Recent reviews by Notuom

Great sequel to an already amazing game. The additions and enhancements on top of RoA make this a contender for the best game in the genre IMHO. Hope we can keep getting more content!

Disclaimer : I was a Kickstarter backer, so I had high expectations and they were fulfilled. But that also means I knew I'd most likely like the kind of game it set out to be, since I loved previous games of the same genre.

This game is exactly what it set out to be: a worthy spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. You pretty much can't review this game without comparing it to Banjo-Kazooie, so expect a lot of that in this review.

I am a fan of Banjo-Kazooie (BK), Banjo-Tooie (BT) and Donkey Kong 64 (DK64), and I fell in love with this Yooka-Laylee. Right now, more than 15 hours in, I have 100% completion in all but one world, which I basically haven't touched, and I have not yet finished the story. If you like 3D platforming, collecting a lot of things and looking for every nook and cranny to get everything (although it's optional, that's the only way I've ever played these types of games), then you won't be disappointed. It really is a blast to the past.

It's more in the vein of BT and DK64 in how it approaches its level design. In BK you could pretty much do everything in one swing, save one Jiggy, while in the later games you had to backtrack to previous worlds after unlocking abilities to get everything. This game does involve backtracking to get everything, but you can get still progress through all the levels without backtracking and then come back to expand the worlds and get all the stuff you missed when you have all abilities, making it so that you only have to visit all levels twice. The second time you visit a level, after expanding it, there will be new areas to explore. So, basically, if you hated Banjo-Tooie or Donkey Kong 64 because of the backtracking but liked Banjo-Kazooie, you may still have some problems with the design they chose, but it shouldn't be as bad. I, for one, got bored out of playing Banjo-Tooie in my last playthrough because of how tedious it gets when you try to get everything. Yooka-Laylee doesn't have this problem.

All in all, it's a very fun game, it delivers what it advertises, and while it doesn't innovate in especially extraordinary ways, it's still not a carbon copy of Banjo-Kazooie; there are both things you'd expect and surprises to be found. There are still some parts which may be frustrating, but to me it's part of the design that I loved from the earlier games.

The fact it's one of the best-known freeware (not this version, although it's worth your few bucks) speaks for itself. Having played the original quite a bit to get all of the secrets and this version just a bit, I can say this is the definitive edition and you should go ahead and buy it if you like the type of game. It's not a very long adventure but you'll want to figure out all of the little things you may have missed on your first playthrough and play again and again because it's so attaching. Be sure to get the best ending eventually... No spoilers but unless you're really lucky you probably won't get it on your first try, and it's cool that way!