Yooka-Replaylee Review — A Brighter Second Chance

Yooka-Replaylee Review — A Brighter Second Chance

The original Yooka-Laylee was a love letter to ’90s collectathon platformers — charming, nostalgic, and, well, a little rough around the edges. Yooka-Replaylee, a full remaster from Playtonic Games, doesn’t just slap on new paint. It rethinks, refines, and rebalances, finally making this duo’s debut feel as good as it always looked in your memories.

A New Shine on Old Scales

From the moment you boot it up, it’s clear this isn’t a lazy remaster. The lighting, textures, and animations are sharper; colors pop with that Saturday morning cartoon energy. Dynamic shadows and reflections make the game’s lush worlds — from glittering mines to surreal snow kingdoms — feel like they’ve been rebuilt rather than merely upscaled.

The soundtrack, remastered with richer orchestration, soars. Grant Kirkhope and David Wise’s whimsical tunes sound fuller, and the ambient layers make each area feel alive. It’s nostalgia fine-tuned for modern hardware.

Smoother Moves, Smarter Worlds

One of the biggest wins here is control. The original’s clunky camera is gone — replaced by one that (mostly) behaves. Platforming now feels tight, responsive, and fluid. Moves chain together naturally, letting Yooka’s rolls and Laylee’s wing-assisted glides flow like second nature.

Playtonic has also cleaned up the exploration fatigue that bogged down the 2017 version. There’s now a map, fast travel, and a collectible tracker — features that sound basic, but they completely transform pacing. You spend less time lost and more time enjoying the platforming playground.

Familiar, But Not Forgotten

Don’t expect massive structural overhauls — Yooka-Replaylee is still Yooka-Laylee at its core. The humor remains proudly cheesy, the characters unapologetically weird, and the tone charmingly self-aware. Whether that British-style banter makes you grin or groan will depend on your nostalgia tolerance.

That said, new and rearranged collectibles, added mini-games, and smoother progression make each level feel livelier. The team even adjusted difficulty curves, so that tricky late-game platforming feels challenging rather than frustrating.

Legacy Baggage

While most of the rough edges have been sanded down, Replaylee still carries a bit of old-school design stubbornness. Some missions rely on dated “guess what to do next” logic, and completionists may still find the sheer number of collectibles overwhelming. There’s also a touch of jank — camera stutters, animation clipping — though far less than before.

If you weren’t a fan of Yooka-Laylee’s tone or structure back in 2017, this version probably won’t change your mind. It’s still a collectathon at heart — and proudly so.

Verdict

Yooka-Replaylee isn’t trying to reinvent the genre. It’s trying to perfect its own past, and for the most part, it succeeds. This is the version that should have launched years ago — a vibrant, polished, and joyfully weird adventure that finally lives up to its Banjo-Kazooie-inspired potential.