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Official Tweet 5 year anniversary of Yooka-Laylee

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Howdy all! Happy 5th Yooka-Layleeversary!



5 years ago, in 2017, Yooka-Laylee released after 2 years of immense anticipation. Sadly, for many of us, it did not live up to the hype. I remember just before a big move I was working in my previous office about 7 years ago when the news of the Y-L Kickstarter dropped along with a delightful video and addictive, looping gif. Not to mention the incredible and iconic title track of Tribal Tropics.

If you follow the Twitter link, Playtonic has pics of a Y-L cake and a link to a giveaway. They promised exciting announcements during the day so I let myself hope for a game announcement, but alas it seemingly wasn't to be.

I couldn't get into the original Y-L, but the pseudo-sequel, the Impossible Lair, is one of my favorite games of the past 10 years.

I'm going to repost my impressions from when I beat the final level after nearly 70 tries. And these tries are super time-consuming, LOL.

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Man, it has been such a journey to beat this level. My wife and I played the game in October and collected the 48 bees which each allow you to take one hit in the titular Lair. I had heard before we played the game that the Lair was so difficult that I should expect to not be able to beat it.

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To give a bit of background, 2D platformers are my favorite genre but I am by no means excellent at them. I've been playing Celeste on and off since it came out and I'm at probably 10k+ deaths and haven't 100%'d the game yet by any means. I've 100%'d DKCR and TF, but it took many, many attempts and I haven't played much of their Mirror or Hard modes. So when I first tried the Lair I couldn't make it more than 25% or so. I tried it a few times in October then gave up for a while and moved on to Luigi's Mansion. Tried a bunch more times over X-Mas and made it to 50% or so. I was stuck there for quite a while.

I should also mention I was incredibly excited for the first Yooka-Laylee when the KS was announced, I absolutely loved the design and played the music all the time. I was seriously bummed when the game turned out to not be to my liking, so when Impossible Lair was announced mid-last year and looked to be much more in my wheelhouse, and then debuted to very good reviews, I was beyond psyched to get a Yooka-Laylee game I could really love playing.

A couple weeks ago I reached out to a user for some advice since I was basically hitting a wall, or at least, an endless series of elevators and spikes. With their help and advice I was able to inch my way to 75%, and then, finally, have some great runs where I only lost 3 bees in the first platforming section. I parlayed that into getting more practice in the second platforming and third boss section, and eventually made my way to what I thought was the very end, only to find out I still had a bit to go - and then finally accomplished the whole thing yesterday afternoon.

Part of what is so challenging and punishing in the level is having to start from the beginning every single time. I have 68 attempts to my name but several of them were unquestionably doomed runs which I quit and start over. Having to go back to the overworld every time was kind of disheartening and momentum-slowing, so I would have liked a quick restart button. I also would have really liked a checkpoint even halfway through. When I finally beat the level yesterday, it probably took me 35 minutes start to finish. That is one seriously long level. I don't have tons of free time for gaming, so part of keeping at it required more patience and willingness to sacrifice time than I often have.

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But yeah, I am seriously proud and happy to have beat it. I don't think much of the actual platforming required is as difficult as the moment-to-moment platforming in Celeste, but when you die there you start in the same room so they're just two different kinds of punishing. One punishes your time more, one values your time more but requests a higher skill. The Lair requires stamina and determination. I love both though. I am so, so glad to have beaten this. My present to myself is getting to listen to the wonderful OST. I promised myself I wouldn't listen to it until I beat the game.



Looking very much forward to going back and getting the remaining Coin collectibles in the levels. I absolutely loved the game, with its engaging level design, endlessly creative state changes, and endearing presentation. It's the DKC 6 I've been waiting for, and I am so glad to have gotten to play it. Like those games, it will surely go down as one of my faves.

I've yet to beat Champion's Road (though that one is 3D) but that is going to be my next goal. I've wanted to beat it for a while and beating the Lair is giving me renewed confidence to try again.

How did you like the level? Did you beat it?


Anyway, I'd love to hear about your experiences with the game and franchise. As I said in the hidden text, I absolutely loved Impossible Lair, it was like the true DKC 6 to me, and I'm really eagerly awaiting their next game!


Hidden content is only available for registered users. Sharing it outside of Famiboards is subject to moderation.
 
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The jump in quality between the original Yooka-Laylee and Impossible Lair is one of the biggest I've ever seen between two games in the same series from the same developer. It's crazy.

The original game was unoptimized and plagued by empty world design and uninspired platforming challenges, but you could tell the potential was there. Playtonic's pedigree and familiarity with the genre gave me hope that they'd somehow right the ship eventually, and they sure did with Impossible Lair. It's easily one of the best platformers on the Switch. It's like a spiritual successor to DKC and Banjo-Kazooie all rolled into one. The way it handled its Zelda-esque overworld was just a stroke of genius as well.
 
