Man I've watched this video a few times. You have read my mind. Ive said before that Banjo is designed in the sense, you know where to go, and points of interests. You see a giant crocodile head, you know something is there. You see a giant snowman, you know something is there. Yooka levels are just huge but nothing really stands out, so theres not much guidance. They just feel like they made the level first all at once, and then tried to put a game within the level. They dont seem designed around the gameplay. Even DK64 didnt have this issue and that game was HUGE. But it still guided the player with bananas / collectables. It's why I never had much issue collecting things in that game cos they always naturally led to something you needed to do anyway. There was rarely just a banana hiding behind a ledge with nothing there.
lajeandom yea everyone of importance that worked on banjo is still at rare for the most part, Greg mayles was the character creator and level designer of dkc banjo conker etc and he's still at rare, the funny thing is most of the people that left rare to work on yooka laylee didn't even work on banjo. the only people that left rare that actually worked on banjo were music composers and artists for the most part. the only person who had a big part in developing banjo that went to platonic was Chris Sutherland but he just oversaw development on yooka he didn't help make it
bo Chris Sutherland is the programmer/coder, he still took an important role for that game. But yes, there was less direction without Gregg Mayles AND the Stamper bros.
@Steve Larson I attribute this largely due to the fact that they didn't have Gregg Mayles on the team; he was the lead designer of the Banjo-Kazooie series and the primary reason why those games were so well-crafted.
To be fair, it's important to understand this is not simply "Banjo devs new title". This is first title of Playtonic, a NEW team that happens to hire many of the same people from old Rare - BUT it is their first game as Playtonic. That means new company organization, new business plan, new producer, new designers - a lot has changed, this is not simply Banjo 3, it's not simply them picking up where they left off (especially since even for ex-Rare, it has been NINE YEARS since they worked on a Banjo game - they have right to have gotten a bit rusty) -it's them to try to even get "back there". Also, obviously - Banjo was a big title backed by Nintendo. YL's 2 million pounds from Kickstarter is I think a fraction of a budget that would be necessary to create game in the scope of Banjo on a modern budget - so the fact that we've gotten what we've gotten is already downright amazing. I think Tooka-Laylie or whatever they end up calling the sequel has potential to actually live up to Banjo legacy once Playtonic will start to work better as a team and work out the kinks.
It's a nice start to their company. Rocky, but a nice start. I do hope if Tooka-Laylee is a thing, they add more original elements to the possible series.
shinobody True, I just really wanted it to be the same. Oh well I can suck it up and quit being a fan boy of the original games. It's not like the game is bad or anything.
stephen carter I personally hope they just rip off their original game with some new moves and level design. I love Banjo and the way I see it is, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
wow, pretty much every critique you had to offer was on point imo. you managed to point out all the flaws that really made the game suffer, without really hating on yooka laylee either. ive gotten so tired of all the hate yooka laylee's gotten since its release. it's definitely not an 'amazing' game (objectively, at least) but alot of people like to pretend that there's nothing good about it other than the nostalgia. thanks for making this video, i kinda hope playtonic watches it
Yeah, I was surprised to see that no one else was really talking about these things. All the critique was "its too big. it's too confusing. the camera blegh. its not as charming." Like all stuff that was subjective, but these points that I saw were very clearly just not as good.
