Yooka-Re-Playee Review - A Rare Upgrade
The year was 2017, and a group of ex-Rare developers decided the world needed an N64 revival. That revival was in the form of Yooka-Laylee, a game that played off the developers’ history with games like Banjo-Kazooie and Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Yooka, while never reaching those heights of popularity, still proved that classic gameplay never dies, but can it prove that once again? Yooka Re-Playee is a remaster of the original release with updated graphics, controls and other quality of life features, and it is about to be unleashed on the world. Paul and Matt have been diving back into the world to see if this remaster is worth your time or whether this sort of game should be consigned to history.
Matt: I guess to start out, let’s look at our history with the original release. For me, I was a Kickstarter backer for one reason. I was a jealous child. Jealous of all my friends who had an N64 and got to play all the 3D platformers, something that my platform of choice, the PC, was severely lacking. So when Yooka came about, I wanted in on the ground floor. What about you, Paul?
Paul: I, too, was a Kickstarter backer more than a decade ago, and for me, the motivation was that I was brought up on the N64, and I did get to binge on Donkey Kong 64 and Rare’s legendary Banjo-Kazooie titles in those all-important childhood years. Given that in the subsequent years the number of incredible 3D platformers dropped off significantly, I was super excited by the prospect of ex-Rare talent reconvening to give me more of that childhood joy. I opened my wallet up readily, and while the final game didn’t quite meet the heights of Banjo’s golden era, I was still quite pleased by the experience. Now we’re returning to the original release with Yooka Replaylee, an improved version of the original 2017 release, and I’m pretty delighted to go back to it. The question now is, was this re-release worth it? Do the improvements and changes justify the replay? For me, it’s a clear yes, because I love this type of game and am looking for any excuse to jump into one again, but how about you, Matt?
Matt: I have to say, I enjoyed it a second time through much more. When I first played it, I felt like the game was good, but lacking a certain something. This time around, I found myself drawn in and enjoying my time much more. I think that is because of a combination of things, one of which is how I played the game. For the most part, I played Yooka Re-Playee on my ROG Ally X while on holiday, and frankly, it is the perfect type of game for the handheld experience. This isn’t a game to play sitting in front of a PC; it should be on a TV or handheld. I also feel like the controls and camera have been tightened. I remember fighting with the camera, especially in the original release. Here, that doesn’t seem to be an issue at all. As far as QoL goes, this was the most important thing to get right, and it seems that has been achieved.
Paul: Yooka-Replaylee, within minutes of booting it up, shows that the time invested by Playtonic Games into this remaster has been 100% worth it. One of my biggest gripes with the original release was around the way that the game handled, both from the way the duo moved, to the way the camera rolled (and often didn’t) around them. Props to Playtonic, because they’ve buffed all of the rough edges, and the playing experience is greatly superior to the original eight-year-old game. There’s also quite a lot of new content packed in as well, from the Mollycools, which will grant the pair a new transformation, to Q.U.I.D.S., which will grant a range of new cosmetics and tonics, all on top of the 300 pagies and 750 quills, and several other collectibles that can be found across the game. That collector in you is going to feel tempted to chase down everything, but it’s not a tedious exercise like Donkey Kong 64 was. It’s all quite manageable, and Playtonic have assigned the collection of these to some very cool activities and encounters. Was there anything gameplay-wise that really stood out to you?
Matt: I think where this game shines in the gameplay department is the smart selection of platforming moves and how the levels force players to string them together. From the very first level, some fantastic platforming puzzles and challenges force players to use all the tools at their disposal to progress. None of them are particularly hard, but they are wonderfully balanced and really show just how well thought-out Yooka’s move set really is. This extends to how these moves are implemented in just getting around the levels, and even though the game offers unlockable fast travel points, I very rarely felt the need to use them. In fact, about the only gameplay problem I have is some occasionally dodgy hit-detection, especially when facing multiple baddies, but that happened rarely, and it honestly feels like something that will be addressed in the day-one patch. Any problems show up for you?
Paul: You’re right, I never fast-travelled either, it’s simply too easy and enjoyable to scoot around the environment without these points. I’m sure if I get to a point where I want to do some intense clean-up, chasing a platinum trophy along the way, that they’ll be more useful at that point, but if you’re going through the motions and just trying to enjoy the game in a normal way, then the fast-travel options feel unnecessary. I can’t say that I’ve encountered any issues so far with hit-detection, or anything else of note just yet. I did find that the brightness levels felt off when I first started playing the game on my PS Portal, but I may have accidentally altered my settings, as that hasn’t been an issue since; for that brief period of time, the level of bloom was excessive! Otherwise, I’m thrilled with how the game performs, and especially how it looks. Though the art style of the original release would stand the test of time for obvious reasons, layers of technical art polish make the game look even better than before. Getting the legends, Grant Kirkhope, David Wise, and Steve Burke, on board to compose the game helped guarantee that the tone of Rare’s glory days would be captured in Yooka Laylee as well.
If I can get overly simplistic in my critique of the game here, I just smiled constantly through the experience, and any game that does that is deserving of a ton of praise. That’s Yooka-Replayee, and I can’t wait for returning players to go back, or (hopefully) new players to stumble in. You’ll have a blast.
Matt: Yeah, my issues could be just PC things. The only other thing I had a problem with was some load-in stutters, once again, something that feels like a day-one patch fix. So, really, I am super positive on this re-release. When I first heard about it, I thought that it, like a lot of remasters, was unnecessary, but I have happily been proven wrong. It takes the solid foundations of the original and amps it up to the next level. I can’t see Yooka Laylee ever being considered in the same class as Mario, but by god, they give it a red-hot go here. The upgrades to content, controls and graphics are all well considered and enhance the experience, while its charm does what it’s supposed to do and wins you over. Maybe I was more ready for this sort of game in 2025 than I was in 2017, but I really feel like this one is a real winner. If you never played the original release and love 3D platformers, you should really jump on, and if you do own the original, Playtonic are giving you a healthy discount to upgrade. Either way, you can’t go wrong.
Yooka-Re-Playee was reviewed on PS5 and PC with code kindly supplied by the publisher.