I would love to see a sequel. Their hearts were in the right place with the first game, so I can only imagine that a second would be a massive improvement!
 
For all it's faults, I genuinely enjoyed the original Yooka Laylee as a charming throwback to the games of my childhood. It was rough around the edges, but it had heart.

Impossible Lair though is straight up one of the best 2D platformers of the generation in my opinion, a wonderful blend of old school and new school sensibilities which nails that "feel" that makes the best sidescrollers such a kinetic pleasure to play.

I look forward to seeing what Playtonic cook up next, because the magic of Rare's golden age clearly still live in them.
 
curl-6 said:
For all it's faults, I genuinely enjoyed the original Yooka Laylee as a charming throwback to the games of my childhood. It was rough around the edges, but it had heart.

Impossible Lair though is straight up one of the best 2D platformers of the generation in my opinion, a wonderful blend of old school and new school sensibilities which nails that "feel" that makes the best sidescrollers such a kinetic pleasure to play.

I look forward to seeing what Playtonic cook up next, because the magic of Rare's golden age clearly still live in them.
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Well said! For me in the recent lack of DKC and Rayman games, with the most recent two entries of each being the commercial standard bearers for the platforming genre, it's been heartening to see Impossible Lair and Splasher fill their shoes, respectively. I hope we see sequels to both before long, though I'm very much looking forward to Splash Team's Tinykin this summer.
 
I remember when the original game soured a lot of people. Impossible lair changed that deservingly.
 
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The original game was a bit disappointing, but I really enjoyed Impossible Lair. I remember us PMing about your progress through the lair a couple years back :)
 
The Impossible Lair the game is one of my favorite platformers ever, right up there with the SNES DKC series (appropriately, considering the team).

The Impossible Lair the level, however, nearly broke my friggin soul.
 
I'm so ready for the sequel, I'm convinced it will be eons better now that there's not the kickstarter constraint and a larger, more synergised team.

Playtonic expanded very rapidly and their plans seem vast so I'll keep an eye on them, I must be one of the most crazy Banjo fans out there so I'll happily devour any platformer they make.
 
Although the first game is considered to be underwhelming (which I didn't have an opinion of due to my lack of experience with it), I am rather fond of the duo because they have the makings of a great character, so it's actually a blessing that it did not ended up like Mighty No. 9 where it becomes a source of mockery. I don't think they would have been able to fill the shoes that Banjo-Kazooie have, but that does not matter when it's in the hands of folks who care about the future of Yooka-Laylee.

Thank you for reading.
 
Impossible Lair is great but I’m definitely more excited for a 3D platformer followup. I still liked the original despite some glaring issues. I think it would have benefitted from looking at BK with its more compact levels than BT but I’m curious to see how they will improve on the formula.
 
I bought the first game and Impossible Lair together for PS4. I didn't like the first one because of its technical issues and other stuff. I still need to try the second one.
 
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It was unfortunate that they didn’t get it finished in time for the Switch launch. I would 100% have bought it with BotW on day 1, but I ended up just not buying it at all.
 
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chocolate_supra said:
The Impossible Lair the game is one of my favorite platformers ever, right up there with the SNES DKC series (appropriately, considering the team).

The Impossible Lair the level, however, nearly broke my friggin soul.
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That level is probably my favorite level in any platformer in a decade. Finally reaching the end felt like a true accomplishment.
 
Would appreciate a physical re-release of the first one since is impossible to find now.

Not a perfect game or even a particularly good one but eh.
 
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I bought Impossible Lair but haven't played it yet. I'm always up for ex Rare staff stuff though, wish all the best to them.
 
I think I'm on the minority here, but I actually enjoyed Yooka-Laylee more than Impossible Lair. I think that the sequel was a better game overall, but it felt somehow less imaginative than the original, and I remember it not feeling as good to play as DKC:TF (which is a high bar to beat, though) and a bit derivative. For all the faults that Yooka Laylee had, though, I think it had its heart in the right place, and the game always felt good to move around in and play. I hope they return to a 3-D platformer at some point, there was a lot of potential there.
 
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I think a new 3d game could be improved greatly by making smaller, more densley packed worlds. Less banjo tooie, more banjo kazooie
 
By the time I played the original, it had already been fully patched, so my impression of it was generally positive. The only aspects that truly bothered me were the poor controls in some arcade mini-games and the casino world, which is just awfully uninspired.