I didn't know about the pirate island buddy slam thing. That was interesting though I am releasing an in depth series on this game and frankly I have heard every single reviewer including yourself describe Yooka-Laylee as uninspired in some way shape or form and how certain things aren't "fun" enough which are very unimaginitive criticisms to me considering how you just talked up there about Subjectivity. I think you are a little blinded by nostalgia with Banjo-Kazooie since the quiz in that game is well beyond unfair also the criticism of the arcade and Kartos are almost unfounded to me, the last 2 arcade games are certainly badly designed but the first three (of which you omitted) work just fine; conversely Kartos works extremely well for those who genuinely get to grips with the mechanics. I don't know if anyone has come out in favour of Kartos but I certainly will. Since there is a strong set of rules that will reward and punish you in the entirety to the tracks. No offence intended but in your footage; you crashed into 4 barrels in a row. That is the first level, it is extremely easy to manage. Honestly though this is one of my favourite reviews of the game in terms of fairness I have seen along side Caddicarus; despite a few hitches here and there. Thank you for providing a view point that differs from what seems to be the big reviewers guideline book everyone else appears to be reading. Sorry if I come across as a bit rude :)
My biggest complaint in YL is that the areas where expansion content happens are accessible even if you havent expanded the world. I'd get to some place and it was very clear that it was an intentional important place, but I didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure if I was missing an ability and needed to come back or maybe there was some puzzle here I just wasnt seeing and it would turn out that it needs the expansion to 'activate'
PSA: A Hat in Time's release has been narrowed down to Fall 2017. Getting closer! :D As for the video, I agree with pretty much everything you said. People complain about A Hat in Time taking forever (and it has been a while), but I think Yooka-Laylee is a good example of what can happen when a game gets pushed out before it's completely ready. I had fun with it (even 100%'d it), but with a bit more polish it could have been so much better. In the meantime, I would definitely recommend Poi if you haven't played it already. It's a smaller game and it certainly has flaws of its own (like every single boss), but I had a great time with it in spite of that. It's a shorter one, but still worth a play if you like 3D platformers.
Yeah! So they announced that after I had written and recorded all this haha, but I figured it was close enough :P And yep - for games like this time is a good thing. This tweet by Hat in Time explains so much about what their focus is: twitter.com/HatInTime/status/849010263303086080 Havent heard of Poi, I'll have to check it out!
+snomaN Gaming I figured that was probably the case, haha. Just wanted to spread the news for people who didn't know. I've been excited for A Hat in Time for so long, just can't wait for it to finally come out! :D And I hadn't seen that interview before--thanks for that! Poi definitely has some frustrating spots, but overall I had a great time with it. Like I said, the bosses are pretty garbage (especially the final boss, unfortunately) but the levels themselves are really fun to explore and find everything. Hope you enjoy if you give it a whirl!
+Steve Larson Yeah, I liked the beta for A Hat in Time a lot more than I liked the Yooka-Laylee toybox. Before release, I was hoping that was because AHiT used actual levels from the game in the beta while YL was a pretty bland area just to mess around in... But some of the stuff I found a bit wonky (like the Reptile Roll) ended up being pretty similar in the final release. Fortunately, A Hat in Time still looks really promising! It's more in the vein of Super Mario 64/Sunshine than the Banjo games, so there won't be quite as many collectibles. But each level looks like it's doing something new and creative, thematically AND gameplay-wise. At this point I'm just biding my time until it comes out, haha. I think a lot of people who didn't like YL took it as a sign that 3D platformers are an outdated genre as a whole, but I'm hoping games like AHiT can show that it's still a viable genre if they're done well.
This was definitely a good Yooka Laylee review. All of the comments about the game were pretty much accurate. But personally, I didn't find any real problems with the game. My brothers and I are huge RareWare fans. Back in the day we used to have so much fun playing the N64. Banjo-Tooie in particular was my favorite rare/n64 game and probably still is my #1 favorite game. Having that said, I was very exited when hearing about Yooka Laylee and I was really looking forward to its release. However I also knew I'd judge it in a way that any obvious flaws would have a chance of disappointing me. After playing and beating the game, I must say I am very satisfied. In my opinion (and my brothers), there isn't anything wrong with this game. I mean sure, to be fair, I could of spotted a few things that gave me a reason to complain. But nothing close enough to the point were it would be a let down. Due to a number of reasons such as originality, overall design, and mostly nostalgia, Yooka Laylee can't really rival Banjo-Kazooie or Banjo-Tooie. However I consider it to be a great addition to the Rare collection along with other classics like Conker's Bad Fur Day and Donkey Kong 64. So Ultimately, this game as a whole was a job well done. I'm not saying it couldn't have been better, but me and my brothers believe Yooka Laylee is worthy enough to be part of the renowned set of rare ware games that lots of fans know and love.
Wonderful analysis of the games man. My first impression of Yookah Laylee was just nostalgia overload. I loved the first hour of it and just hope for more charm. But saw so much just hit the fan too early. I hope to see more awesome games from Playtonic now that they're moving on, but hope to see this genre expanded upon, even if Playtonic didn't innovate much on it.
