Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - Printable Version

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Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - A Black Falcon - 28th February 2017

It's the high-quality, Rare-N64-style 3d platformer with better graphics we've always wanted, but haven't seen in over a decade now... and I can't wait for the final game. It looks really great. This newly revealed snow level looks really nice...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBeUkeWYUS8

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - Sacred Jellybean - 1st March 2017

Wow, this could pratically be a palette swap of B-K. I wish I still loved platformers like I did when I was 16. I'd be super-psyched about this. :(

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - Dark Jaguar - 1st March 2017

Time for some superliminal advertising.

LOVE THEM!

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - A Black Falcon - 2nd March 2017

Sacred Jellybean Wrote:Wow, this could pratically be a palette swap of B-K. I wish I still loved platformers like I did when I was 16. I'd be super-psyched about this. :(

See, I'm kind of the opposite here -- my taste in games really hasn't changed much, while games have, particularly on the AAA end. Open-world games do not interest me much at all, as that is very much not what I want in games -- I want, and need, direction, not random wandering! Yooka-Laylee has some of that wandering, but like its N64 Rare forbears it's smaller in scale and much more focused, so that works in a way that giant open-world games don't. So I am not very interested in Breath of the Wild, but I really want to play this...

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - Dark Jaguar - 2nd March 2017

Then there's me. I'm looking forward to BOTH. BOOOOOOOOOOTH!

...

When you drag out "both" like that it looks like "booth".

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - A Black Falcon - 10th April 2017

So the game is finally almost out, and it looks really amazing! Pretty much the only major complaint people have is "it's too much like an N64 Rare 3d platformer", which sounds like high praise to me... so yeah, I'm more excited for this game than any I can think of in a long time, years maybe. :)

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - Dark Jaguar - 10th April 2017

That's a complaint that says they weren't paying attention. The whole point is that it's like a N64 platformer. That's like going to a movie called "Cowboys and Aliens" and complaining that there's all these aliens in it. I mean, what did you expect?

Something called a Jontron has been excised from the game, due to racism.

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - A Black Falcon - 10th April 2017

If you look at reviews of the game, they are very mixed, with as many really low scores as high ones: http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/yooka-laylee I haven't played it yet, but I somehow doubt I'll think it deserves a score as low as that average. How are 3d platformers like this somehow now a "niche genre" like I see some people saying, I think they're so much better than most of the popular kinds of games now -- crafting games, open-world shooters, etc...

Quote: Something called a Jontron has been excised from the game, due to racism.

Oh yeah, that. Good riddance, the guy made some amusing videos years ago but I was never really a fan. It is disappointing that he turned out to be really racist, but I never liked or watched much Game Grumps when he was on it (or since), so... it's too bad but says more about the state of the industry now, where you can be openly racist in a way that never would have been okay before but at the same time there is also a stronger push to for social justice in gaming than their used to be, so things like what he said are a reaction against that direction that is going to win in the end. Anyway, more than being about him in specific, this is about that general trend; he's not the only one like that, after all.

As for the people claiming "I will not play Yooka-Laylee because Playtronic decided to not support a racist"... well, they're probably lying and never were going to play it (or are going to anyway), because his little guest voice bit was not exactly major, but regardless... well, let's just say that nothing of value was lost: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=req-W-V1bNk

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - Dark Jaguar - 11th April 2017

Sad thing is, I actually found his videos pretty hilarious. He has good comedic timing, and managed to keep his deplorable views out of his videos, which is why those views were basically unknown until recently. Now I've got a hard time going back. I mean, yes, there's been plenty of creative artists I've enjoyed works from who were horridly racist (HP Lovecraft is probably the most well known example), but it somehow feels a bit different when that artist is still alive with agency in the world. Or, maybe it's just how recently I found out about it? I really don't know, but it's uncomfortable to me. At any rate I certainly can't recommend his videos to certain friends any more.

If the reviews of the game are saying that it's worse than Banjo Kazooie, that's one thing. However, if the reviews are saying "I personally hate this genre and think it should stay dead", then I can safely ignore them. Why are there so many reviews of collectathons that seem to despise the genre? Well, probably for the same reason so many review sites are generally critical of any game that doesn't let you beat it easily within 15 hours. "Length" is seen as detrimental to a very specific subset of gamers, called professional reviewers, and it's obvious why. They have deadlines, which most of us don't. They speak of how little time they have to play games as adults or how they don't like having their time wasted by certain mechanics, and both of those things are fair points, but that ONE thing, the review deadline, completely changes the dynamic for them. I've been noticing it for years with how very consistently different their opinion on certain things is, and how ALL of it seems to come from a place of frustration at how long it's taking to beat the game.

