Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

[DisturbedSwan]

Picked this up last week after reading lots of glowing impressions and very positive reviews.

 

It definitely hasn’t disappointed that’s for sure, I’ve had an absolute blast with it for sure and it’s definitely one of the best platformers I’ve played in recent years.

 

The game takes on two dimensions. The 2D side-scrolling platforming takes up the majority of your time with it and I think the easiest way to describe how it looks, feels and plays is heavily inspired by Retro’s DKC series and Rare’s original DKC series, seeing the game at a glance in motion you’d be mistaken for thinking it’s one of Retro’s games. From the roll Yooka-Laylee do to the hidden coins dotted around the map, the similar way Laylee takes a hit through a level, the hidden doors into puzzle rooms, even the iconic barrels that rocket you around certain platforms. There is an awful lot of crossover here. Some may worry it’s a poor imitation or an uninspired clone but I assure you, to play, it’s every bit as good as it’s DKC counterparts. Worth noting there’s no rocket or mine-cart levels yet though.

 

The second dimension to it and the biggest difference is the world map. With this the World Map is incredibly interactive and inviting, almost a game unto itself. It features a rather large Zelda-esque map filled with charmingly different locales, Pagie challenges, little puzzles to find tonics and new areas, little caves and mysterious little nooks and crannies. By changing the landscape in some way by doing the Pagie challenges you often reshape the landscape to unlock new areas to explore and alter the makeup of a previously unlocked level. A level variation is then created whereby a level can become frozen, overgrown, invaded by new enemies etc. Essentially creating an almost entirely new level to explore based on the outside environment of the world map and where the level marker is placed.

 

The way it feels to play is incredibly reminiscent of the DKC games during the 2D levels, it just feels so incredibly tight to play and definitely has that same difficulty curve. But I think the Interactive World Map is almost just as compelling, you can completely lose yourself in the map just wandering around trying to figure where things fit together and where certain paths will take you.

 

These two dimensions create an incredibly cohesive whole. If you’re getting bored of doing the levels then you can just wander off and explore to your hearts content, if you’re bored of exploring you can enter a level of platforming bliss in seconds.

 

My only real criticism with it would be the level design really. The actual platforming is sublime but some of the level designs themselves are a little generic and nowhere near as joyful, varied, distinct and charming as the likes of DKC.
 

I highly recommend it though, to anyone that’s into tough 2D platformer’s this is nirvana.

 

 

 

[OrangeRKN]

Interested in hearing if your opinion changes when you get to the end. I got 43 bees and beat all 40 regular levels, but gave up on the titular impossible lair - repeating that long slog multiple times is just not fun.

 

In general I was a big fan of the overworld and the game otherwise is good but not amazing. I'm not a fan of the "one shot or you miss it" approach to secrets and general level design.

[DisturbedSwan]

1 hour ago, OrangeRKN said:

Interested in hearing if your opinion changes when you get to the end. I got 43 bees and beat all 40 regular levels, but gave up on the titular impossible lair - repeating that long slog multiple times is just not fun.

 

In general I was a big fan of the overworld and the game otherwise is good but not amazing. I'm not a fan of the "one shot or you miss it" approach to secrets and general level design.

 

Yeah, we'll see I guess. I'm about 10 hours in now, sitting at 19/20 bees - finished Chapter 10 last night - and still having an absolute blast with it at the moment. It's definitely longer than I thought though! I thought I'd be nearly done by now and I'm only about half way through.

 

I'm aiming to get 100% Bees, Coins and Tonics before diving into the Impossible Lair but we'll see how that pans out, I get so little time to play games these days I probably won't get round to it until the end of November at the earliest ?

 

I have heard from some reviews I watched prior to picking it up that the Impossible Lair is rather frustrating and doesn't include any checkpoints, so we'll see how it goes when I get there...I definitely want to finish it properly if/when I get to that point though but it's possibly the frustration might sour my overall experience with the game at the point, but who knows, hopefully not ?

 

I've not had any issues with the approach to level design/secrets either really, I don't mind replaying levels and trying to find out what I'd missed the first time through and I'm used to it from the recent DKC games. I have had to look a couple things up when I've been left scratching my head though, some of the secret exits and coins are really well hidden!