I got my Yooka for PS4 on release day, played for HOURS.. third level... And got bored. I think they same about the game like you, it's BK 0.5 HD. Well, graphics fine, design of main characters etc., but it's not a BK succesor at all... One of few good things about this game is music. What to expect from developers? I want Banjo-Threeie, not Yooka-Tooie. Smaller worlds with SOMETHING in it, not big ass levels with no fun at all. This game is 6/10 for me. Played hat in time - still not the perfect 3D Platformer, but better. Simply better. I hope developers of Yooka-Laylee already saw all those YT videos about disappointment and think about changes for their next game.
The Biggest problem is that Greg Mayles wasn't involved and it shows. Every Banjo game Including nut and blots has always been directed by Greg Mayles. Chris Sutherland is a good producer but I question his directing???????
You see this is the type of review I can believe because you actually point out specific examples and properly compare both games. Instead of complaining about arbitrary things like words being too big. Or comparing about things that should be done with the genre
Lot of great points brought up in this video. I think I liked Yooka-Laylee more than most, though I agree the number one issue is the lack of polish. I also wish there were more characters to interact with and that the actual motivation of why Yooka and Laylee are even going on this adventure beyond retrieving a book they know nothing about. That said, what I will defend about Yooka-Laylee is its overall attitude in terms of design. How it does just throw you in a world and asks you to explore it, figure out how it works and get all the goodies. They designed each area distinctly enough that I never felt like I needed a map or an objective marker, and I liked how once you get in the world, how nonlinear it is. For all the great 3D platformers out there, only Rare has been able to scratch this exploratory itch for me, and if nothing else, they still got it right in Yooka-Laylee. I would love a sequel with some polish so they could keep doing this
After Nuts and Bolts??? ROFL, Microsoft took a giant shit on RARE, half the developers have gone. You more likely to see a Nuts and Bolts sequel *Banjo Kazooie Suck my Nuts* with the microsoft logo floating across the screen. The sadder thing is the switch/Wii/Wii U can't get it on the virtual console either cause RARE created Banjo and Kazooie.
Jimmy Jackson nut and bolt wasn't that bad in my opinion it should have been a new ip .it's like they couldn't decide between new game or a spin off that has new concepts but gets tied down to its ip name
"Everything was placed for a specific reason. Distinctive landmarks made navigation and memorizing the level layouts very simple." Oh I already like where this one is going, so few reviews seemed to notice how clever and purpose-filled every aspect of Banjo-Kazooie's design was, while Yooka Laylee was largely random and pointless (a more extreme version of Tooie and DK64).
I appreciated your take on it, and I agree with a lot of what you said. I like this game pretty much about as much as I like Banjo-Tooie or DK64, and not nearly as much as I liked Banjo-Kazooie. It has charm, fun parts, and interesting design, but it lacks polish, fine-tuned controls, and proper implementation of collectibles. It's a good callback to the old days of 3d platforming, but it doesn't really bring much new to the table, and unfortunately most people were expecting it to be the next big thing in gaming as opposed to just a fun game. If they do keep fixing the flaws like the camera, badly placed quills, etc, they could still make it into something really special though. All the ingredients are there, it just lacks content & polish.
This is my first video I've seen from you and you REALLY hit the nail on the head while still being in quite a respective and understandable tone. No screaming or shouting or belitting the former rare employees for having some mistakes in their first game in well over a decade, and this is very great information to build upon and benefit to work to a greater end goal. I would really love to see a Yooka Laylee 2 of shorts to expand much more on this and truly polish up to what could be an amazing true spiritual successor. As for it is right now, I do agree, it feels like a fun tech demo to get a taste of what's to come and I await that as playtonic continues to get the rust off and get that spit and polish done.
My biggest problem with the game was that the worlds were too big and empty. Like you I would've much preferred smaller worlds but a greater number of them. In Banjo Kazooie you can finish each world in about half an hour to 45 minutes, in some instances that time is tripled in Yooka Laylee but I don't feel like that's a good thing. You spend so much time searching for some hidden quills or figuring out a puzzle that was poorly set up or not set up at all (the laser redirecting was just the worst). At this point I finished the game in about 10 hours with just 3 quills (in the final level) and one paigie missing (I missed one token in the Casino level) but I have no desire to search for them because it's such a boring and unfulfilling task. It doesn't challenge you in some meaningful, interesting way, it's just that I haven't been in 2 specific spots in gigantic, empty worlds. That being said I still enjoyed the game more than I do most that come out today and I actually prefer it over Banjo Tooie. I could never put my finger on it but something about that game just didn't click with me at all.
