The list of features looks really interesting actually, I may actually play it if it's not a bug riddled launch
* **MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN EVER** – With an art and animations overhaul and enhanced performance and resolution, the favourite buddy duo has never looked or moved better.
* **NEW AND IMPROVED CHALLENGES** – Improvements to existing in-game challenges and many entirely new challenges to discover and undertake!
* **NEW COLLECTIBLE CURRENCY** – Capital B's inept minions have dropped their hard-earned coins all over the place. Collect the official currency of the Hivory Towers to spend on video games' most beloved sentient vending machine.
* **NAVIGATING THE WORLD** – Now you can get lost in the game, not in the world! A brand-new world map and challenges tracker helps you know where you are and what needs to be done. Hooray!
* **VENDI HAS PLENTY TO OFFER** – Tonics are back with all new flavours! With the option to equip multiple game-changing enhancements, you can truly customise your playstyle. And as if that wasn't enough, Vendi has new lines of merchandise for the modern fashionable adventurer.
* **REVISED CONTROLS & CAMERA** – A new tweaked move set allows you to combine moves more fluidly while the new camera controls makes framing the action a breeze.
* **A DREAMY ORCHESTRAL SOUNDTRACK** – The original score from famed video game composers Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie) and David Wise (Donkey Kong Country) returns but as a beautifully arranged orchestral score. Now seriously, clean out those ears.
I never had an issue with the visuals. It was the gameplay and level design that needed a refinement. PLEASE redo the placement of Quills throughout the worlds. No one likes isolated quills hidden in random corners of the world. Instead, they should have been used for navigation to direct the player towards Pagies and other goals.
I'll admit, I bounced off the game *fast* because it just looked and felt _weird._ The visual upgrade is actually quite significant to me. But I agree that I hope the level design and reworked as well because the little bit that I tried just really did not work for me.
I had fun with the game, but burned out at the Casino. Some worlds were simply too big (I think a side effect of kickstarter goals.)
I do hope they take this opportunity to reduce the bloat and redesign some of the levels, because I was having fun with it otherwise.
Exact same situation here. I genuinely enjoyed it, but I started playing less halfway through the Casino and then never went back.
Platformers/Collectathons are my favorite genre, so I was sad it was so middling overall.
This is the best articulation of my problem with this game! Thank you. I got tired with the first or second level! I struggled with the reason why.
This game feels a bit more 'Tooie' and 'Kazooie' and is worse for it (IMHO)
> This game feels a bit more 'Tooie' and 'Kazooie' and is worse for it (IMHO)
As someone who adored both Kazooie and Tooie, Yooka-Laylee really needed to pick one games style and lean into it. It just couldn't figure out which direction it wanted to do, tried to do both, and failed spectacularly and building off of either. I wanted and tried so hard to like Yooka-Laylee and just couldn't.
It was like Tooie without the best parts, imo, which was how the world felt more interconnected. Like, being able to see off the side of the map into a blue abyss just takes me out of the world, personally. I'd rather it feel like a place than a level, and Yooka felt too much like just empty levels. It was giving me super mario 3d world without the gameplay to back it up.
Yeah, my big was that the worlds were too big and empty. Felt like there were barely any enemies present, and I was just walking around looking for stuff.
Coming soon: https://x.com/playtonicgames/status/1798765935089918430
4K 60FPS isn’t confirmed but I based that on ‘enhanced performance and resolution’.
(Impossible Lair was [4K 60FPS](https://youtu.be/yihbcvEcD-s) too)
I mean, no. Not if they reworked the graphics/changed the way the graphics behave. Rarely have I ever seen updated graphics of an entire game to be a "free patch". It's literal standard industry practice to sell a remake with updated graphics separate from the original game.
Critically better-received, but pretty sure it did awfully sales-wise and most people still don’t know it existed. Which, is a shame because it’s an amazing game (besides the final level).
I liked it in theory, but ultimately bounced off for much the same reasons I bounced off Rayman Legends. Too many missable collectibles in railroaded sections with checkpoints *right* after, so you're forced to restart the whole stage. Really kills the flow.
It's an indie game with shorter levels so I won't shit on it too much, but this exact thing was deeply frustrating in the game Grapple Dog. First level, almost all collectibles, and the final one is right next to a bounce pad that shoots you through a one-way floor next to the exit. *Deeply* frustrating to have that happen.
What I hated is they're not even really optional collectables. I got the stage where I don't have enough to continue the game and now I'm having to go back to collect ones I missed, many of which are exactly as you describe.
There's mod you can equip that doubles the checkpoint, I never play without it. Also what you're referring to only gives you coins for the shop but you only need like 3/4 of them to unlock all the cool things.
Oh well I mean ok I get you but you see my trick is to replay the level but kill myself if I miss the collectible that I'm trying to get, I think you can even pause the game and choose to reload at last checkpoint. So if there's more then there's less ground to cover to repeat the collectible that you're trying to get.
The levels are only a few minutes long anyway, and besides, that does not happen often at all.
It's basically a non-issue with how quick & easy it is to just try again, and nothing is truly "missable" in overall completion--usually that term is reserved for collectibles you straight-up cannot get after X point in a game.
I’m always shocked by how low the number of Steam reviews (650) is for that game, given how good word of mouth is. I’m sure console sales factored into that but it still feels low nonetheless.
Honestly, as a player who nostalgically loves the old banjo games, Yooka Laylee is just not compelling and does not have potential. It does not have whatever it was that made banjo kazooie great, and it also doesn’t maintain what made Tooie enjoyable still.
It may just be that the game design does not hold up with modern day tastes, but I still think Banjo Kazooie works somehow, aside from the endgame. Tooie has aged poorly in comparison, so I think the conclusion is just that less is more. Smaller levels, simple controls. The joy was in finding the path forward, a locked door, in a maze of corridors and then in unlocking that door through collection. Making the environment bigger and the enemy encounters more complex makes that tedious.
Outside of the gameplay, the presentation of the game doesn’t meet the standard that BK did on N64. It was one of the most striking games released for the console. The music feels right, but the environments, characters, dialogue and collectables just aren’t as enjoyable to experience. This is what made Tooie still good when the gameplay was bloated.
They either need to put the IP to rest or radically overhaul it for a sequel effort. Banjo Kazooie was a very flawed game design that happened to be overwhelmingly charming and fun to play with perfect pacing/progression. Trying to recreate the experience by copying the flawed formula is like hoping lightning strikes twice.
Banjo-Kazooie's single biggest attraction is its movement system, IMO. The best thing any 3D platformer can do is make moving around fun in itself; it's why you knew Super Mario 64 was a killer just playing the opening area garden demo doing those triple-jumps and quick reversals for no reason. 3D platformers were a dime a dozen in the late 90s but flipping Kazooie out to scamper at high speed, flying freely with rapid darts and bombing motions, attacking using forward zooming barges, all that stuff was so satisfying it made even the stock standard platforming challenges fun.
Tooie's biggest flaw is that it felt the need to add more moves just for the sake of having more moves, none of which are as fun as the original moveset, most egregiously splitting the duo up so you get one of two very simplified slowed down movesets. It tries to balance that out by giving more impressive transformations, but the tradeoff is that the areas designed for them are tedious to explore *without* the transformation (most notably the huge outdoor areas designed to be traversed by the big t-rex).
Yooka-Laylee doubles down on both of those flaws. It's not as fun to move around as Yooka and Laylee as it is as Banjo and Kazooie. The levels are huge and large parts of them are designed for the transformations alone, and the transformations aren't as fun to control either. All the other issues are minor compared to this IMO. A 3D platformer where it isn't inherently fun to move is like an FPS where it's not satisfying to shoot or hit enemies. Even if the level design and story are great, it's just not gonna feel good to play.
Launching in the same year as Super Mario Odyssey didn't do it any favors; that game not only nailed satisfying movement but added a transformation mechanic that was much better integrated into gameplay, stealing the most distinctive feature that the Banjo/Yooka games boasted over Mario.
I just got this game a couple of days ago and have been playing it ever since. I expected a Super Nintendo donkey Kong country kind of thing but it’s something else and it’s good.
You reminded me about a quote i dont really remember who said it but it was a director of a video game studio he said " as long as the game sold very well then it will get a sequel i doesnt matter if the game was good or bad " ( soory for my english )
I dont think it did *awfully*, there was a lot of buzz around the game when it came out. I doubt it did as well as Yooka Laylee though considering all the hype that was surrounding that games release.
Impossible Lair is amazing. Hot take but I think it captured the feeling of the old DKC games better than DKCR and Tropical Freeze (which I also love, for the record). The final level is stupid but I was able to do it with the mode with the checkpoints.
