Yooka-Laylee Hands-on Preview - Much More Than Just Nostalgia

There's no betoken in chasing nostalgia. Take information technology from me, a Nintendo fan, that nostalgia often just isn't worth it. The incredible number of retro games I've purchased from digital storefronts only to never actually play them – permit alone complete them – is astronomical and merely thinking about my wasted pounds brings me out in a cold sweat.

It's for this reason that every bit excited as I wanted to be for Yooka-Laylee, I was restraining myself. Banjo-Kazooie may be the very best 3D Platformer to have e'er graced the medium of video games, merely that lonely wasn't a good enough reason to exist excited for Yooka-Laylee, even after the very promising Kickstarter campaign. So I played information technology.

What we take here is Banjo-Threeie in every sense, and it's cute. Text boxes pop up with a familiar whistle, characters mumble in an unintelligible tongue, there's subtle innuendo and jokes everywhere – yes, this is definitely Banjo-Threeie in everything but proper name.

Fans of the N64 classics will instantly understand how Yooka and Laylee move about the environments and, despite a few minor physics changes, it is exactly how you recollect it. Without even glancing at the controls I was rapidly double jumping over chasms, high jumping to the top of pyramids and more. The stage itself resembled Banjo-Tooie'south Mayahem Temple in design, though the more open layout in this ane gave it the feel of modern, sprawling level design.

It was more or less constant nostalgia, but everything felt so new, from moves to even collectibles. Chilling ghosts replace Jinjos, forcing you to explore each nook and cranny in order to find them all and complete each level – information technology's modest details similar this that make players explore the stages in more detail.

Simply what I couldn't go out of my listen was how good everything looked. Everything was crisp and beautiful, with a gorgeous angular style. Information technology was the sort of environment that I've been hungering for since the last console generation, that multi-layered playground of exploration that 3D Platformers did so well.

But it'south non all sunshine and rainbows, at least not quite yet – unfortunately, Yooka-Laylee is still a piece of work in progress after all. Frame drops were sadly common, bringing the gorgeous presentation to momentary standstills. This is non exactly unheard of when information technology comes to games powered by the Unity engine, though I'm expecting the skilled programmers at Playtonic Games to set up it earlier the game is released. The good news is that when it comes to complaints, that's information technology. Similar, that'southward the long and curt of all the bug I had with the game during my easily-on.

I could criticise the fact that it's quondam hat, that information technology brings not-much-new to the tabular array, merely I had a smile on my face up the entire fourth dimension I was playing Yooka-Laylee. I was enraptured, couldn't get enough. And for that reason, I have to say that I volition definitely be getting Yooka-Laylee on day one. If the rest of the game is as polished as what I've seen, then I'm sure y'all will love it likewise.

Developers accept recently announced that the game will be available at launch in both digital and physical format. Kickstarter backers volition even go the chance to upgrade their digital pledge to a physical version, should they choose to do so.

Yooka-Laylee is targeting a Q1 2022 launch date on PC (Windows, Mac & Linux), PlayStation 4, Xbox Ane and WiiU. Cheque out some gameplay footage from EGX 2022 below.