way. While it certainly remains a great game, it also has a few features that didn’t age too well. Nostalgia seemed to blind many from those issues until Yooka-Laylee came out. Everyone went into this game with the mentality that if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. After almost 20 years, however, there’s bound to be room for improvement.
4. Some Flaws Have Been Corrected
While Yooka-Laylee still suffers from many of the problems it had at launch, the developers have tweaked some of those issues since then. Playtonic released an update of the game that patched up the camera, controls, and other bugs. So if that’s what initially turned you off, you’ll find the game much more playable now.
3. It Delivers What We Were Promised
Despite being far from perfect, Yooka-Laylee delivers exactly what we were promised: a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. Playtonic has given us a game with inventive worlds, charming characters, a self-aware sense of humor, engaging puzzels, and plenty of items to collect. Would it have been nice if they also brought something new and innovative to the table? Absolutely! But don’t act like the marketing campaign was misleading. If you want to play a modern Banjo-Kazooie, that’s what you’re going to get. Something similar can be said about other throwbacks like DuckTales: Remastered and Sonic the Hedgehog 4.
2. A Sequel Can Fully Deliver
Sometimes a game comes along that almost achieves greatness, but never quite reaches its full potential. In that sense, Yooka-Laylee can be grouped in with the first Uncharted and Assassin’s Creed games. The aforementioned titles fully delivered with their sequels, though, and Yooka-Laylee could do the same. Now that these issues have been brought to Playtonic’s attention, they can make the adjustments needed to bring retro platformers into the 21st century. Of course they could also pull a Star Wars Battlefront II…
1. Trowzer Snake
As far as we’re concerned, this pun alone justifies the game’s existence!
Do You Think Yooka-Laylee Deserves a Second Chance or Is It Really a Dated Collectathon? Let Us Know and Watch These Videos:
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