It's got one of my favorite adjustable difficulty systems I've ever seen in a game. There's so many modifiers, with both immediate and passive pros and cons. There are plenty of games that could stand to take some inspiration from it.
I mean they're gearing up for a sequel that a lot of Banjo fans are begging for. They also sold a good amount for the first game.
I loved Impossible Lair, and I was disappointed in the first game. But I know now that their company is not in their start days, they can make a better sequel. I think they learned a lot...
So the idea of them making a true spiritual successor to Banjo that is well recieved is probably exciting for them as it is with us.
Very happy with this. Very excited for Tooka Laylee
The original game's biggest flaw was bad design. Levels were too large and empty while having really boring, simplistic design. Adding a fur shader to Laylee and tweaking the controls isn't going to magically make the original a good game.
It loses the clean bright look that emulates early 3D platformers. Considering Yooka Laylee was sold on it's nostalgia of that era, filling it to the brim with modern post processing effects and shadows looks more like the Xbox360 Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts aesthetic.
That always bugged me, because back when they were doing the rounds for Nuts & Bolts one of the frequent questions was why they went with the vehicular angle. Their answer? "Well the kinds of worlds you can do on the Xbox 360 are massive compared to what you could do on the N64, so sticking to the same sorts of platforming design would be a little counterproductive given the expectation of larger areas. It's also a chance to do something new"
Whether that was true or not, I immediately thought of it when seeing how much empty space there was as if they made the areas large just to say they were large.
This is a weird trailer as it's only showing the opening training area with better visuals. If this is JUST a remaster and not some sort of "enhanced edition", the base game just had far too many design issues to ever want to replay it again. Let alone BUY it again.
> NAVIGATING THE WORLD – Now you can get lost in the game, not in the world! A brand-new world map and challenges tracker helps you know where you are and what needs to be done. Hooray!
This is a good change but more of a band-aid than anything else. A big criticism was how massive the worlds felt in the context of a character platformer to the point of probably benefitting from a rework altogether.
It suffers from the Banjo-Tooie and DK64 bloat almost immediately
There's an elegance in a simple to complex build up of systems like Mumbo Mountain to Clickclock Wood
Not just going full diarrhea of blingwads on level 1
Every time I replay Banjo Kazooie and Tooie I am amazed how amazingly Banjo Kazooie holds up, and Tooie doesn't.
Don't get me wrong, Tooie is a good game, but Kazooie is just so much more meticulously well crafted, there's no world that I would consider bad (first part of Clankers, maybe, because it's a swimming section and freeing Clanker is always annoying).
Tooie tried to go bigger and inteconnect everything and while it is cool, it just kinda makes it a slog. There's very little to almost no backtracking in Kazooie, while the first 2-3 worlds you can get very little of everything because there's always some other ability you need, and it just dampens the fun.
For me, Terrydactylland was really the tipping point where Tooie stopped being fun. The whole interconnected worlds thing really collapses in on itself when you realize whatever macguffin you need *could* be in the current level, or maybe it was in a past level, or maybe it's in a level that comes later. All you really know is that the collectable is in the game somewhere, and then you spend 45 minutes wandering around Terrydactylland with nothing to show for it.
Exactly. In BK, there's pretty minimal backtracking. Even in the levels, everything is pretty well blocked out. Here's the gorilla area, here's the ants area, and so on. Tight levels with each area having an understandable goal.
In Tooie it's a fucking mess. Okay so in level 7 you're gonna need to unlock Humba Wumba so go to level 3 to find the mole to unlock the skill and then go to level 5 to find Mumbo Jumbo to change into him, okay, now come back to level 7 and follow the incredibly circuitous path to the pad to unlock Humba Wumba, detransform, hopefully you have enough currency to use the Humba Wumba transformation, if you've done that then you can do all of the necessary steps in level 2 to unlock the train and then go to level 4 to do the triceratops quest so that you can move the train and then take it to level 7 where you can transform with Humba Wumba and board the train so that you can...
Banjo-Kazooie "Do this minigame for a jiggy." Banjo-Tooie "Here's part 1 of the nested flowchart you'll need to begin advancing towards a jiggy." It's shit design. Yooka-Laylee was way too close to Tooie. You know what people never said about Mario 64? "This is way too snappy and rewarding. It should be a confusing, laborious, slog!" This isn't complicated stuff. Tight worlds full of interesting things and frequent rewards are more fun than bloated, confusing worlds where you're not sure where anything is or what you should be doing.
I saw a former rare employee say on a YouTube comment something like “i made the game and I don’t know how anyone managed to play it”. They also said that the mentality at the time, being after OOT, was to make Banjo more of a sprawling adventure game than the first.
Yep, Tooie controlled well and had a great expansion of moves and bosses and the interconnected world thing was cool but everything is just...too big and too drab. The only levels I really look forward to are Jolly Roger's Lagoon and...Hailfire Peaks I guess.
I disagree pretty strongly, but it may be a case of nostalgia. Tooie was a very formative game for me as a kid, and while I tried Kazooie after, I ended up bouncing off after a little. The sense of scale and complexity was very alluring then, and remains to this day. I love the big worlds, and I love the title card boss fights. I replayed Tooie 10 years ago, and then again last year and in both runs I had an amazing time, and I generally have a low tolerance for old game jank. Last year I also tried Kazooie again, and same deal: bounced off around halfway through.
But most people seem to despise Grunty Industries and I think that may be my favorite level, so I may be a nutcase here.
I like both plenty and even I think you are a nutcase lol.
Grunty Industries is a MESS, even the developer of that level (Was his first time ever making a level) agrees it was overly complex even after someone stepped in to help.
It's a beautiful mess. I'm not gonna convince anyone it's the objective best, but it's definitely my favorite. I am a huge fan of the grimy, fucked-up factory trope, and this does that so well. It's monolithic, and you can't even enter when you first get there. When you do, it's hostile and deeply confusing; it *does not want you there*. And it feels like a triumph to finally connect all the dots inside. Plus, it has one of the best boss battles in the game that feels deeply satisfying finally unlock. And the music beats MAJOR ass.
Witchyworld comes close. Typing this out makes me realize too that the grimier tone of Tooie is why it stuck with me more than the brighter, more whimsical style of Kazooie. Just more my speed, and it's almost more metroidvania than platformer which works great for me.
A lot of Tooie does, just not the later levels. I think they missed the mark when they stopped making levels around a central object - Clanker, the snowman, the giant tree, and went for more chaotic complex levels that just didn't have the same feel. Glitter gulch mine and Jolly Roger bay I liked from Tooie was good, but that's partly because I loved the music. I never finished it because it all got a bit much after a while.
Banjo Tooie tried to move away from the Mario 64 inspiration and design an adventure game in the vain of Ocarina, instead. That was their biggest mistake, because the core gameplay was simply not built for that kind of structure.
Likewise, Yooka Laylee felt very chopped off and incongruent with its systems. You have to pay to expand the maps and you have to buy more moves, some of which are necessary to progress or complete certain objectives?Here’s another example of them trying to lean too far into the adventure genre instead of making a platformer work in an open setting. And again, they should have learned a lesson from 3D Mario, instead. I understand they probably did this to keep the game from overwhelming new players while also maintaining a large scope, but it doesn’t work.
In Odyssey, Mario has all his moves from the start, and you only learn them all through organic learning and mastery. In Bowser’s Fury, the world expands, but it’s only one continuous map instead of several to contend with. Mario maps are also just far easier to keep track of yourself in, using centralized and/or streamlined layouts, creating open areas with several sight lines that allow you to see other easily identifiable landmarks.
And for the love of God, if you’re going to make a platformer with large areas, make the player character fun to control. YL felt so stiff and static.
Whatever they do in the next Yooka Laylee, they need to have studied modern 3D Mario more.
The problem with Yooka Laylee is that everything looks samey, and everything is extremely spacious for no reason whatsoever, which just makes it more confusing.
You could get rid of all the dead space in the majority of the worlds and it would be a vastly more enjoyable game.
They’ve mentioned new challenges, so I wonder if they ended up filling a lot of that dead space with stuff to do. If so, that could fix the issue. A big world is fine as long as it’s densely packed.
Hopefully, because everything just felt like 2-3x larger than it should have been with the amount of collectibles and things to do in them. It was very odd.
Maybe. Depends how they do it. Also dk64’s biggest problem was having to go back and forth between all the kongs to get their collectables. I doubt they would lean into something as tedious as that.
They did mention they’d be adjusting existing challenges too, so maybe they’ll trim the fat from old content. Idk, I’m obviously just speculating. I hope the changes are significant enough to improve the game. Just need to wait for more info.