The Impossible Lair is unfairly overlooked. Is it too similar to Donkey Kong Country in many aspects? Yes, it is, but if it were a Donkey Kong Country game it would sit comfortably among them in terms of quality. Plus, it has some very clever ideas of its own. The way it utilizes the overworld is absolutely brilliant, and I feel the game presents a significant step forward in overworld design for platforming sidescrollers. It may sound like exaggeration, but to me what The Impossible Lair did in that regard is equivalent to what Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World did, with the difference being that The Impossible Lair is not nearly as popular as those two and because of that its concepts didn't leak into other games of the genre.

Personally, I am really looking forward to an eventual sequel for the first Yooka-Laylee. Firstly, because the franchise is one of the only representatives of a genre I love; a genre that the gaming industry has pretty much abandoned. And secondly, because I think they can deliver an absolute winner if they improve on the issues of the original.
 
I wonder if Playtonic will stagger the YookaLaylee styles? Like the next release will be 3D, then sidescroller, then 3D again, etc..?
Because I think both are good, and both are in the DNA of the studio.
 
I recently replayed both Yooka-Laylee and Y-K and the Impossible Lair, one when it was an Xbox Games With Gold and the other on stream. The latter remains one of my favorite 2D platformers of all time, and was so thrilled to beat the titular Impossible Lair on my first try on stream too. Really, both games scratched the itch that I wanted, as I originally played both on PlayStation 4 when they released and Platinumed both. They were both so fun that I definitely wanted to play them again, and getting our Xbox Series S was a perfect opportunity for that.

Yooka-Laylee is a bit rough around the edges at launch, but my Xbox playthrough went pretty smoothly. I thought it was a great 3D collectathon platformer, though nowhere near the game it was inspired by, though what is?
 
Y-K was definitely undercooked but I wouldn't mind seeing them give it another shot.

Impossible Lair was good right up until the titular level. I didn't have the patience to deal with that, so I bailed.
 
I really love the designs for Yooka and Laylee so really rooting for this series to find more successes.
 
I didn't play the first game until it came out on Switch, by which time it had received a lot of updates and polish since its initial release, so I too had a largely positive experience with it.

Some of the tasks were marred by poor controls or an unreliable camera, but for the most part I got paid for; a 90s 3D platformer/collectathon warts and all.
The humor, music, nostalgia, variety, and the fact it felt fresh as they simply don't make games like this in the modern era went a long way towards ultimately outweighing its foibles.

It was a really good port too, with great care taken to get it looking and running at a commendable standard.

I'm definitely keen for another game in this format, as I'm optimistic they can learn from the first one and produce a more polished followup.
 
chocolate_supra said:
I wonder if Playtonic will stagger the YookaLaylee styles? Like the next release will be 3D, then sidescroller, then 3D again, etc..?
Because I think both are good, and both are in the DNA of the studio.
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I'd be really pleased with that. Especially if the next 3D game is more focused on gameplay than attempting to recreate the 90's Rare wit. They toned it down a bit in IL, which I really preferred because the Kazooie-esque jokes in the first game kinda fell flat for me. But yeah. I'd gladly take a 3D game with the quality level design of IL. I hope to see the next Playtonic game announced soon. A neat thing with Impossible Lair is that the reveal to release date wait was blissfully short. I hope they do that again. Though it didn't seem like Impossible Lair was a big seller for them, so I could see a longer hype window this time to build interest.

For Twooka-Laylee it'll be an interesting PR mission because the hope for press coverage will need to be "this is huge improvement that rights the missteps of the first game," since reviews were not great and I think player perception was kinda mixed. Impossible Lair gives me a lot of confidence they can pull that off, though! 🦎🦇

Zellia said:
Y-K was definitely undercooked but I wouldn't mind seeing them give it another shot.

Impossible Lair was good right up until the titular level. I didn't have the patience to deal with that, so I bailed.
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Not sure if you played before it after the patch but I think they eventually added checkpoints FWIW! It's a super satisfying level to best so just mentioning this in case it piques your interest.
 
As a HUGE Banjo-Kazooie fan, I was super disappointed with Yooka-Laylee. Found it lacking content and feeling very janky at times. That being said, I do feel the potential for a great 3D platformer is still there and I hope that Playtonic Games will still consider making a new 3D platformer someday whether be it Yooka-Laylee 2 or something entirely new. I hope they continue making Banjo-Kazooie style games since Microsoft won't touch the Banjo franchise anymore.
 
Nathan Little said:
Yeah, this is the most likely outcome: Keeping the 3D titles numbered and the spinoffs named with some kind of subtitle.

I do think they'll go with a simple Yooka Laylee 2, though.
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Yeah, two YL series with staggered releases, the 3D games being Yooka-Laylee, Twoka-Laylee, etc, and then the sidescrolling platformers being Yooka-Laylee and the Something Something would be ideal. Very ideal, actually. I love this idea.
 
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