Yeah I'm realizing how much Kazooie just totally gets it - it's SO FAST. Playing it for footage, most levels took 30-45 mins to 100% complete. Feels great
I haven't played YL, but... It took me 8 hours (!) to finish "grunty industries" in Banjo-Tooie. I loved the complex worlds that made your brain hurt. It was truly challenging to "connect all the dots". Big worlds are great, if they are designed carefully. PS: Banjo-Tooie is probably my favourite 3d platformer (or does it qualify as an action adventure?)
The more I come to know the BK fan base, the more I realize I'm the odd man out for preferring Tooie to the first game. In fact it's almost scary how much more i like Tooie. It's the only time I can think of that I view the sequel on a whole other level from its predecessor. I can't really explain why. It just seemed like the game improved on everything I liked about the first game, and fixed the stuff I didn't. The world is way more immersive too, and for me personally, immersion is one of the most important things a game can have. Maybe I just looked for a different thing in these games than everyone else, but BT remains one of my favorite games of all time, while BK just feels like it's inferior little brother.
Many people consider BT to be better, but I understand if BT is a bit too much of the good stuff for some people. What I find odd is that I hated Donkey Kong 64, but I loved BT. I played BT last year, so there is NO nostalgia involved :)
I personally did not like Tooie as much because the levels involved too much walking back and forth. The first level for instance is huge. You walk from one area. Jump up some stairs, and then do a challenge. Now you must walk to the opposite side of the map to another area. Maybe jump three platforms and get another Jiggy. Rinse and repeat. For a platforming game it felt more like a walk-a-thon than a jump-a-thon. BK's levels were small enough where the player was jumping from place to place.
I am excited for PlayTonic's and Yooka Laylee's future. The engine has been built, the character's have been established and plot is prevalent. That means that they can focus more on gameplay and world design, and that's the meat of what was missing in this game.
After 7 hrs of YL I felt quite disappointed. It's not bad, but I just don't feel it.. I couldn't really name it, its like a beautiful but empty shell. Thank you for the video, I'm happy to realize why that is so, and that I'm not the only one. I'm not even sure I want to finish the game at this point..
I thought Yooka-Laylee was going to be the next evolution in platformers from the masters, but actually it's just a low budget Banjo-Kazooie knockoff. But man, A Hat in Time sure was excellent!
You know I played banjo kazooie many times as a kid. Banjo tooie as well. It felt like I was in the world myself running along side of them and it was amazing! I’ve actually gone back and played them all the way through over 10 years later. I wish they would make banjo threeie :(
That was a really balanced and fair critique of where Yooka fell short. Totally agree and it brought points across I hadn't considered and what DOESN'T Dollar Shave Club sponsor?! Argh!
All your criticisms are merited. Like the others have commented, I hope Playtonic sees this and makes an entirely new title and uses what originally made _Banjo-Kazooie_ and its sequel truly great all-around games.
I found Yooka to be a bit of a cluttered mess with the collectables, mainly the quills being placed wherever unlike the nites in Banjo and Bananas in DK 64, which were used as guides around the worlds and different puzzles. Also the worlds were very large with too much empty space with no convenient way to quickly travel around to faraway places in the world like in DK 64 and Tooie. Combined with the quills being placed wherever, exploring felt like a chore rather than something I wanted to do
I agree with so many of the points made in this video. My biggest gripe personally is how each of the sub-characters you meant don't really seem to fit with one another aesthetically, which might come down to polish. It feels like a different artist was grabbed for each them, without really fitting a similar theme to their artistic style. It made the characters, even the same worlds, feel disconnected from one another in a really uncanny way. Also the entering various worlds thing could have opened up a neat way to add different artistic filters to each level, which could have been neat.
I think Yooka-Laylee is a good game, but I agree with you regarding the lack of secrets, enemies and overall charm. Lots of missed opportunities. Growing up with Banjo-Kazooie, secrets were definitely a big part of the experience.
Banjo Kazooie is the king of the duo character platforming games. Even games like Jak and Daxter, Ratch and Clank and now Yooka-Laylee just don't match the magic of a Banjo Kazooie game.