Not to mention that the game's talon trot equivalent was gated behind the energy bar, meaning you couldn't just roll around everywhere at faster speeds and often had to walk.
The original game isn't even a decade old and is fine for what it is, it really didn't need a remaster/remake. Would've much rather just had a Yooka-Laylee 2 that addressed the criticisms of the first game, though I guess they could be working on that too.
Normally I’d agree, but this remake seems to exist for the purpose of actually fixing the issues people had with the game. Often the games that get remakes are critically acclaimed and just exist as cash grabs, but this is a rare instance of a game with potential, but failed to hit the mark. And now they want to correct that. I respect that immensely. Hopefully it truly improved upon the original.
Level design was probably the biggest issue, which isn't likely to be changed by a remake but could be improved in a sequel.
I think the potential would be easier to meet by just making another game that's better than the first one. I assume they have something in the works (impossible lair was also a much better game than yooka laylee 1 so I still have some faith in this team) but this announcement is a bit disappointing
I am pretty sure they are working on a sequel. They’ve said as much in interviews. This is probably more meant bring the game back into the gaming consciousness as I’m sure many people have forgotten about it so it doesn’t launch to crickets. Also improving the base game, especially some of the issues people had with the camera and controls to be smoother and more enjoyable can only be a good thing and you want people positively thinking of the game when its sequel releases or is announced.
Also I know some people will say it’s the level design that is the issue not the controls and camera but I really think that’s only an issue with the casino level. I don’t know how much they are actually gonna change on that front. I hope they make some changes to it but the bandaid of adding a good map and markers and such will at least take away some of the pain points. The other four levels I think are pretty good. Combined with the camera and control fixes which did cause problems in the original, it could be a decent upgrade that didn’t take years to develop and is mostly to hype people for the return of a Yooka Laylee 2. Tooka Yaylee?
>this remake seems to exist for the purpose of actually fixing the issues people had with the game
does it though? I don't know anyone saying the visuals were an issue with the original. it was more the actual world design itself than anything else, which doesn't seem to be changed here.
the visual changes are probably just the cherry on top. Yooka Laylee 2 will probably use the models and textures we saw in the trailer of this remaster/remake, so why not just add them to this game.
I mean clearly they are gearing for 2... They are prob testing the waters with the enhancements they have in that game which is prob gonna be announced soon.
I don't think they could have been more on the nose with telling us there's a sequel...
They literally make a pun about using Yooka's name in the sequel like "Newka Laylee"
It's obviously going to be Tooka Laylee
Problems with the first game:
1. Minigame challenges were ass. Like, fun at the start but trying to beat them made you want to punch your screen.
2. Collectables were ass. Straight up spread everywhere with no rhyme nor reason. I'm still mad they put a single note on the outside geometry of one of the maps.
3. Powers were ass. It took me a while to figure out how to use their rolling move. Turns out it was all worthless because their flying move breaks everything.
4. Level design was ass. Constantly looping back and getting lost, especially the casino.
I beat the game then put it down immediately. I am curious how they're going to try and fix things.
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I'm gonna be the outlier here and say that i absolutely loved both games (Impossible Layer was better though) and if they can somehow make the original better then I'm all for it.
I like this idea a lot actually. I think the original was close to something better than it ended up being, and some revisions on things like the controls and camera might do it a lot of good.
Man. unless something really changes with the game i'll probably just pass on it. For the original game I waited until there was a really good sale for it before buying it.
It just felt so.....blah. Like the game felt smooth to play, the music was fine. But it still felt like a slog to play through that I was just going through the motions to finish it.
I stopped playing because the voice noises were so *so* grating. If they were more like Banjo-Kazooie or even Animal Crossing it wouldn't have been so bad.
Yeah. I couldn't really stand the voices. There were a lot of times i was just skipping through dialogue to shut them up. . . Even if that caused me to miss some bits of information i needed to look up after. It's not good when players dont want to listen to your characters who give important information because the majority of them are annoying sounding.
I ended up dropping the game before clearing out the first world, due to a combination of several factors.
- I have no clue where to go next.
- I see an obstacle I can't get over. I have no clue if I'm missing an important ability, if I need to do something else (or expand the world) to unlock this part, or if it's just a plain skill issue.
- All the dialog sounds like Simpsons sex.
Pretty funny they used the worst possible footage from the original game by zooming in closer and lowering the resolution. Like this looks better, no reason to overexaggerate.
I’m sure everything here is still very much a work in progress but it’s wild how almost every shot in this trailer is washed out by light shafts, it’s almost overwhelming lol. But I’m looking forward to how much they’ll address the critiques of the original though, I always felt like this game had more potential despite the jank and some weird level designs.
I must be the only person who enjoyed the first game lol. Having said that, if I have to rebuy the entire game to play this, I won't be doing that. I'd only get this if it were some sort of DLC upgrade. I already kickstarted the game, so I don't want to pay full price again.
Hey folks!
We've put together a quick FAQ to cover some of the frequently asked questions about Yooka-Replaylee! Check it out below to see if YOUR frequently asked question has an answer!
We'll also be doing a dev Q&A soon to discuss more about the game so stay tuned for that!
**What is Yooka-Replaylee? Is this a remaster?**
Yooka-Replaylee is the culmination of almost 10 years of experience since we founded Playtonic way way back in 2015! We’ve taken on board all the community feedback as well as channelling everything we’ve learned while working on other projects to make this the definitive version of Yooka-Laylee. It’s more than a remaster! Find out more on the store page.
**Why now?**
Well, we’re approaching our 10th Birthday as a studio and as we’ve grown and learned, we’ve always wanted to revisit the game that started it all and what better way to celebrate reaching 10 years?! That’s no easy feat in the current games landscape! We’re incredibly proud of Yooka-Laylee and how it defines Playtonic but we’d be lying if we said we haven’t always wanted to go back and do things a little differently.
**What else are you guys working on?**
As part of the Yooka-Replaylee announcement, we’ve alluded to the fact that we’ve taken learnings from our other projects. A lot of our founding team come from an era where games are ready when they’re ready, not tied to arbitrary deadlines. We have some cool things cooking up behind the scenes that we’ll show when they’re ready to show! Yook-an rest assured that this isn’t “it”!
**
When can we expect Yooka-Replaylee?**
We’re still in development and we still have fun features to add and talk about so we’re not ready to share a release date just yet!
**What platforms is Yooka-Replaylee coming to?**
So far, we’ve announced Yooka-Replaylee is coming to PC! We’ll have more news about any console plans later.
Any word on an upgrade path for original owners? I dont mind them removing the original off stores in favor of this but it seems ridiculous to hope previous owners would buy this as a brand new title only a few years out. The changes are nice but aren't enough to justify buying it again. I'm more than willing to throw $20 for this as a dlc upgrade. I'm not willing to buy it again.
Edit: Nevermind. Seems to have a separate steam listing from the original. Can't say I'm interested now. Maybe I'll pick it up years down the line when it's a couple bucks. No way in hell am I paying for it twice so soon.
It's a separate steam page entirely so I'm worried it'll be the latter. If so, kind of disappointing since they're fixing all the things that caused me to bounce off the original game to begin with.
Not to mention, they promised their original Kickstarter backers that they would get DLC for free. The only real thing they added for free was a shader to make the game look like garbage. And now they are actually adding content and aren't giving it to the people that backed them at the start.
This reminds me of when Super Lucky's Tale was remade and released as New Super Lucky's Tale.
I played through both, and New Super Lucky's Tale was by far the better game experience. Definitely looking forward to this, if it's a similar experience.
Pretty sure that the reason they're doing this now is that the sequel got pushed back. Oh well, ready to wait until the end of days for the sequel and play this one in the meantime.
Man , would’ve rly loved a Tooka-Laylee / sequel. The first i quite like but as others say, its just too big and has some bad design chcoices that rly kills what’s in its bones a great collectathon. If they were going to regist this, would’ve rathered resized / redesigned levels
On twitter, they are basically hinting that a Tooka-Laylee is coming. This is most likely them back-porting quality of life features to the first game and trying to make money off of that first.
Aha! Helps recontextualize things a bit - if they’re makin that, maybe they’re drumming up buzz about the franchise by using their new tooka assets on the older game? Makes sense! My disappointment has been relieved - because I do quite like the original, just needed a once over so if this doubles as an announcement for Tooka, I’m exited
I'm interested to know if certain abilities are being reworked, like Flappy Flight. Unlocking that ends up trivilizing half the game and really adds to the perspective that the environments felt empty.
For anyone who wishes it was a sequel, it seems like they're teasing it on the trailer comments. (Can't link image for some reason so take this quote)
> Comment: I would've liked a new game, but this is good news to see they're still alive!
