Yooka-Replaylee

I mean... it's all right. Frankly, this game barely edged that recommendation. I wish I could just talk about this game with fresh eyes and take it as it is but I played the original and I bough this because of FOMO (screw you playtonic btw) so I can't help to compare this remake with the original. Is it better? In the main game... not really, in fact it is so similar that I question the need of this remake to even exist, all through out my play through I was going 'oh yeah! I remember this' and beating everything with this ghost of a memory I have with the original, yeah there are a lot of QoL additions but the fast travel I barely used (though this could be a god sent to many I will admit) and the 'reveal a pagie' hint system doesn't work for quills or pagie pieces wich are 100x better hidden than the pagies themselves (there's also no tonic nor way to find them easier wich is made 100%ing this a headache). Also, getting your full moveset at the beguining is cute but there is this little problem, since the main game is kinda the same when it came time to use the latter part of the moveset I didn't remember how to use it, example: in world 4 there are elvators that are activated by using the sonar burst and I didn't use them at all because I didn't remember that until by the end I just got curious on a 'why is this familiar?' kind of way then used sonar burst and bang memories flooding in about using them in the original. BUT this remake fixed 2 things, the camera, and the minigames... those 2 aspects were EASILY the worst part of the original and now they are good and bearable respectively, this game I don't think is BETTER than the original just less annoying at parts but for this 2 fixes ALONE I would actually recommend this version over the original.

Back in the day when the original version of Yooka-Laylee came out, it was one in a large wave of indie games released by old dev teams who had been effectively locked out of the AAA industry but still had a broad base of support from the gaming community at large. As those familiar with the situation would remember, that ended badly; many or most of those games were poorly received and poorly made and soiled the entire concept. Yooka-Laylee was well above average for the period and not entirely poorly received, but from my recollection it was still viewed as mediocre due to antiquated game design and empty environments. I long expected there to be a sequel, but to my surprise it appears the devs went back and just remade the whole thing, which is absolutely bonkers to me. I enjoyed the gameplay, by and large. The game takes a lot of cues from Super Mario Odyssey, with large worlds jam-packed with collectibles available from the outset and very lenient unlock requirements to get to the next level each time. With so many unlocks and so much freedom, it's entirely up to the player as to how much of the game to complete. The general moveset works well and I didn't really find myself annoyed or constrained by movement, it feels good moving around the world. Transformations were generally fun and didn't overstay their welcome though as usual some of them ended up being useless. The retro games were OK, fine given how brief they are. I enjoyed the Kartos segments because of the music though the requirement for perfection to get the pagies was really irritating. I generally liked the bosses, a bit easy but otherwise fun. Some pagies/other collectibles were irritating to find but nowhere near enough for it to be an issue. Environments in this game are all quite good, and I liked the art direction in each area. If anything, my main complaint would be that the game needed more areas to really try out more and varied ideas. What's here though is perfectly fine. The music is probably one of the key highlights; I loved all of it which is exactly what I'd expect from these composers. Sound design otherwise is good. The writing is good at points but the overall story feels bizarre and truncated. The plot speeds by and ends abruptly, like it was missing big chunks or something; not that it's an issue at all, in a way the game may be better for it. There's a bizarre quiz show segment in one world which seemed like angry self-flagellation; I have no idea what was in the original but the plot gives the impression of heavy rewrites and truncations. Overall I enjoyed the game; it's a genre which I like a lot and which feels like it's been broadly abandoned by game dev studios, so new entries are always welcome. It doesn't do anything too new or exciting, but there's nothing wrong with that and what is here is quite good. I admire the obstinacy required to go back and redo the entire freshman entry of the series rather than creating a sequel, though I do question the logic behind that decision. 6/10

If you like old school 3d platformers you will like this game. It feels great to play and it has a ton of collectibles to pick up and some progression systems. It's not doing anything too new, but what it does do, it does well. I was surprised by the graphics. They really look colorful and amazing. I'm playing it on a steam controller and it's awesome.