Thank you for presenting your video in a level-headed/calm/professional way while still being honest. I've seen people give negative reviews of this game in a way that's "ranty"/venting of frustration. I'm all for listening to negative feedback, but when it's presented in a bitter-related manner, I just get turned away. It would be hard to listen to myself in the case I presented in a bitter manner, regardless of how good my points were. Thanks for the refreshing video Sno! :D
I highly disagreeing with the humor since it mostly contains "Oh we are aware we are in a game, let us break the 4th wall 24/7" it got pretty old early on for me ^^' Also with the World Expansion, but to be fair since comes from a Purist's perspective here, Banjo-Kazooie just did it right for me, the World Expansion is annoying backtracking, it doesn't add anything to the game, but addtional playtime you could spent exploring the world, you need to expand every world anyways in order to beat the game - so why have it in there to begin with? completely agreeing with the text skipping thing, it really made me angry when Laylee did a joke on Rextro being like "Did you learn how to skip Character-Dialogues?" And take a guess in which game you Can't do that, the lack of self-awareness is amazing actually.
While I don't think every level suffers from this particular issue equally, I feel that a good portion of the levels in YL have no direction to them. In BK & BT you would enter a level and see 1-3 paths laid out before you for you to explore, that each provide clear splitting points as you explore. This acts as a double-whammy on the quill point made in the video because they create these large boxes for players to explore but put little effort into drawing your eye to certain areas beyond obvious landmarks, while notes created clear paths for the player to explore. Mumbo's Mountain had the bridge and the hill paths, Treasure Trove Cove had 3 paths surrounded by water and cliffs to direct you, and so on with the levels to give players areas to take note of while exploring. YL says in Tribalstack Tropics, once you go up the first ramp, that there's this huge world to explore now just go out there. Of course you need to find Trowzer in order to do a lot of the stuff in that level, but you'll find him eventually. You found a character that offers a Pagey not because there's a cobblestone path leading to them or an archway right next to them or because they're up on a landmark, you found them because in your aimless exploration you happened to stumble upon them randomly like Sir Hamalot in the first level. The whole "where do I go next" question in YL often relies on the player deciding which path or area they haven't gone to before and checking to see if anything's there, rather than BK's method of leaving breadcrumbs. The only thing I can hope that they don't do in the future is go full blown DK64 and segment off each individual section of the level with hallways between their disjointed ideas. ____________________________________ And one last aside about the enemy variety, I also feel like they could've gotten a lot of mileage out of a few more enemies. The slot machines in Witcheyworld were awesome as well as the dart totems in Mayahem Temple and even the aggressive hives that give you health were neat additions anywhere. The eyes were a neat idea that reminded me of the nuts and bolts in Grunty Industries, but I felt like most of the enemies are so non-noteworthy parts of them game, that the only purpose they serve is force players that are unfamiliar with the controls of platformers to adapt to them.
it feels good to hear someone who really liked the genre reviewing Yooka-Laylee, everyone else was just talking about how bad it was because they generally didn't like it. Your review made me want the game at first (despite all the bad things I've heard), and then slapped my hand and said "NO, IT'S NOT AS GOOD AS IT LOOKS"
I absolutely *LOVE* Yooka Laylee. The characters, worlds, music, jokes, references, fourth wall breakings are too amazing. But yes, the camera could be better.
Spot on! I talked about a lot of this stuff in my review as well. What it comes down to is that Banjo-Kazooie was just a much more clever game than Yooka-Laylee. YL was created as a venture and not as an inspired piece of design like BK.
Finally a good video like this. In the Y+L reviews so many people talked about how they kept too many things from banjo that aged poorly but really banjo ages fine. The new game just had worse level design and lacked polish. Also I have no idea why there is sooooo much pointless dialogue that drags on and on. Like 10x more than the old games and it doesn't add much more at all. I wish they would have kept smaller levels and made them more interesting and full as the original games instead of some giant less interesting worlds. The game came out pretty quick after the kickstarter even with the delay it seems like they rushed it to meet their dates which would also save money. I still can't believe they made the full game that quick but I would have liked another year to polish everything.
Your review is accurate, but I must say I found Yooka a nice, fun game. People are way overreacting with its reception, like if it was plain garbage. Not true!