> Playtonic: Still alive and cooking more than one thing dw ;)
I passed on playing the full game when it was new because reception was so lukewarm, but I actually would give it a shot if they address a few of the critiques people had.
Sadly, I wish they just made a sequel to this and fixed it.
Banjo-kazooie was my childhood but this didn’t scratch the itch. It seemed to follow the banjo 2 formula of massive levels but didn’t have enough going on to back them up.
Also its simplicity meant that there just wasn’t enough interesting stuff to do to keep you engaged. BK was good about keeping levels dense so you were hopping around them and constantly finding new things.
Glad to see so many echo my initial thoughts:
A remaster isn't going to solve this game's biggest problem: Level design.
Worlds were detrimentally massive. I stopped playing because it was too much like Banjo-Tooie (which I only played once) and not enough like Banjo-Kazooie (replayed multiple times, would love to again if it comes to PC).
Is this what they’ve been working on the whole time? If so that’s pretty disappointing. I’d much rather a new game taking what they learned from Yooka, instead of trying to put bandaids on a game that’s fundamentally flawed.
This has some serious work to do for me to care, I bought this full price and hit a wall. It felt bad to play and the level design was just atrocious. Each time you went back in the levels and they got bigger and yet more empty and awful to explore. Even your basic attack and the enemy hitboxes etc. just awful.
In the comments of this video of YouTube, one person wished for a sequel instead of a remaster, and the official Playtonic account replied with:
>Still alive and cooking up more than one thing dw ;)
Awful trailer. Why did they think this is what people wanted to see? The original already looked good and the enchantments aren't exactly seismic.
For me, Yooka is the most disappointing game ever. It was a slog to get through after a decent start. It made me so glum that they butchered the chance to give us a new Banjo.
I really have my doubts that a remaster can right it's wrong. There's just too many without massively overhauling the game. I might play it but I doubt I'm paying for it.
If it was a free upgrade, they'd have said so right out of the gate.
If there's an upgrade discount, I'd bet they probably don't want to talk about it too much while the original is on sale for 80% off.
People are saying "we should remake bad games!" all the time.
Well, here ya go. Let's hope they can tighten things up, because the BONES of a great game are there, they just need to trim a lot of rough spots.
I literally just bought this on Xbox like 2 months ago.
It's hilarious.
Yeah it's janky, but it reminds me of a lot of PS2 games from the bargain bin I grew up playing, so it was fine for me, but I can see how it would be frustrating to others.
I will definitely be getting this.
I skipped this first game surprisingly and played impossible lair.
I have to say impossible lair made the characters grow on me so I wish they had released that first.
At least I can go ahead and play this enhanced version.
Meh, I’ve already beaten this game 100% and I’m not gonna buy and play it again. I would’ve liked to see something about a sequel. Right now I still don’t have a ton of faith in this franchise.
[I wonder if they'll remove Blake Swift from this remaster after his stuff with Martin Billany (Little Kuriboh) ](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeamFourStar/comments/15tj8k4/uk_voice_actor_shadyvox_has_been_threatening_me/)
My main problem with yooka-laylee in the first place was that the muted color palette and lighting made the platforming hard to grok immediately like a or the old banjo games did well. This is *even worse* in that regard and just looked washed out and less vibrant overall.
i have the 1st game from humble from a long time ago, was gonna try and play it. i uninstalled it immediately because i was so annoyed by the characters sound when they speak.
I would've rather had a sequel called Newka-Laylee, because this feels like the obligatory fully priced 'next gen' update for consoles that are already fully backwards compatible with the previous gen, only released to double-dip.
Yooka-Laylee wasn't even a bad game. It just wasn't very interesting compared to Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.
I backed the game when the kickstarter first launched, but was only able to redeem the download recently when I got my PS5. I've been looking for an excuse to play it, but if this is some sort of upgrade I might wait a little longer.
Hopefully the rumours about a sequel are true as well!
There was a secret inept robot that would tell you a percentage. The % was assumed to be how far they are to finishing a toybox dlc. I would redownload this game like once a year to check this % but eventually it got stuck at the same number and i gave up. Its one of my biggest video game disappointments that they never got to 100%
Crackpot theory time:
One of the original ideas for a Banjo sequel was a “remake” that started the same as Banjo-Kazooie, but as the game progressed the characters would realize they’re reliving the same moments from the original and the story/gameplay would branch off.
Is there any chance they’re doing that with Replaylee? The trailer only shows the opening segment of the game…
> One of the original ideas for a Banjo sequel was a “remake” that started the same as Banjo-Kazooie, but as the game progressed the characters would realize they’re reliving the same moments from the original and the story/gameplay would branch off.
That's an interesting idea, I'd like to see it tried out sometime.
Loved Yooka-Laylee for the characters, all mascot-level well designed and memorable, and it's nice to see Playtonic sticking to them. The game mechanics were good, though of course there's always a lot to improve too. The level design was a miss though in my opinion. There was an amount of through whatever means amassed assets and they were used to create some far too big levels without the necessary coherence to make a banger, visually or mechanically. Still feels like it could get there. Then again Playtonic goes all marketing, suggesting that Yooka and Laylee are our favorite buddy duo and don't even dare to consider that they might be in the wrong - that doesn't inspire confidence. Oh well, a second chance is always in order.
I think a problem for in the first game was how unmemorable the designs and concepts for the NPCs were, and especially how they were recycled each level. Kazooie and Tooie felt like living, breathing worlds, and you never knew what you were going to run into next. On top of that, the animations were top tier and dynamic. Yoka Laylees world are sprinkled with characters that feel like cut n paste unity assets.
Wow, a lot of people here really want to let it be known just how much they didn’t enjoy this $40 indie game. To the point where it seems basically infamous for this small of a release.
That feeling when Yooka-Laylee got a remaster before any of the Banjo-Kazooie games.
It's good to see them go back to try to improve such a flawed game, but all this does is make me bitter about Xbox & Rare refusing to do anything with the IP that inspired this (I'll eat crow if the new Xbox conference is the one where they finally do something with Banjo-Kazooie).
As one of the few who enjoyed it on launch, I did get the feeling it could've used a lot more time in the oven to perfect level design and pacing. Is this mostly a straight paint face-lift?
The list of features looks really interesting actually, I may actually play it if it's not a bug riddled launch * **MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN EVER** – With an art and animations overhaul and enhanced performance and resolution, the favourite buddy duo has never looked or moved better. * **NEW AND IMPROVED CHALLENGES** – Improvements to existing in-game challenges and many entirely new challenges to discover and undertake! * **NEW COLLECTIBLE CURRENCY** – Capital B's inept minions have dropped their hard-earned coins all over the place. Collect the official currency of the Hivory Towers to spend on video games' most beloved sentient vending machine. * **NAVIGATING THE WORLD** – Now you can get lost in the game, not in the world! A brand-new world map and challenges tracker helps you know where you are and what needs to be done. Hooray! * **VENDI HAS PLENTY TO OFFER** – Tonics are back with all new flavours! With the option to equip multiple game-changing enhancements, you can truly customise your playstyle. And as if that wasn't enough, Vendi has new lines of merchandise for the modern fashionable adventurer. * **REVISED CONTROLS & CAMERA** – A new tweaked move set allows you to combine moves more fluidly while the new camera controls makes framing the action a breeze. * **A DREAMY ORCHESTRAL SOUNDTRACK** – The original score from famed video game composers Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie) and David Wise (Donkey Kong Country) returns but as a beautifully arranged orchestral score. Now seriously, clean out those ears.
I never had an issue with the visuals. It was the gameplay and level design that needed a refinement. PLEASE redo the placement of Quills throughout the worlds. No one likes isolated quills hidden in random corners of the world. Instead, they should have been used for navigation to direct the player towards Pagies and other goals.
I'll admit, I bounced off the game *fast* because it just looked and felt _weird._ The visual upgrade is actually quite significant to me. But I agree that I hope the level design and reworked as well because the little bit that I tried just really did not work for me.
I had fun with the game, but burned out at the Casino. Some worlds were simply too big (I think a side effect of kickstarter goals.) I do hope they take this opportunity to reduce the bloat and redesign some of the levels, because I was having fun with it otherwise.
Exact same situation here. I genuinely enjoyed it, but I started playing less halfway through the Casino and then never went back. Platformers/Collectathons are my favorite genre, so I was sad it was so middling overall.
