Yooka Laylee

Plot

Yooka and Laylee venture out from the safety of their home in Shipwreck Creek to explore deep inside the work halls of a baneful business known as the Hivory Towers, to find the "Pagies" needed to explore the mysterious Grand Tomes as the buddy-duo battle to stop Capital B and Dr. Quack from absorbing all the world's literature and converting it into pure profit.

Gameplay

Gameplay bears resemblance to Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel, Banjo-Tooie, featuring items and characters that play similar roles to those found in these games. One player controls two characters working together simultaneously, a male chameleon named Yooka, who is being described as "sensible", and likewise controls a female bat named Laylee, who is being described as "a little bit crazy". The game is intended as a resurrection and modernization of the "collectathon" 3D platforming game genre of the late 1990s and early 2000s, with an emphasis on progression by collecting various different items. During their adventures, Yooka and Laylee will explore worlds contained within magical books and complete challenges to collect "Pagies": golden book pages that act as the main currency in the game. Players can use their Pagies to either unlock new worlds or expand those which have already been unlocked. Each world will contain a boss battle.

The characters' abilities will include "sonar blasting", "tongue whipping", "sky soaring", eating berries for temporary powers such as fire breath, and a "fart bubble" for breathing underwater. Most of these abilities use a power meter that is filled by collecting butterflies (which can be eaten instead to restore health). Butterflies are earned by collecting enough quills to purchase them from Trowzer, a snake salesman who wears pants. Atoms known as Mollycools are used in order help an octopus-like scientist named Dr. Puzz give Yooka and Laylee various transformations that grant them exclusive abilities. Play Tonics are RPG-style ability modifiers that are purchased from Vendi, a living vending machine, and equipped to modify or enhance players' ability stats. Also found in the levels are Ghost Writers, collectible characters who provide various challenges like catching or fighting them for more activities, and Play Tokens, which are used to play the secret arcade games that are found once per level, hosted by a low polygon T. rex named Rextro Sixtyfourus, a homage to the Nintendo 64. There will be a "quiz show challenge" featured before the final boss, similar to the Banjo-Kazooie games. Furthermore, 2D and 3D "mine cart" sequences will be included, similar to those of Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong 64.

The game will feature a local cooperative multiplayer mode for two players. There will also be a 2–4 player adversarial local multiplayer mode with eight different minigames.

Development

On 8 September 2012, a group of former Rare employees announced their intent to create a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. They joined under the Twitter handle Mingy Jongo, a boss from the game Banjo-Tooie, with cooperation from ex-Rare developers, such as Grant Kirkhope. The account was left abandoned and the project confirmed to be on indefinite hiatus by Kirkhope in a Reddit AMA. Later, the account was revived under its current name Playtonic Games. Playtonic then announced that they were planning a spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie franchise titled Yooka-Laylee, formerly codenamed Project Ukulele. Yooka-Laylee is believed to have been the result of Mingy Jongo's work, which was similarly based on the Unity game engine and was intended to be crowdfunded through Kickstarter.

The game's funding project was announced on Kickstarter on 1 May 2015. It reached its initial crowdfunding campaign goal of £175,000 within thirty-eight minutes and its initial highest goal of £1,000,000 in 21 hours, at the time becoming the fastest video game in Kickstarter history to reach US$1 million. Playtonic Games later sent out a public statement thanking all their supporters and promising more updates in the future. The campaign added four additional stretch goals, all of which have been reached. Those who contributed predetermined amounts to the campaign will receive special rewards related to the game's release. It is currently the highest-funded UK video game in Kickstarter history, passing the previous record held by Elite: Dangerous, earning £2,090,104. Yooka-Laylee is set to be released on Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, with success in the crowdfunding campaign allowing a simultaneous April 2017 release for consoles. A Wii U version was also in development but cancelled in December 2016, with a Nintendo Switch version taking its place. Playtonic announced that there would be no physical release for Yooka-Laylee on the Nintendo Switch.

The game will feature 3D worlds by environment artist Steven Hurst, whose credits include the Banjo-Kazooie series and Viva Piñata. Some characters will be designed by Kevin Bayliss, who helped design the modern Kong characters in the Donkey Kong Country series, and Ed Bryan, who designed characters in Banjo-Kazooie. Former Rare composers David Wise, Grant Kirkhope and Steve Burke will collaborate to compose the game's orchestral score. A soundtrack CD will be released and rewarded to certain supporters of the crowdfunding campaign. The game will feature an optional "N64 shader" mode, which will imitate the graphical appearance of Nintendo 64 games. Additional post-launch downloadable content is planned, which will begin production following the game's release, and players who participated in the crowdfunding campaign will receive this content for free. The game's native language will be English, but it will also feature professional French, German, Italian and Spanish translations. Other languages for inclusion will be voted on by the backers of the Kickstarter campaign. Wil Overton, a former artist for Super Play, N64 Magazine, and Rare, will illustrate the game's instruction manual.

