Developed By: Playtonic Games
Published By: PM Studios
Category: Platformer
Release Date: 10.09.25
Price: $29.99
*Game Download Code graciously provided for the purpose of review
I never played the original Yooka-Laylee, so I can’t say much about it, but I never thought a game that was so new would get a remaster. It’s only been eight years, that’s something you only see from games like The Last of Us. But I gave it a shot since I recently got back into 3D Platformers and it was way more fun than I thought it would be.
The game follows a lizard named Yooka and a bat named Laylee. They were in the middle of an adventure but then get dragged into a brand new adventure that could affect the fate of the world. The leader of an evil organization is after a powerful book that could literally rewrite everything. The pages end of getting scattered across multiple worlds and it’s up to Yooka and Laylee to track them down.
The gameplay and world layout is very reminiscent of older titles that I loved playing like Spyro the Draong and Super Mario 64. But unlike the older games, this is a dedicated Switch 2 build, and I played it with a Pro Controller 2. So the overall gameplay experience was amazing.
The controls were smooth and movement was fluid and fast. Each world was big, with lots of places to explore, but running around is quick and lots of fun. Move sets like gliding and rolling made the world very accessible, and traversing each world was quick enough that it didn’t feel like a chore. On top of that, the gameplay itself was quite fun.
Attack enemies, do all sorts of puzzles and challenges, and race around the world as you collect pages, money, and other collectibles. Each world was also pretty big with lots of exploring to do, I spent way too much time on some of them trying to collect everything. I can’t really do much comparing to the original game since I never played it, but the remake is a lot of fun and it runs so smoothly on the Switch 2.
The sound design, humor, and characters are top notch as well. The gameplay was my main reason for enjoying the game but I had a lot of fun reading dialogue and seeing how certain characters interact with each other. After playing for around five hours, part of me regretted not playing the original when it first came out.
If you try to go after all the collectibles, you can spend 15 to 25 hours on the game. The amount of content makes the game fairly worth the $30 price tag, but the gameplay and humor give it a nice bump. It’s not as good as the likes of Donkey Kong Bananza, but it’s still one of the best 3D platformers that I have played in the last few years.
4/5
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