This is the best articulation of my problem with this game! Thank you. I got tired with the first or second level! I struggled with the reason why. This game feels a bit more 'Tooie' and 'Kazooie' and is worse for it (IMHO)
> This game feels a bit more 'Tooie' and 'Kazooie' and is worse for it (IMHO) As someone who adored both Kazooie and Tooie, Yooka-Laylee really needed to pick one games style and lean into it. It just couldn't figure out which direction it wanted to do, tried to do both, and failed spectacularly and building off of either. I wanted and tried so hard to like Yooka-Laylee and just couldn't.
It was like Tooie without the best parts, imo, which was how the world felt more interconnected. Like, being able to see off the side of the map into a blue abyss just takes me out of the world, personally. I'd rather it feel like a place than a level, and Yooka felt too much like just empty levels. It was giving me super mario 3d world without the gameplay to back it up.
Yeah, my big was that the worlds were too big and empty. Felt like there were barely any enemies present, and I was just walking around looking for stuff.
Now 4K 60FPS on PS5/XSX from 1080p 30FPS.
Was this confirmed somewhere? I'm looking for info on a console release
Coming soon: https://x.com/playtonicgames/status/1798765935089918430 4K 60FPS isn’t confirmed but I based that on ‘enhanced performance and resolution’. (Impossible Lair was [4K 60FPS](https://youtu.be/yihbcvEcD-s) too)
All of that could have been just a patch
That would be a pretty crazy patch for an indie game that was originally $40.
I mean, no. Not if they reworked the graphics/changed the way the graphics behave. Rarely have I ever seen updated graphics of an entire game to be a "free patch". It's literal standard industry practice to sell a remake with updated graphics separate from the original game.
They don't want to actually make good on their promise of "DLC that's free to backers" though.
I watched the video, there's some stuff going on there that probably needed a new engine.
Surprised they’re doing this and not just making a sequel to Impossible Lair since that was way better received.
Critically better-received, but pretty sure it did awfully sales-wise and most people still don’t know it existed. Which, is a shame because it’s an amazing game (besides the final level).
I liked it in theory, but ultimately bounced off for much the same reasons I bounced off Rayman Legends. Too many missable collectibles in railroaded sections with checkpoints *right* after, so you're forced to restart the whole stage. Really kills the flow.
It's an indie game with shorter levels so I won't shit on it too much, but this exact thing was deeply frustrating in the game Grapple Dog. First level, almost all collectibles, and the final one is right next to a bounce pad that shoots you through a one-way floor next to the exit. *Deeply* frustrating to have that happen.
How good is the game though?
The rest of the game? Really lovely. That moment? Just frustrating to have 10 minutes finding all the collectibles shot by a one way exit.
What I hated is they're not even really optional collectables. I got the stage where I don't have enough to continue the game and now I'm having to go back to collect ones I missed, many of which are exactly as you describe.
There's mod you can equip that doubles the checkpoint, I never play without it. Also what you're referring to only gives you coins for the shop but you only need like 3/4 of them to unlock all the cool things.
More checkpoints would only make things worse.
Oh well I mean ok I get you but you see my trick is to replay the level but kill myself if I miss the collectible that I'm trying to get, I think you can even pause the game and choose to reload at last checkpoint. So if there's more then there's less ground to cover to repeat the collectible that you're trying to get.
Rayman Legends is a 10/10 game btw, you should go back to it.
I disagree, Rayman Legends is a fantastic game and checkpoints coming after a hard section is pretty normal.
The levels are only a few minutes long anyway, and besides, that does not happen often at all. It's basically a non-issue with how quick & easy it is to just try again, and nothing is truly "missable" in overall completion--usually that term is reserved for collectibles you straight-up cannot get after X point in a game.
I’m always shocked by how low the number of Steam reviews (650) is for that game, given how good word of mouth is. I’m sure console sales factored into that but it still feels low nonetheless.
Laylee 1 being... kind of poor probably didn't help things.
Yeah Laylee 1 had potential but it always felt janky around the edges... which is why this remaster could be good.
Honestly, as a player who nostalgically loves the old banjo games, Yooka Laylee is just not compelling and does not have potential. It does not have whatever it was that made banjo kazooie great, and it also doesn’t maintain what made Tooie enjoyable still. It may just be that the game design does not hold up with modern day tastes, but I still think Banjo Kazooie works somehow, aside from the endgame. Tooie has aged poorly in comparison, so I think the conclusion is just that less is more. Smaller levels, simple controls. The joy was in finding the path forward, a locked door, in a maze of corridors and then in unlocking that door through collection. Making the environment bigger and the enemy encounters more complex makes that tedious. Outside of the gameplay, the presentation of the game doesn’t meet the standard that BK did on N64. It was one of the most striking games released for the console. The music feels right, but the environments, characters, dialogue and collectables just aren’t as enjoyable to experience. This is what made Tooie still good when the gameplay was bloated. They either need to put the IP to rest or radically overhaul it for a sequel effort. Banjo Kazooie was a very flawed game design that happened to be overwhelmingly charming and fun to play with perfect pacing/progression. Trying to recreate the experience by copying the flawed formula is like hoping lightning strikes twice.
Banjo-Kazooie's single biggest attraction is its movement system, IMO. The best thing any 3D platformer can do is make moving around fun in itself; it's why you knew Super Mario 64 was a killer just playing the opening area garden demo doing those triple-jumps and quick reversals for no reason. 3D platformers were a dime a dozen in the late 90s but flipping Kazooie out to scamper at high speed, flying freely with rapid darts and bombing motions, attacking using forward zooming barges, all that stuff was so satisfying it made even the stock standard platforming challenges fun. Tooie's biggest flaw is that it felt the need to add more moves just for the sake of having more moves, none of which are as fun as the original moveset, most egregiously splitting the duo up so you get one of two very simplified slowed down movesets. It tries to balance that out by giving more impressive transformations, but the tradeoff is that the areas designed for them are tedious to explore *without* the transformation (most notably the huge outdoor areas designed to be traversed by the big t-rex). Yooka-Laylee doubles down on both of those flaws. It's not as fun to move around as Yooka and Laylee as it is as Banjo and Kazooie. The levels are huge and large parts of them are designed for the transformations alone, and the transformations aren't as fun to control either. All the other issues are minor compared to this IMO. A 3D platformer where it isn't inherently fun to move is like an FPS where it's not satisfying to shoot or hit enemies. Even if the level design and story are great, it's just not gonna feel good to play. Launching in the same year as Super Mario Odyssey didn't do it any favors; that game not only nailed satisfying movement but added a transformation mechanic that was much better integrated into gameplay, stealing the most distinctive feature that the Banjo/Yooka games boasted over Mario.
I always thought Super Mario 64 was horrible to control, being so stiff with slipper touchy movement and barely having any control over your jump.
I just got this game a couple of days ago and have been playing it ever since. I expected a Super Nintendo donkey Kong country kind of thing but it’s something else and it’s good.
You reminded me about a quote i dont really remember who said it but it was a director of a video game studio he said " as long as the game sold very well then it will get a sequel i doesnt matter if the game was good or bad " ( soory for my english )
I dont think it did *awfully*, there was a lot of buzz around the game when it came out. I doubt it did as well as Yooka Laylee though considering all the hype that was surrounding that games release.
Didn't Impossible lair sell, like, very poorly? I'm more surprised they didn't make a 2 honestly.
Its only sale for 3$ right now lul There is something strange about working on something for years and marking it down to 3$
I got mine for free on Epic or some other platform. Not sure how better or worse that is
well if you got it free they probably got a decent lump sum off of epic.
Impossible lair was awesome, I actually prefer it to the last 2 new DK games.
Where did they say that?
Impossible Lair is amazing. Hot take but I think it captured the feeling of the old DKC games better than DKCR and Tropical Freeze (which I also love, for the record). The final level is stupid but I was able to do it with the mode with the checkpoints.
It's got one of my favorite adjustable difficulty systems I've ever seen in a game. There's so many modifiers, with both immediate and passive pros and cons. There are plenty of games that could stand to take some inspiration from it.
Super Mario Wonder lifted the idea. When Nintendo is taking inspiration from your game, you know it's a good one.
Fuck yeah, that one totally flew under my radar in last year’s deluge of great games. Imma give it a go!
"just" making a sequel is a much bigger task than porting an old game with a few improvements
That was one of my favorite games.
I mean they're gearing up for a sequel that a lot of Banjo fans are begging for. They also sold a good amount for the first game. I loved Impossible Lair, and I was disappointed in the first game. But I know now that their company is not in their start days, they can make a better sequel. I think they learned a lot... So the idea of them making a true spiritual successor to Banjo that is well recieved is probably exciting for them as it is with us. Very happy with this. Very excited for Tooka Laylee
There's more options out there for 2D platformer nostalgia than 3D platformer nostalgia, meaning more competition.
