Video Game Review - Yooka-Laylee

Well I guess this is the closest we get to a Banjo-Threeie game having lost faith in the franchise since Nuts and Bolts which isn't too bad, but the fans deserved something better. Anyway so most of you may remember my review of Rare Replay so I won't go into too much detail about them. But basically back in my childhood days otherwise known as the 90s, Rare released some of their most critically acclaimed games on the SNES and N64 and many of them were platforming games that while similar to Super Mario 64, added their own take and twist to it. Banjo-Kazooie was one of Rare's most beloved franchises that went on to make two critically acclaimed games on N64 and then following Microsoft's purchase of the company, a third game was made, but wasn't what fans were expecting. Because of this as well as Microsoft's treatment of the company, many Rare employees left and a handful of them chose to create a spiritual successor to not only Banjo-Kazooie, but other similar Rare games too. So they went to Kickstarter to get the game the funding it needed and well here it is. So let's get to it:

So there is this villainous plan to turn the world's literature into profit and its up to the titular heroes, Yooka and Laylee to stop the villains before a profit is made. A pretty simple and straightforward plot and for a game like this, that's really all it needs. So the idea of playing as two protagonists obviously comes from the Banjo-Kazooie games so no surprise there. Each character have their own abilities, but you effectively play as if it were one character. Like with Super Mario 64, you can go to worlds to find pages to restore the world's literature while also giving our heroes new abilities and/or the worlds get some expansion. Its graphics manage to get the genre to the modern world while also being very colourful and child friendly (to a certain extent).

As a game that serves as a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie, its pretty good. It gets the genre up to date, its visually entertaining and very much the Banjo-Kazooie game we were hoping for. Just without Banjo or Kazooie. Its very fun, reminiscent of those games and its great for those who grew up in the 90s and those who just want a fun platformer without the gaming trends of today. Great work guys! 9/10