Read this article: http://www.polygon.com/2017/4/3/15166062/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-switch-kids

In this, Ben Kuchera looks at how his kid isn't "budgeting" his game time or getting mad because he didn't complete "enough" content in a play session as something he lost as an adult. I read it and see it as something he lost as a reviewer, because that's STILL how I play games. I take months to finish some games (like BOTW) simply because I don't care how much I was able to do in a single session. Ben makes the mistake of assuming the way he as a reviewer plays games is the same way most adults play games, and that's simply not a safe assumption. He's different. He's a reviewer, and that is something they need to account for when writing reviews.

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - A Black Falcon - 11th April 2017

So for once, backing a game on Kickstarter actually means I got it... at a lower price than it would have cost if I'd bought it new? That's surprising... but nice! So, it cost 15 UK Pounds to back this at the minimum download-only-copy level, which is what I did. That's a lot less than the $40 the game costs new now. I believe that if you'd paid for a physical copy on the game on Kickstarter it'd cost more than buying that at retail, but I didn't back it at a physical tier. Anyway, with shipping costs and such that's to be expected.

So, I got a code for the game today -- and yes, this means that I actually played a game on its release day, making this one of the very, VERY few times that I have ever done that -- and started playing it. First I played the Toy Box demo from last year, because I hadn't before (didn't have that key either until today...), and after a bit under 90 minutes I got everything in it. I'm glad I did, because you can't save in this demo. It's a fun little demo.

As for the full game, I started playing it as well, and quickly got sucked in; this game is great, just like promised! I'm, still in the first world, but there are only five or six worlds and each is large, so I would hope I was still in the first one. Instead of having more worlds, in Yooka-Laylee you can expand the worlds, which adds new areas in places to the world. I haven't expanded the first world yet, but I've found a lot of the stuff in the un-expanded version of the world. It's a great 3d platformer level with a good layout and plenty to do. The un-expanded version of the first world is good sized, but not too large, and after a bit I was figuring my way around; as I said the one thing I wasn't sure about with this game was if it should have had a map, and that would be nice, but so far I don't think it's necessary.

The controls are great too. With a gamepad, and have one, the game plays very well, the controls are responsive. In the Toy Box version some jumping felt tricky (when you try to land on a small platform), but I think they fixed that up in the final game. As in Rare's N64 platformers, you get new moves in each level, though it takes less time to get them here than it does in DK64, for sure, though level expansions do add to the exploration sort of like the larger number of powerups to buy in that game. At first you can run, attack, and roll, but in the first world you add a power to get time-limited projectiles you can shoot, an echo shot which can enable some things, and a slam attack after jumping. You also can use a first-person view where you can't move, as in the N64 games, and can use Yooka's tongue to grab butterflies or seeds with. For one negative, the game does have a stamina meter unfortunately, so you can't just stay in roll form, where you can move faster but it is harder to turn, as long as you want. There are powerups to help, as these butterfly powerups can either be eaten (with the tongue button) for health, or touched to refill your stamina meter. The game uses this in a race early in the first world for example, to win you'll need to touch the butterflies along the way. Still, stamina is annoying. Ah well.

As for the story and characters, The game definitely has that British sense of humor you saw in Rare games. The story is basic but fine for this genre, and some of the characters are funny. Yooka and Laylee are VERY reminiscent of Banjo and Kazooie, but they are slightly different, and the other characters are original.

Now, you can tell that this game didn't get Nintendo-era Rare levels of polish. The game has some odd audio cut-out issues, the top-down kart-racer minigame has terrible controls (as both your kart is very slow to turn and they chose, for some insane reason, to have camera-relative controls only instead of the usual character-relative controls most games of this style use), the general polish all around isn't AAA quality (though for a Unity-engine game this is one of the best, apparently), and the performance... it's good with good enough hardware. With my new CPU but old graphics card I wasn't sure how this would run, but fortunately it's pretty good. The framerate is definitely not a stable 60fps at the highest graphic setting and full resolution for my monitor (1920x1200), but with only a GeForce 560 I wouldn't expect that... I'm just glad it runs as well as it does. Maybe I'll try the 30fps mode and see if that's smoother, there is an option for that.