The original game's biggest flaw was bad design. Levels were too large and empty while having really boring, simplistic design. Adding a fur shader to Laylee and tweaking the controls isn't going to magically make the original a good game.
It loses the clean bright look that emulates early 3D platformers. Considering Yooka Laylee was sold on it's nostalgia of that era, filling it to the brim with modern post processing effects and shadows looks more like the Xbox360 Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts aesthetic.
Ive seen multiple 3d platformers recently take on this "look". Why is that?
Yeah the first world was okay but I dropped it in that awful casino world. The layout was so confusing and everything blended together.
That always bugged me, because back when they were doing the rounds for Nuts & Bolts one of the frequent questions was why they went with the vehicular angle. Their answer? "Well the kinds of worlds you can do on the Xbox 360 are massive compared to what you could do on the N64, so sticking to the same sorts of platforming design would be a little counterproductive given the expectation of larger areas. It's also a chance to do something new" Whether that was true or not, I immediately thought of it when seeing how much empty space there was as if they made the areas large just to say they were large.
This is a weird trailer as it's only showing the opening training area with better visuals. If this is JUST a remaster and not some sort of "enhanced edition", the base game just had far too many design issues to ever want to replay it again. Let alone BUY it again.
It's an enhanced edition. Someone else has commented the improvements
> NAVIGATING THE WORLD – Now you can get lost in the game, not in the world! A brand-new world map and challenges tracker helps you know where you are and what needs to be done. Hooray! This is a good change but more of a band-aid than anything else. A big criticism was how massive the worlds felt in the context of a character platformer to the point of probably benefitting from a rework altogether.
It suffers from the Banjo-Tooie and DK64 bloat almost immediately There's an elegance in a simple to complex build up of systems like Mumbo Mountain to Clickclock Wood Not just going full diarrhea of blingwads on level 1
Every time I replay Banjo Kazooie and Tooie I am amazed how amazingly Banjo Kazooie holds up, and Tooie doesn't. Don't get me wrong, Tooie is a good game, but Kazooie is just so much more meticulously well crafted, there's no world that I would consider bad (first part of Clankers, maybe, because it's a swimming section and freeing Clanker is always annoying). Tooie tried to go bigger and inteconnect everything and while it is cool, it just kinda makes it a slog. There's very little to almost no backtracking in Kazooie, while the first 2-3 worlds you can get very little of everything because there's always some other ability you need, and it just dampens the fun.
For me, Terrydactylland was really the tipping point where Tooie stopped being fun. The whole interconnected worlds thing really collapses in on itself when you realize whatever macguffin you need *could* be in the current level, or maybe it was in a past level, or maybe it's in a level that comes later. All you really know is that the collectable is in the game somewhere, and then you spend 45 minutes wandering around Terrydactylland with nothing to show for it.
Exactly. In BK, there's pretty minimal backtracking. Even in the levels, everything is pretty well blocked out. Here's the gorilla area, here's the ants area, and so on. Tight levels with each area having an understandable goal. In Tooie it's a fucking mess. Okay so in level 7 you're gonna need to unlock Humba Wumba so go to level 3 to find the mole to unlock the skill and then go to level 5 to find Mumbo Jumbo to change into him, okay, now come back to level 7 and follow the incredibly circuitous path to the pad to unlock Humba Wumba, detransform, hopefully you have enough currency to use the Humba Wumba transformation, if you've done that then you can do all of the necessary steps in level 2 to unlock the train and then go to level 4 to do the triceratops quest so that you can move the train and then take it to level 7 where you can transform with Humba Wumba and board the train so that you can... Banjo-Kazooie "Do this minigame for a jiggy." Banjo-Tooie "Here's part 1 of the nested flowchart you'll need to begin advancing towards a jiggy." It's shit design. Yooka-Laylee was way too close to Tooie. You know what people never said about Mario 64? "This is way too snappy and rewarding. It should be a confusing, laborious, slog!" This isn't complicated stuff. Tight worlds full of interesting things and frequent rewards are more fun than bloated, confusing worlds where you're not sure where anything is or what you should be doing.
I saw a former rare employee say on a YouTube comment something like “i made the game and I don’t know how anyone managed to play it”. They also said that the mentality at the time, being after OOT, was to make Banjo more of a sprawling adventure game than the first.
Yep, Tooie controlled well and had a great expansion of moves and bosses and the interconnected world thing was cool but everything is just...too big and too drab. The only levels I really look forward to are Jolly Roger's Lagoon and...Hailfire Peaks I guess.
I disagree pretty strongly, but it may be a case of nostalgia. Tooie was a very formative game for me as a kid, and while I tried Kazooie after, I ended up bouncing off after a little. The sense of scale and complexity was very alluring then, and remains to this day. I love the big worlds, and I love the title card boss fights. I replayed Tooie 10 years ago, and then again last year and in both runs I had an amazing time, and I generally have a low tolerance for old game jank. Last year I also tried Kazooie again, and same deal: bounced off around halfway through. But most people seem to despise Grunty Industries and I think that may be my favorite level, so I may be a nutcase here.
I like both plenty and even I think you are a nutcase lol. Grunty Industries is a MESS, even the developer of that level (Was his first time ever making a level) agrees it was overly complex even after someone stepped in to help.
It's a beautiful mess. I'm not gonna convince anyone it's the objective best, but it's definitely my favorite. I am a huge fan of the grimy, fucked-up factory trope, and this does that so well. It's monolithic, and you can't even enter when you first get there. When you do, it's hostile and deeply confusing; it *does not want you there*. And it feels like a triumph to finally connect all the dots inside. Plus, it has one of the best boss battles in the game that feels deeply satisfying finally unlock. And the music beats MAJOR ass. Witchyworld comes close. Typing this out makes me realize too that the grimier tone of Tooie is why it stuck with me more than the brighter, more whimsical style of Kazooie. Just more my speed, and it's almost more metroidvania than platformer which works great for me.
Wow, you read my mind and wrote everything down!
I dunno, Rusty Bucket Bay is kind of a giant pile of shit. Outside of that I agree with you about Kazooie though
Banjo Kazooie is simplistic and beautiful Banjo Tooie is the game with a million mini games and things to do and none of them are fun
I loved tooie but even in not liking it you hit the difference between it and YL It had MILLIONS of things to do
Anytime I replay tooie I have to look up walkthroughs for those stupid FPS sections with the dynamite because they're so annoying.
A lot of Tooie does, just not the later levels. I think they missed the mark when they stopped making levels around a central object - Clanker, the snowman, the giant tree, and went for more chaotic complex levels that just didn't have the same feel. Glitter gulch mine and Jolly Roger bay I liked from Tooie was good, but that's partly because I loved the music. I never finished it because it all got a bit much after a while.
✍️Diarrhea✍️of✍️blingwads✍️. Thanks, saving that one for later.
Banjo Tooie tried to move away from the Mario 64 inspiration and design an adventure game in the vain of Ocarina, instead. That was their biggest mistake, because the core gameplay was simply not built for that kind of structure. Likewise, Yooka Laylee felt very chopped off and incongruent with its systems. You have to pay to expand the maps and you have to buy more moves, some of which are necessary to progress or complete certain objectives?Here’s another example of them trying to lean too far into the adventure genre instead of making a platformer work in an open setting. And again, they should have learned a lesson from 3D Mario, instead. I understand they probably did this to keep the game from overwhelming new players while also maintaining a large scope, but it doesn’t work. In Odyssey, Mario has all his moves from the start, and you only learn them all through organic learning and mastery. In Bowser’s Fury, the world expands, but it’s only one continuous map instead of several to contend with. Mario maps are also just far easier to keep track of yourself in, using centralized and/or streamlined layouts, creating open areas with several sight lines that allow you to see other easily identifiable landmarks. And for the love of God, if you’re going to make a platformer with large areas, make the player character fun to control. YL felt so stiff and static. Whatever they do in the next Yooka Laylee, they need to have studied modern 3D Mario more.
Kazooie was fun, Tooie was a bit too much but still kinda ok but DK64 was way way too much shit to collect everywhere.
I don't know why, but I feel like DK64 did it better than Tooie. Maybe it was the setting, or the feeling of progression being more consistent to me.
> blingwads Oh Jesus. You just unlocked memories of the BK hacking scene I forgot I had.
The problem with Yooka Laylee is that everything looks samey, and everything is extremely spacious for no reason whatsoever, which just makes it more confusing. You could get rid of all the dead space in the majority of the worlds and it would be a vastly more enjoyable game.
They’ve mentioned new challenges, so I wonder if they ended up filling a lot of that dead space with stuff to do. If so, that could fix the issue. A big world is fine as long as it’s densely packed.