[Maryokutai]

1 hour ago, OrangeRKN said:

I'm not a fan of the "one shot or you miss it" approach to secrets and general level design.

 

That's my only genuine complaint about this so far (haven't played the Impossible Lair yet though). So many stuff can only be reached by jumping off an enemy and they never respawn. I don't know how many times I've had to kill myself just to get another shot at obtaining a coin.

 

Nintendo has been doing respawning enemies in 2D platformers for decades now and I suspect it's for exactly this reason. So weird to see Playtonic consciously choose to not do this because there's no way this is an oversight. 

[OrangeRKN]

Yeah I like the secrets being genuinely hidden, it makes it rewarding to find them. What is frustrating is messing up a jump and being forced to kill myself and work back from the last checkpoint to get another shot. If it's been too long since the last checkpoint, I will just resign myself to not getting it, which is a little annoying. It's definitely a conscious design choice, like how as you advance through a level you'll be prevented from backtracking by locking doors and other things - occasionally though it will be unclear which route was the secret and which was the way to advance, so you can find yourself choosing wrong and being unable to go back.

 

I don't want to be down on the game too much though, it is generally good! Just those little things stop it from reaching greatness.

[DisturbedSwan]

Put another 5 hours in since my last post and my opinion of it has maybe dropped a little bit but I’m still enjoying it a lot overall. I think the length is possibly the main thing that’s putting me off, I’m at 32 bees now but still have quite a way to go until I finish it and for a platformer it’s already a little too long for my liking. I get I don’t have to do all these levels and can skip to the Impossible Lair but I want to do them all and feel I need to to give me the best chance at completing the Lair.

 

But yeah, it’s still a phenomenal platformer, there’s just maybe a little too much of it? The music is fantastic and the platforming has only got more challenging as it’s gone on which is cool but yeah I would’ve expected to finish it by now, I don’t remember any of the Retro developed DKC games being this kind of length.

 

Some vids: 

 

 

 

 

[OrangeRKN]

My play time for all 40 levels but not beating the impossible lair was 10 hours, according to the Switch. Not massively long, but far from completionist.

[DisturbedSwan]

57 minutes ago, OrangeRKN said:

My play time for all 40 levels but not beating the impossible lair was 10 hours, according to the Switch. Not massively long, but far from completionist.

 

Whoa, really? I've no idea why I've been taking so long then, I mean I have been trying my best to get most of the coins by dying if I mess up and miss one but I haven't been replaying levels or anything going back in to get them. I usually only get time for 2 or 3 levels a night within a 90 minute-2 hour session, maybe I'm just slow? ?

[Maryokutai]

1 hour ago, OrangeRKN said:

My play time for all 40 levels but not beating the impossible lair was 10 hours, according to the Switch. Not massively long, but far from completionist.

 

Wait, there are only 40 levels? How do you unlock the remaining 8 Bees then (not sure my numbers are correct here)? I remember playing every level I unlocked and missing a lot of Bees so I went to another game for the time being.

 

Edit: I'm also around 11-ish hours.

[OrangeRKN]

Switch timings are 5 hour blocks after 10 I think so that's actually anywhere between 10 and 15 hours. I imagine you're spending more time looking for coins too, I was averaging 2-3 out of 5 per level.

 

1 minute ago, Maryokutai said:

 

Wait, there are only 40 levels? How do you unlock the remaining 8 Bees then? I'm not sure my number are correct here but I remember playing every level I unlocked and missing a lot of Bees so I went to another game for the time being.

 

The extra 8 are from secret exits I think (where the bees are on the overworld). I ended with 43 bees as I only found 3 secret exits

[Maryokutai]

Thanks, I'm stupid. I remember running past some of those and never finding the exit.

 

As for the playtime, the game actually tells you how long you've played it on the title screen.

[DisturbedSwan]

Just 6 more Bees left now ?

 

Last few levels have been absolutely sublime. 
 

 

[AndyKurosaki]

Just picked this up in the PSN sale. The reviews seemed positive, and I’ve not played a decent platformer in a long time. I got the original Yooka game as well, as the bundle was only an extra £2 so I figured why not.

After the relentless violence and misery of Last Of Us 2, this is a breath of fresh air.