Rafael d'Ávila So much saltiness for a game that really only meant to be a Banjo Threeie to the IP that former Rareware employees sadly don't own anymore. Nobody really asked for the genre to evolve, just another collect-a-thon game. I just want 3D platformers to comeback, and I'll probably be satisfied with Yooka Laylee, though not as satisfied as I would have been...
Tommy Deonauth's Archives If you're not satisfied then don't take it and not do anything about it , if developers see consumers being okay with garbage or mediocrity than that's what they'll give us.
I think what the developers meant when they told us what they were making and what the audience anticipating the title thought yooka laylee to be were vastly different concepts. I think everyone expected a monster game that was supposed to succeed banjo as opposed to a simple nod to the series.
you put into words what i felt, but couldnt describe. like, i seriously thought after finishing yooka that maybe id just lost my taste for these types of games, but then went back to banjo and had the time of my life. i just couldnt put into words why yooka left me so lukewarm bbut banjo was so fun, but now i can
I guess my thoughts on Yooka-Laylee mirror yours; it's a good game with creative ideas, but it doesn't quite live up to its own potential and it's gameplay issues , namely the lack of actual checkpoints, messes with the experience. I can definitely agree that I would've preferred 10 smaller worlds to the huge 5 that we got. Makes exploring entire levels much less exhausting and gives us more worlds to play through. And *FUCK* Rextro and Kartos' mini-games! Those are the most infuriating things I have ever had the misfortune of playing (well, okay, the first few weren't so bad, but the mini-games in the casino level can seriously go to hell)
I agree very much with your review, especially the transformations. I was actually waiting on such an honest analysis, lots of people are either praising it to heaven or deeming it the worst 3D Platformer of all time. Thanks for the video man :)
It annoys me that people are constantly running to say "this is banjo-threeie, they never said that they would revolutionize anything, therefore it's passable." Isn't Mario Galaxy technically mario 64 three? Nintendo could have remade mario 64 over and over again but instead they thought of new ideas and refined what was not perfect in 64. Stop saying that playtonic did what they promised, this is not how sequels should be approached by any company in my mind. Let me know what you think about this.
@@hubblebublumbubwub5215 Budget =/= quality. A Hat in Time only had a an _eighth_ of the budget that Yooka-Laylee had (that's about $300,000) and Gears for Breakfast produced a vastly superior game with that money. Super Mario Galaxy also had two years of development (development began in 2005 and lasted until 2007) and Nintendo were able to make a great game during that period. Playtonic had no excuse.
Mario Galaxy didn't have the budget of Yooka Laylee. A Hat in Time didn't have the development time of Yooka Laylee. You're bringing up some of the best 3D platformers of all time as if they prove that it's easy to make games. I might as well call Yooka Laylee a masterpiece by comparing it to some obscure flop.
@@hubblebublumbubwub5215 I never said that it's easy to make games. I'm saying that the budget or time it takes to make a game doesn't always determine the overall quality of the game. You basically said that the game's two-year development cycle excuses its poor quality and therefore it shouldn't be compared to Super Mario Galaxy, a game that also took two years to develop. Would Yooka-Laylee had been better if it was given more time to develop? Maybe, but I think that comparing it to a game that was developed for roughly the same amount of time is a bad comparison. You also implied that a bigger budget necessitates a better game when that isn't the case. The quality of the game mostly comes down to the talent of the developers. You can have all the time and money in the world to make the best game ever but none of it matters if your development team is a mess.
As someone who played banjo kazooie & tooie, many many many times ( my favorite of all platformer on the N64 ) Yooka Laylee was amazing to me. Tons of childhood reflections to banjo kazooie, and it felt like an extension to the game, aside no longer being a bear and a bird. I experience very little issues/glitches in the game, personally. It was everything i expected and didn't have any letdowns or complaints. If i HAD to say something, it's wishing for smaller levels, and more levels. After awhile, a level gets boring. Because you play it for sooo long due to the size. The fun of banjo kazooie, was having sooo many levels. It kept things exciting. 5 i believe in Yooka, 9 in Banjo. 6/10 if you count the hub
Your description of what made Banjo-Kazooie fun was so on point. People who criticize BK for its shallow mini games and mediocre platforming are missing what made the game good: its personality, sense of exploration, and mystery.
