Review: Yooka-Replaylee

Developer – Playtonic Games

Publisher –  PM Studios, Inc., Playtonic Friends

Platforms – PC (reviewed), Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox Series X|S, PS5

Review copy given by publisher

Finding a book that grants whatever you write in its pages is a miracle. When the book is at risk of falling into the wrong hands, it scatters its pages across various worlds. Yooka and his partner Laylee must gather the pages and restore the book to its former glory. But in the background, antagonistic forces are seeking the pages as well. Scour every area and help those you meet to get the pages you need.

Yooka-Replaylee has plenty of activities and none of them are too challenging. A variety of collectibles means there is always something to do. Many of the puzzles and bosses are simple with barely any penalties for failure. There are long loading screen times and the camera angles aren’t helpful especially during 2D levels. If you want a platformer that won’t make you struggle much, this is the game to choose.

Yooka and his partner Laylee encounter a magic book who can make anything written in it a reality. They use it to get some new adventuring abilities but the book is soon taken by Capital B, a greedy capitalist. The book manages to scatter its pages across various worlds to deny Capital B an easy victory. Yooka and Laylee must help each other collect the pages and keep the book out of Capital B’s hands.

The story is simple and has its humorous moments. You quickly know everyone’s roles but you spend most of your time adventuring. Characters aren’t complex and stick with dominant character traits such as Capital B’s greed. Most of the story beats are obvious if you have played platformers or other minimalist story games before. The main focus is primarily on the platforming and the story provides some direction to keep your eyes on the goal.

Yooka-Replaylee has several worlds you can visit through one hub world. Every world, including the hub, has a variety of collectibles and puzzles to solve. Your main goal is collecting the book pages though there are plenty of optional collectibles to obtain as well. Enemies try to stop you but mostly serve as health refills or money drops. Gathering pages lets you progress the story while other collectibles help you unlock new costumes or exploration 

The best aspect of Yooka-Replaylee is that many puzzles are easy and there are no tricky solutions. While you might struggle to win a race or finish a mini-game, a few tries is often enough to succeed. Boss battles look intimidating but have easy patterns you can quickly notice. You can always reference Yooka’s abilities to find the ability that helps you succeed. If you can’t, you can always come back later once you have more abilities or experience.

The game provides assistance if you are stuck and don’t know what to do. If you can’t find pages in a world, some bookmarks show you their location for a price. NPCs repeat puzzle hints if you talk to them. If you come across a unique situation like finding Ghost Writers, Laylee provides hints on your next action. You can always experiment and find the solution yourself but having help close by removes lots of frustration.

Yooka-Replaylee still has difficult platforming moments where you must find the right timing or look in obscure areas. Assistance is mostly verbal, telling you what to do. You must fling projectiles across a map or reach a coin before the timer runs out. Even if most of the puzzles are easy, some are still dependent on your reflexes or practice. It never truly shakes off the frustration of old platformers and some puzzles demand your time.

Loading screens also take lots of time, almost enough to do simple chores before you start playing. While this isn’t odd when a level first loads, it feels monotonous after spending a few hours. This isn’t helped when leaving worlds or transitioning to a new activity often leads to a loading screen. It feels like 10% of your playtime is spent on loading screens, discouraging you from leaving a world unless you have to.

Camera angles don’t have the best focus even if you can move some of them around. Finding certain openings often involves rotating the camera a certain way. This often means moving Yooka around until you get the right position for the camera. 2D sections are particularly challenging because you can move in more than just a straight line. It’s not obvious that you have more places to move thanks to the camera angle.

Yooka-Replaylee captures the fun of platformer games in a way that makes it more accessible. It still brings all the flaws of the genre though there are attempts to mitigate them. Be prepared to spend lots of time on loading screens and fiddling with the camera as you play. Use the new options for assistance and take your time to get the most out of Yooka-Replaylee. It won’t be a quick game but it will remind you how fun a platformer can be when it’s done right.