But anyway, so far Yooka-Laylee is really good. It deserves a much better reception than it's gotten, this game is great.

Quote:If the reviews of the game are saying that it's worse than Banjo Kazooie, that's one thing. However, if the reviews are saying "I personally hate this genre and think it should stay dead", then I can safely ignore them. Why are there so many reviews of collectathons that seem to despise the genre?

If you look at reviews there is some of both, but a lot of people do seem to lean as much or more towards the latter than the former, yes... and it's sad to see. This isn't just a new phenomenon, though -- as I saw pointed out, if you go look at the review averages for the late '00s Xbox 360 remakes of B-K and B-T, both games got... a lot of scores in the 70s and 80s, much like Y-L is getting, and far below the N64 originals. That even though they are, by all accounts, better than the original games. Now I know, re-releases often score below original titles, but still I think it does perhaps show how fast this genre lost popularity after the early '00s, sadly.

(As for your theory about it being about length, well it is true that Y-L is not a short game, but there has to be more to it than that; Zelda BotW is a much longer game and yet it got extremely high scores, for one example, after all.)

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - Dark Jaguar - 11th April 2017

BOTW is a game where you can just decide to beat it whenever you like. It can be a 200 hour game or a 10 hour game, depending on just how much you want to prepare.

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - Dark Jaguar - 26th April 2017

I picked up the YL and so far I can't say I agree with the reviewers out there. I mean, yes I agree that it's basically Banjo Threeie, but where I disagree is I don't think that's a bad thing.

So far, the two biggest gripes I've got is if the level count is any indication, this is going to be a pretty short game. Secondly, the "retro arcade" mini-games are already getting old. It's similar to the problem with DK64's mini-games.

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - A Black Falcon - 26th April 2017

Short? Sure, there are only five main worlds, but each is larger than any of the worlds from the Banjo games or DK64, and they all have those expanded versions of the stage to upgrade to as well that add more areas in them. So no, I don't think the game is short at all. There's a lot to do, particularly if you want to get everything. Many challenges in each level require powers from later levels, so there's lots of replay value once you get more abilities, and since it's a Rare-style game you want to collect as much as you can...

I do agree with the consensus that the Rextro minigames are not very good, though; that's one of the few things that reviews of this game actually get right... because other than that it's amazing. It is too bad that the Rextro games aren't better, maybe the games' low-ish budget shows there, but they are a fairly small part of the game so it's not too bad.

Other than that, really the only other complaint I have is that the game really needs a button that lets you quickly restart the current challenge. As it is, if you mess up a challenge in a stage, whether it's going through rings, a race, having to reach a point before a switch times out, or what have you, you have to wait for that challenge to end on its own, and then go back to the start point manually, in order to try again. A quicker restart, to let you avoid having to waste time doing nothing waiting for things to end or trekking back to the start point of something, would be great.

(Some people seem to really dislike the camera, but I think it's completely fine, no issues worth mentioning.)

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - Dark Jaguar - 27th April 2017

The camera movement is pretty awkward on the up/down axis, with little range of movement and slower speed compared to left/right. Frankly that was par for the course on the N64, so it's not like it's worse than those games, but these days people expect more. No one was really asking to bring back old school controls after all. Still, that seems like a quick fix. Overall, the camera does a fine job. Also, the "quick turn" camera button is always welcome and I make heavy use of it both here and in Breath of the Wild.

As far as level size, yes they are bigger than Banjo Kazooie, but that doesn't QUITE make up for it. In fact, I'd say the pricing of the game is an admission that this is "Banjo-Lite" in that sense. I really do think that 2 or 3 more levels would have evened things out a bit, and answered another complaint about variety in level design. I for one actually LIKE the main evil corporation. Yeah, it's possible to get lost, but that's been true in all Rare's collectathon hub worlds. However, making 5 levels longer just means you get tired of the individual worlds quicker and want to see more variety. I kinda hope that DLC comes along and adds a handful of new worlds to this game (they can add in an extra chapter or two to the main story as well as a second big boss fight with Capital B). This isn't a major complaint, don't misunderstand, but the comparisons to the original games (which this game demands we do) mean it can't be ignored.