Yea, i think it comes down a lot to just... not having enough assets/materials/time to work with (the 5 expandable worlds look more like an excuse to make 10 worlds with half the cosmetic changes), and trying to meet every staple on the Rareware checklist to the point where it just felt like Rare-esque cud. I think there's a few things they could have done better: They could have been more transparent in explaining the expansion system and what one could do in the world in it's current state. They could have even made small, like "expansion-pads" in world so you could Expand it piecemeal for cheaper. Yooka moves faster and has a bit more mobility than Banjo, but in accommodating this, the game felt weirdly hollow and confusing to navigate for its worlds' vast sizes; so it would have been cool to see them make speed-oriented obstacles reminiscent of the good 3D Sonic titles, but in a Collect-A-Thon exploration arrangement rather than linear action platforming, so navigating would feel fun and engaging. As far as things like the Stamina meter goes, it was done explicitly to streamline the Collect-A-Thons' age old dilemma of too many collectibles, something that harangued the genre's most overstuffed titles before their decline, so I appreciate the effort. If nothing else, I would have liked to see two different kinds of Butterflies instead of needing to remember how exactly I need to collect the pink ones to fill my Health or Stamina. idk, I am really happy the Rare crew is back together, and I want them to have more shots at this; but for it to fall short after so much effort was seemingly put into it to differentiate it from things like Mighty No. 9, it's hard not to be cynical about this Retro Revival craze being helmed by old creators.
One of my biggest gripes with Yooka Laylee is the fact that once you unlock the flight move, you can use it pretty much whenever you want. It’s super easy to take advantage of
exactly , the game just isnt made for such a move , how many things in tribal stack tropics are hidden vertically , good thing you can just fly up , same with other worlds like glitterglaze glacier , whats the point of anything if you can fly up , in banjo kazooie and tooie , even worlds that let you use fly do this properly , you have to climb terridactylus land and beat the boss so he gives you the flight pad so you can get to some of the egg locations with kazooie , thats good level design , and even with the flightpad you might reach higher up parts easier but that doesnt make the jiggies in the world easier because non of them are just lying around in a cage waiting to be picked up by hitting a switch , like the wind section in glitter glacier , that can be skipped with flappy flight entirely
@@tannereustace i tried to love it as well now i didnt back it on kickstarter but i was really hyped , also hoped they would make a spiritual banjo kazooie successor somehow , but the end result , i just dont know , the whole progression felt weird , the backtracking in yooka laylee just felt weird , like having to return to world 1 with the invisibility move the quills are another issue , i dont mind collecting pons in hat in time , i love doing that , but the quills are too hidden to be fun to collect
Minene Uryuu922 I PC Masterrace I the lack of checkpoints/warp pads in the worlds is also a bit disappointing since Banjo Tooie successfully incorporated those elements several years back
The other Kirkhope song I loved was from Glittergaze Glacier. But it also made me sad listening to it, since the game was just not as magical as the track. Oh and don't forget about David Wise's tracks, they're all pretty good. Especially World 3 Minecart!
It seemed like a lot of reviewers were saying "It's designed like B-K, which is old so it's bad." You've really pointed out that in a lot of areas, it falls short of Kazooie & Tooie's standards. This was a very articulate and detailed video, and it's really obvious that your criticisms weren't out of any hate for the game, but just disappointment at wasted potential. Another excellent video. I don't know why I haven't subscribed yet, but I'm doing so now.
I very much enjoy the game, but it falls short of the classics it is trying to emulate. The main reason I think is due to the fact of the lack of interesting characters. As you pointed out there are tons of interesting side characters in the old Rareware games and yet with Yooka Laylee not only do the enemies get reused, the side characters get reused as well (mostly those pig knights). The worst part is that the characters that are in the game aren't even that memorable. I feel that Yooka Laylee decided to focus more on being a "platformer" and wanted to show that platforming is fun instead of focusing on what was truly enjoyable about the old 3D platformers, which was exploration and experiencing the world. I really did enjoy your description of levels being little amusement parks, because that is true in my mind. Each level was supposed to be a fun, goofy place to explore and see. It was never meant to be about just jumping from platform to platform.