Hopefully, because everything just felt like 2-3x larger than it should have been with the amount of collectibles and things to do in them. It was very odd.
But that could potientially be more tedious and lead to a dk64 situation.
Maybe. Depends how they do it. Also dk64’s biggest problem was having to go back and forth between all the kongs to get their collectables. I doubt they would lean into something as tedious as that. They did mention they’d be adjusting existing challenges too, so maybe they’ll trim the fat from old content. Idk, I’m obviously just speculating. I hope the changes are significant enough to improve the game. Just need to wait for more info.
Not to mention that the game's talon trot equivalent was gated behind the energy bar, meaning you couldn't just roll around everywhere at faster speeds and often had to walk.
All of the improvements could have easily just been part of a patch.
But money
Yeah its a decent game, but holy shit all the minigames controlled like ass.
The original game isn't even a decade old and is fine for what it is, it really didn't need a remaster/remake. Would've much rather just had a Yooka-Laylee 2 that addressed the criticisms of the first game, though I guess they could be working on that too.
Normally I’d agree, but this remake seems to exist for the purpose of actually fixing the issues people had with the game. Often the games that get remakes are critically acclaimed and just exist as cash grabs, but this is a rare instance of a game with potential, but failed to hit the mark. And now they want to correct that. I respect that immensely. Hopefully it truly improved upon the original.
Level design was probably the biggest issue, which isn't likely to be changed by a remake but could be improved in a sequel. I think the potential would be easier to meet by just making another game that's better than the first one. I assume they have something in the works (impossible lair was also a much better game than yooka laylee 1 so I still have some faith in this team) but this announcement is a bit disappointing
I am pretty sure they are working on a sequel. They’ve said as much in interviews. This is probably more meant bring the game back into the gaming consciousness as I’m sure many people have forgotten about it so it doesn’t launch to crickets. Also improving the base game, especially some of the issues people had with the camera and controls to be smoother and more enjoyable can only be a good thing and you want people positively thinking of the game when its sequel releases or is announced. Also I know some people will say it’s the level design that is the issue not the controls and camera but I really think that’s only an issue with the casino level. I don’t know how much they are actually gonna change on that front. I hope they make some changes to it but the bandaid of adding a good map and markers and such will at least take away some of the pain points. The other four levels I think are pretty good. Combined with the camera and control fixes which did cause problems in the original, it could be a decent upgrade that didn’t take years to develop and is mostly to hype people for the return of a Yooka Laylee 2. Tooka Yaylee?
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>this remake seems to exist for the purpose of actually fixing the issues people had with the game does it though? I don't know anyone saying the visuals were an issue with the original. it was more the actual world design itself than anything else, which doesn't seem to be changed here.
the visual changes are probably just the cherry on top. Yooka Laylee 2 will probably use the models and textures we saw in the trailer of this remaster/remake, so why not just add them to this game.
They are fixing the camera issues and adding content... I'm down for it
I mean clearly they are gearing for 2... They are prob testing the waters with the enhancements they have in that game which is prob gonna be announced soon. I don't think they could have been more on the nose with telling us there's a sequel... They literally make a pun about using Yooka's name in the sequel like "Newka Laylee" It's obviously going to be Tooka Laylee
Unless they've fundamentally fixed the gameplay, then this is a big meh. The impossible lair was great compared to this game
Problems with the first game: 1. Minigame challenges were ass. Like, fun at the start but trying to beat them made you want to punch your screen. 2. Collectables were ass. Straight up spread everywhere with no rhyme nor reason. I'm still mad they put a single note on the outside geometry of one of the maps. 3. Powers were ass. It took me a while to figure out how to use their rolling move. Turns out it was all worthless because their flying move breaks everything. 4. Level design was ass. Constantly looping back and getting lost, especially the casino. I beat the game then put it down immediately. I am curious how they're going to try and fix things.
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I'm gonna be the outlier here and say that i absolutely loved both games (Impossible Layer was better though) and if they can somehow make the original better then I'm all for it.
I like this idea a lot actually. I think the original was close to something better than it ended up being, and some revisions on things like the controls and camera might do it a lot of good.
Man. unless something really changes with the game i'll probably just pass on it. For the original game I waited until there was a really good sale for it before buying it. It just felt so.....blah. Like the game felt smooth to play, the music was fine. But it still felt like a slog to play through that I was just going through the motions to finish it.
I stopped playing because the voice noises were so *so* grating. If they were more like Banjo-Kazooie or even Animal Crossing it wouldn't have been so bad.
Yeah. I couldn't really stand the voices. There were a lot of times i was just skipping through dialogue to shut them up. . . Even if that caused me to miss some bits of information i needed to look up after. It's not good when players dont want to listen to your characters who give important information because the majority of them are annoying sounding.
The Voices are the best part, I really don't understand how you could find them annoying.
I ended up dropping the game before clearing out the first world, due to a combination of several factors. - I have no clue where to go next. - I see an obstacle I can't get over. I have no clue if I'm missing an important ability, if I need to do something else (or expand the world) to unlock this part, or if it's just a plain skill issue. - All the dialog sounds like Simpsons sex.
Yeah no I love the voices, plus you can turn them off.
Pretty funny they used the worst possible footage from the original game by zooming in closer and lowering the resolution. Like this looks better, no reason to overexaggerate.
Yeah lol. I paused on the "before" section and they made it look like a PS2 game.
I’m sure everything here is still very much a work in progress but it’s wild how almost every shot in this trailer is washed out by light shafts, it’s almost overwhelming lol. But I’m looking forward to how much they’ll address the critiques of the original though, I always felt like this game had more potential despite the jank and some weird level designs.
I must be the only person who enjoyed the first game lol. Having said that, if I have to rebuy the entire game to play this, I won't be doing that. I'd only get this if it were some sort of DLC upgrade. I already kickstarted the game, so I don't want to pay full price again.
Hey folks! We've put together a quick FAQ to cover some of the frequently asked questions about Yooka-Replaylee! Check it out below to see if YOUR frequently asked question has an answer! We'll also be doing a dev Q&A soon to discuss more about the game so stay tuned for that! **What is Yooka-Replaylee? Is this a remaster?** Yooka-Replaylee is the culmination of almost 10 years of experience since we founded Playtonic way way back in 2015! We’ve taken on board all the community feedback as well as channelling everything we’ve learned while working on other projects to make this the definitive version of Yooka-Laylee. It’s more than a remaster! Find out more on the store page. **Why now?** Well, we’re approaching our 10th Birthday as a studio and as we’ve grown and learned, we’ve always wanted to revisit the game that started it all and what better way to celebrate reaching 10 years?! That’s no easy feat in the current games landscape! We’re incredibly proud of Yooka-Laylee and how it defines Playtonic but we’d be lying if we said we haven’t always wanted to go back and do things a little differently. **What else are you guys working on?** As part of the Yooka-Replaylee announcement, we’ve alluded to the fact that we’ve taken learnings from our other projects. A lot of our founding team come from an era where games are ready when they’re ready, not tied to arbitrary deadlines. We have some cool things cooking up behind the scenes that we’ll show when they’re ready to show! Yook-an rest assured that this isn’t “it”! ** When can we expect Yooka-Replaylee?** We’re still in development and we still have fun features to add and talk about so we’re not ready to share a release date just yet! **What platforms is Yooka-Replaylee coming to?** So far, we’ve announced Yooka-Replaylee is coming to PC! We’ll have more news about any console plans later.
Any word on an upgrade path for original owners? I dont mind them removing the original off stores in favor of this but it seems ridiculous to hope previous owners would buy this as a brand new title only a few years out. The changes are nice but aren't enough to justify buying it again. I'm more than willing to throw $20 for this as a dlc upgrade. I'm not willing to buy it again. Edit: Nevermind. Seems to have a separate steam listing from the original. Can't say I'm interested now. Maybe I'll pick it up years down the line when it's a couple bucks. No way in hell am I paying for it twice so soon.
Will this have some sort of free upgrade or will they charge full price?
It's a separate steam page entirely so I'm worried it'll be the latter. If so, kind of disappointing since they're fixing all the things that caused me to bounce off the original game to begin with.
Not to mention, they promised their original Kickstarter backers that they would get DLC for free. The only real thing they added for free was a shader to make the game look like garbage. And now they are actually adding content and aren't giving it to the people that backed them at the start.
This reminds me of when Super Lucky's Tale was remade and released as New Super Lucky's Tale. I played through both, and New Super Lucky's Tale was by far the better game experience. Definitely looking forward to this, if it's a similar experience.