I do like the "story". The whole thing seems like allegory to MS's acquisition and mishandling of Rare. So, Capital B (Microsoft) suddenly decides to suck up (buy out) every book company (game company) in the world, but mainly just wants the One Book (Rare) so he can rewrite history (take credit for a gaming past MS doesn't actually have, like bragging about "their" games Battletoads and Killer Instinct). However, when they get the "one book", all they have is the cover (the name only) and the pages (employees) all fall out of the book and hide away (quit to form other companies) until Yooka and Laylee (Playtonics) get them all back together to take on Capital B in his own house (release this game on both PC and XBox). Or, I might be reading way too much into this. There's also a pants-wearing snake named "Trouzer". I'm not sure what he represents.

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - Sacred Jellybean - 29th April 2017

Quote:I do like the "story". The whole thing seems like allegory to MS's acquisition and mishandling of Rare. So, Capital B (Microsoft) suddenly decides to suck up (buy out) every book company (game company) in the world, but mainly just wants the One Book (Rare) so he can rewrite history (take credit for a gaming past MS doesn't actually have, like bragging about "their" games Battletoads and Killer Instinct). However, when they get the "one book", all they have is the cover (the name only) and the pages (employees) all fall out of the book and hide away (quit to form other companies) until Yooka and Laylee (Playtonics) get them all back together to take on Capital B in his own house (release this game on both PC and XBox). Or, I might be reading way too much into this.

These elements might have made it into the game, whether the writers intended it or not.

Quote:There's also a pants-wearing snake named "Trouzer". I'm not sure what he represents.

Still haven't lost that Rare sense of humor, I see.

Yooka-Laylee is looking amazing - A Black Falcon - 29th April 2017

Sacred Jellybean Wrote: Still haven't lost that Rare sense of humor, I see.

And not only that, Trowzer is curled around, so he goes down through one leg of the pants then back up through the other side. It's silly stuff. :)

The Rare sense of style and humor are 100% here in this game, and it's amazing! From the writing to the character designs to the music to the controls to the gameplay, this game is exactly what they promised it would be: a new game in the same style as Rare's N64 platformers. Because many of the same people worked on this game they absolutely nail it, and it's so good... I love the soundtrack, the controls and gameplay are great, the writing is that silly British stuff you expect, it's all there.

Well, I guess it does have fewer levels than their N64 games had, but it had a lower budget and price too so that balances out.

Dark Jaguar Wrote:The camera movement is pretty awkward on the up/down axis, with little range of movement and slower speed compared to left/right. Frankly that was par for the course on the N64, so it's not like it's worse than those games, but these days people expect more. No one was really asking to bring back old school controls after all. Still, that seems like a quick fix. Overall, the camera does a fine job. Also, the "quick turn" camera button is always welcome and I make heavy use of it both here and in Breath of the Wild.

I honestly don't understand what people are talking about when they complain about the camera, it's good. The only possible complaint I have about it is that it's annoying that when you go through a door the camera faces you instead of being behind you, so you have to then either hit the 'center camera' button or run into the screen then spin the stick around in order to get the camera where it should be. That's it, though.

Quote:As far as level size, yes they are bigger than Banjo Kazooie, but that doesn't QUITE make up for it. In fact, I'd say the pricing of the game is an admission that this is "Banjo-Lite" in that sense. I really do think that 2 or 3 more levels would have evened things out a bit, and answered another complaint about variety in level design. I for one actually LIKE the main evil corporation. Yeah, it's possible to get lost, but that's been true in all Rare's collectathon hub worlds. However, making 5 levels longer just means you get tired of the individual worlds quicker and want to see more variety. I kinda hope that DLC comes along and adds a handful of new worlds to this game (they can add in an extra chapter or two to the main story as well as a second big boss fight with Capital B). This isn't a major complaint, don't misunderstand, but the comparisons to the original games (which this game demands we do) mean it can't be ignored.

I also would rather have seen more slightly smaller levels than fewer larger ones, but making new levels costs more for sure, in all the textures, art, etc. that you would need... expanding the current ones instead probably saved them a good bit.

As for adding whole worlds in DLC though, that'd be some big DLC... it'd be cool if they do, but they haven't said the game will even have DLC, and I think it's fine as it is. The game may be shorter than the N64 Rare 3d platformers, you might be right about that, but it's still a 20-plus hour game for sure, or more if you take your time. It's not short.