The game will be published by Team17. In June 2016, Playtonic announced that they had delayed the game to early 2017 in order to give the team additional time to polish the game. Additionally, it was confirmed that Playtonic Games were focusing their development efforts on the PC and Wii U versions, and originally giving the latter platform "the right attention" due to greater demand from Kickstarter backers, as well as nostalgia factors. Publisher Team17 will assist porting the game to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

A sandbox version of the game, also known as the Toybox demo was released on 28 July 2016 for backers of the game who contributed a certain amount. The title character of the indie game Shovel Knight will also make an appearance as a non-playable character; the character's model was designed by Shovel Knight studio Yacht Club Games, with game director Sean Velasco providing the character's voice. On 3 October 2016, Playtonic Games confirmed to their Kickstarter backers that the game will have a physical retail release alongside the digital release, and promised backers who earned the digital version the choice of physical media.

In December 2016, Playtonic Games confirmed the game will be available both digitally and at retail worldwide on 11 April 2017 for all platforms. Those who pre-order the game gain access to the Toybox, which Playtonic is working to make available on the console platforms. In the same update, Playtonic Games announced that the Wii U version had been cancelled, with development duties moved to the Nintendo Switch. The announcement cited "unforeseen technical issues" as the reason for cancelling it. Playtonic offered Kickstarter backers who pledged for the Wii U version choices of refund or moving their pledge to any other platform at no additional cost. Playtonic stated that additional details regarding the game's Nintendo Switch version would be announced in January 2017. It was later explained that the decision to cancel the Wii U version is unrelated to the console's poor commercial performance, and that some of the developers expressed reluctance to do so.

In March 2017, Playtonic announced that YouTube personality JonTron, real name Jon Jafari, who was originally to voice a character in Yooka-Laylee, would be removed from the game due to his racist commentary on immigration, ethnicity, and nationalism. In a statement to Gameindustry.biz, Playtonic said "in light of his recent personal viewpoints we have made the decision to remove JonTron's inclusion in the game via a forthcoming content update." Jafari was first revealed to be playing a minor character in the game in February 2015. Despite his removal, Jafari was still received in-game credit for his participation, listed in the ending credits' "Special Guest Voice Overs" section.

On 1 April 2017, Playtonic released The Yooka-Laylee Rap!, which was a stretch goal on Kickstarter. It pays homage to the DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64, with Grant Kirkhope reprising his role as the rap's composer.

Reception

Yooka-Laylee received "mixed or average" reviews according to video game review aggregator Metacritic. Critics generally agreed that the game recaptured the feel of a classic 3D platformer, but they divided over whether this made the game successful or simply made its gameplay and design feel outdated.

Many critics praised the game as a successful follow up to the original Banjo-Kazooie games. Steven Bogos of The Escapist positively refereed to the game as "Banjo-Threeie", calling it "a nostalgic ride through time, bringing the collect-a-thons from the N64 era into the modern age". Reviewing for The Guardian, Simon Parkin enjoyed the nostalgic feel of the game similar to 1990s games such as classic Rare titles and Super Mario 64, calling it "not so much a love letter... as a full exhumation of the late 90s platformer." Parkin praised the variety of gameplay styles, collectibles and approach to unlocking and level progression. James Kozanitis of Game Revolution felt that Yooka-Laylee improved on the gameplay and structure of classic titles, in particular the relevance and importance of the collectables. Chris Carter of Destructoid praised the expansive levels and the colorful design, while noting instances of what he felt were "a creeping sense of budgetary concerns" due to the varying quality between them. While Carter himself was favorable towards the game, he concluded that due to the throwback designs, it would not be for everyone.

Marty Sliva of IGN called Yooka-Laylee "a good reminder that this genre, once thought to be dead, still has some life left in it". Sliva noted different aspects of the game that felt authentic to games from the 90s, praising the level design, soundtrack and characters while also criticizing how the game controlled at certain points and stated it was "not 1998 anymore" regarding frustrating camera movement. Kallie Plagge of GameSpot similarly praised certain aspects such as the collectibles and non-linear structure while also criticizing the uncooperative camera. Plagge conversely was critical of what she felt was convoluted level design and outdated gameplay. Reviewer Jim Sterling was negative towards the game, criticizing outdated gameplay, design, and controls while also commenting that it failed to retain what also made classic 3D platformers successful.