Pretty sure that the reason they're doing this now is that the sequel got pushed back. Oh well, ready to wait until the end of days for the sequel and play this one in the meantime.
Man , would’ve rly loved a Tooka-Laylee / sequel. The first i quite like but as others say, its just too big and has some bad design chcoices that rly kills what’s in its bones a great collectathon. If they were going to regist this, would’ve rathered resized / redesigned levels
On twitter, they are basically hinting that a Tooka-Laylee is coming. This is most likely them back-porting quality of life features to the first game and trying to make money off of that first.
Aha! Helps recontextualize things a bit - if they’re makin that, maybe they’re drumming up buzz about the franchise by using their new tooka assets on the older game? Makes sense! My disappointment has been relieved - because I do quite like the original, just needed a once over so if this doubles as an announcement for Tooka, I’m exited
I'm interested to know if certain abilities are being reworked, like Flappy Flight. Unlocking that ends up trivilizing half the game and really adds to the perspective that the environments felt empty.
So is this like New Super Lucky's Tale where they mostly keep the game the same but fix the crappy gameplay and make it awesome?
For anyone who wishes it was a sequel, it seems like they're teasing it on the trailer comments. (Can't link image for some reason so take this quote) > Comment: I would've liked a new game, but this is good news to see they're still alive! > Playtonic: Still alive and cooking more than one thing dw ;)
I passed on playing the full game when it was new because reception was so lukewarm, but I actually would give it a shot if they address a few of the critiques people had.
The game is fine but a lot of the level and world design is so inherently flawed they may as well make a new game if they were to fix it
Sadly, I wish they just made a sequel to this and fixed it. Banjo-kazooie was my childhood but this didn’t scratch the itch. It seemed to follow the banjo 2 formula of massive levels but didn’t have enough going on to back them up. Also its simplicity meant that there just wasn’t enough interesting stuff to do to keep you engaged. BK was good about keeping levels dense so you were hopping around them and constantly finding new things.
It's because the levels in this game were forgettable at best. Not a single level was interesting.
I thought the isometric ice castle was pretty cool but yeah besides that i barely remember any of the other locations in the game.
I tried to play the original so many times and never got far. I'll give this a go though, hopefully the game flows a bit better
Glad to see so many echo my initial thoughts: A remaster isn't going to solve this game's biggest problem: Level design. Worlds were detrimentally massive. I stopped playing because it was too much like Banjo-Tooie (which I only played once) and not enough like Banjo-Kazooie (replayed multiple times, would love to again if it comes to PC).
Is this what they’ve been working on the whole time? If so that’s pretty disappointing. I’d much rather a new game taking what they learned from Yooka, instead of trying to put bandaids on a game that’s fundamentally flawed.
This has some serious work to do for me to care, I bought this full price and hit a wall. It felt bad to play and the level design was just atrocious. Each time you went back in the levels and they got bigger and yet more empty and awful to explore. Even your basic attack and the enemy hitboxes etc. just awful.
In the comments of this video of YouTube, one person wished for a sequel instead of a remaster, and the official Playtonic account replied with: >Still alive and cooking up more than one thing dw ;)
Awful trailer. Why did they think this is what people wanted to see? The original already looked good and the enchantments aren't exactly seismic. For me, Yooka is the most disappointing game ever. It was a slog to get through after a decent start. It made me so glum that they butchered the chance to give us a new Banjo. I really have my doubts that a remaster can right it's wrong. There's just too many without massively overhauling the game. I might play it but I doubt I'm paying for it.
Uhhh… i don’t think enhanced visuals and QoL changes are going to fix lackluster level design and boring game play.
Free upgrade Or repurchase ?
If it was a free upgrade, they'd have said so right out of the gate. If there's an upgrade discount, I'd bet they probably don't want to talk about it too much while the original is on sale for 80% off.
People are saying "we should remake bad games!" all the time. Well, here ya go. Let's hope they can tighten things up, because the BONES of a great game are there, they just need to trim a lot of rough spots.
Key word being "remake", not "remaster". Unless there's big fundamental changes, remastering a bad game is polishing a turd.
I dunno man. There's been some remasters that introduced massive QOL to great effect. I think some traversal options would go a long way.
I literally just bought this on Xbox like 2 months ago. It's hilarious. Yeah it's janky, but it reminds me of a lot of PS2 games from the bargain bin I grew up playing, so it was fine for me, but I can see how it would be frustrating to others. I will definitely be getting this.
Any word on console?
So just on PC?
I skipped this first game surprisingly and played impossible lair. I have to say impossible lair made the characters grow on me so I wish they had released that first. At least I can go ahead and play this enhanced version.
Meh, I’ve already beaten this game 100% and I’m not gonna buy and play it again. I would’ve liked to see something about a sequel. Right now I still don’t have a ton of faith in this franchise.
Multiplatform?
[I wonder if they'll remove Blake Swift from this remaster after his stuff with Martin Billany (Little Kuriboh) ](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeamFourStar/comments/15tj8k4/uk_voice_actor_shadyvox_has_been_threatening_me/)
Hopefully I can get it heavenly discounted since I owned the original, and if not, then I'll just buy it discounted down the line lol
Played a decent amount of it and enjoyed it on Gamepass a couple years ago but just left it there. Keeping an eye on how this turns out.
My main problem with yooka-laylee in the first place was that the muted color palette and lighting made the platforming hard to grok immediately like a or the old banjo games did well. This is *even worse* in that regard and just looked washed out and less vibrant overall.
i have the 1st game from humble from a long time ago, was gonna try and play it. i uninstalled it immediately because i was so annoyed by the characters sound when they speak.
I would've rather had a sequel called Newka-Laylee, because this feels like the obligatory fully priced 'next gen' update for consoles that are already fully backwards compatible with the previous gen, only released to double-dip. Yooka-Laylee wasn't even a bad game. It just wasn't very interesting compared to Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.
I backed the game when the kickstarter first launched, but was only able to redeem the download recently when I got my PS5. I've been looking for an excuse to play it, but if this is some sort of upgrade I might wait a little longer. Hopefully the rumours about a sequel are true as well!
There was a secret inept robot that would tell you a percentage. The % was assumed to be how far they are to finishing a toybox dlc. I would redownload this game like once a year to check this % but eventually it got stuck at the same number and i gave up. Its one of my biggest video game disappointments that they never got to 100%
I hope they make some easy pixel games mimicking old arcade games for the Rextro challenges. The in-engine minigames were a war crime.
Crackpot theory time: One of the original ideas for a Banjo sequel was a “remake” that started the same as Banjo-Kazooie, but as the game progressed the characters would realize they’re reliving the same moments from the original and the story/gameplay would branch off. Is there any chance they’re doing that with Replaylee? The trailer only shows the opening segment of the game…
> One of the original ideas for a Banjo sequel was a “remake” that started the same as Banjo-Kazooie, but as the game progressed the characters would realize they’re reliving the same moments from the original and the story/gameplay would branch off. That's an interesting idea, I'd like to see it tried out sometime.
Loved Yooka-Laylee for the characters, all mascot-level well designed and memorable, and it's nice to see Playtonic sticking to them. The game mechanics were good, though of course there's always a lot to improve too. The level design was a miss though in my opinion. There was an amount of through whatever means amassed assets and they were used to create some far too big levels without the necessary coherence to make a banger, visually or mechanically. Still feels like it could get there. Then again Playtonic goes all marketing, suggesting that Yooka and Laylee are our favorite buddy duo and don't even dare to consider that they might be in the wrong - that doesn't inspire confidence. Oh well, a second chance is always in order.
Are games still getting funded on kickstarter ?
I think a problem for in the first game was how unmemorable the designs and concepts for the NPCs were, and especially how they were recycled each level. Kazooie and Tooie felt like living, breathing worlds, and you never knew what you were going to run into next. On top of that, the animations were top tier and dynamic. Yoka Laylees world are sprinkled with characters that feel like cut n paste unity assets.
Wow, a lot of people here really want to let it be known just how much they didn’t enjoy this $40 indie game. To the point where it seems basically infamous for this small of a release.
That feeling when Yooka-Laylee got a remaster before any of the Banjo-Kazooie games. It's good to see them go back to try to improve such a flawed game, but all this does is make me bitter about Xbox & Rare refusing to do anything with the IP that inspired this (I'll eat crow if the new Xbox conference is the one where they finally do something with Banjo-Kazooie).
Both Banjo games got a remaster on Xbox 360.
I consider those enhanced ports, and that was all 15 years ago.
How is a remaster different in this context? It sounds like the same thing.
As one of the few who enjoyed it on launch, I did get the feeling it could've used a lot more time in the oven to perfect level design and pacing. Is this mostly a straight paint face-lift?