Preview: Yooka-Replaylee is a remake that makes the original feel worthless
Like many old-school platformer fans, I backed Yooka-Laylee on Kickstarter when it was announced. A new game that’s a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie sounded like exactly my kind of vibe. The problem, when the game was finally released, was that Yooka-Laylee followed too close to its Banjo roots, inheriting all of its strengths but also all of its flaws. It also meant that Yooka-Laylee didn’t feel like it had an identity of its own — it was Banjo-Kazooie with a legally distinct skin over the top.
Yooka-Replaylee changes the story a bit, both metaphorically and literally. It’s been massively overhauled, with a new narrative, new abilities, streamlined progression, and a culling of unnecessary aspects of the genre that were only there in the original so it felt more like its inspiration. There’s less to collect now, but that makes the things you do collect feel that much more meaningful.
The biggest upgrade to Yooka-Replaylee is the dynamic duo’s movement and move set. Both Yooka and Laylee have more moves available to them from the get-go, eliminating the slow progression of abilities seen in the original game and making the duo feel more naturally well-developed from minute one. Platforming has been polished well beyond what the original was capable of, even after all of its updates, and it’s an absolute joy to play. There’s a comforting weightiness to Yooka’s jumps and falls, but it achieves that weight without feeling clunky — another upgrade.
The story changes are very welcome. The demo I had access to – which is available on Steam right now – is only the very beginning of the game, stopping just short of letting me jump into the first separate world, but it’s already showing huge improvements. The background of the two characters is fleshed out significantly, but the story is actually faster to get going. Yooka-Laylee was plagued with slow, frustrating dialogue that was heavily front-loaded, and while there’s still a front-loading of exposition, it’s significantly cut down without losing any of the charm or really any of the story. Most of it is still there, it’s just presented in a cleaner, snappier way that doesn’t waste your time.
It also looks phenomenal, with gorgeous presentation and a visual identity that feels fresh and original. I did have some issues running the game on my PC – maintaining a solid 60fps was a challenge at higher settings, even at 1080p – but that could come down to a number of things, and it’s still a fair way from launch. I have no doubt that it will absolutely shine when it eventually releases, and will likely be a visual delight on consoles, too.
The most frustrating thing about Yooka-Replaylee is that it completely invalidates the original game. Every single aspect is improved, every inch of streamlining and refining has made Yooka-Replaylee by far the definitive version of the game, and once it’s out there will be no reason to go back to the original at all. It’s that much better in every single way, I don’t see why you’d ever want to.