Ever since I saw beta footage and there were these terrible "cut and paste" moving platforms, and stock striped rings to go through I was like oh no, it's just so basic :/
Well, you do need Sonar 'Splosion to break glass. But it can only break those giant, solid glass cubes, not thin, cracked glass panes. Makes sense. But you might not even know they were glass cubes, because they look a lot like ice cubes, and you even encounter them in the ice world for the first time, so how could you ever assume it's glass and not ice? But then again, there *is* one cracked glass pane that has to be destroyed with Sonar 'Splosion (in the overworld arcade) but can't be destroyed with Reptile Rush. It's a mess. I still really loved the game, though. Except for those last two Rextro minigames.. they made me die a couple of weeks earlier. :/
I actually thought I was just over the Banjo style and it turns out that Yooka-Kaylee just wasn't very good. I recently started playing Banjo Kazooie again on Switch and I'm loving it. So used to games not holding up that it was kind of a surprise.
As someone who didn't grew up with Banjo-Kazooie, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. Not perfect mind you, but still fun in my opinion. Plus, keep in mind, this is also the closest thing to having a proper Banjo-Threeie.
Douglas Levin I never grew up with banjo ether so that's why we don't know how shallow yooka laylee actually is It's like having a bootleg without trying the original product so we wouldn't be able to tell
I've never even played Banjo but LOVE this game to bits. It has flaws though. Camera can be a pain, even after patch, tonics are very underwhelming and tbh really useless, not many secrets, but I love the worlds(I'm in world 3 btw) the charm, the DESIGNS of the characters are wonderful, love Yooka's design, and it's exciting to explore new worlds. It has ups, downs, and I hope the game is added upon with new DLC or patches. More, fun to play with tonics, cheats, secrets, etc
And this game really gives me hope for more from Playtonic. In my opinion, a very nice start, but rocky start. Also hope for more original 3D platformers again
N&B was super disappointing - maybe I'll buy a next gen console by the time they fix this game up in the form of a sequel. either way it's pretty to look at right now, haha
tbh as a character designer, I feel like Yooka Laylee had much better and creative designs than the Banjo Kazooie franchize but those designs were devoid of the charm that the original exuded. I also thought that Yooka Laylee had a much less diverse moveset than Banjo Kazooie. Banjo Kazooie had a multitude of ways to approach and confront an enemy, each being different with each type of enemy. But due to the lack of enemy diversity and moves to combat foes (the only real ones being the default spin and leap spin) made for very boring enemy encounters. The enemies were more like minor annoyances than legitimately challenging, and different, malice-filled henchmen.
Liza Strauss Just shut the f*ck up. People like you can't even explain anything. Besides, saying that Yooka-Laylee is a sh*t game isn't even an opinion in the first place you brainless human.
@@spaghettiioassassin8151 your brainless, is his opinion on the game, your a fucking dumbass for not knowing what a fucking opinion is you fucking dumbass.
I really appreciate this. Everyone else makes points like "Why are the characters just making noises in 2016" and "the game just doesn't feel right." Nobody explains what's wrong and they usually blame supposedly antiquated game design that works just fine in the original banjo games. These people don't feel like real fans, only fans due to happenstance. If banjo was released for the first time tomorrow I wouldn't have a different view on it.
I wanna start by saying I'm one of the biggest fans of the original games for the N64. I love the Banjo games and I'd be the first one to say that I wanted this game to be good, I wanted Banjo back. But perhaps my hopes, all our hopes, were misguided. See, what we wanted wasn't just Banjo Threeie. What we wanted was that same magic feeling that the Banjo games gave us, that same burst of charm and wonder, which this game sorrowfully falls short of. Now we are older; now games have gotten better over the years. And, in a few small ways like you mentioned in your video YL does improve. But in the ways it counts, the evolution isn't there. The bar has been raised, guys. And yet Yooka Laylee lacks the ambition to meet it. Sure the charming writing is there, but a lack of restraint really makes the fourth wall breaking less special. It's like as soon as the game starts it's saying "Oh hey, you're playing a video game, do you know that? LOL I'm so clever for making that observation haha!" Unlike the originals, which saved the fourth wall jokes for times when it's actually funny or poignant. Your lacking polish complains are also on point: Wonky camera, and inconsistent mechanics make the game rather frustrating. Its got its heart in the right place, but at the end of the day Yooka Laylee is pretty much just a mediocre 3D platformer with pretty visuals and a comedic tone. I wanted a true return to glory, and instead I am playing what feels more like a fan tribute of it's predecessor from 1998, but even then ends up just being worse. And for everyone defending the game saying "Oh but you got what you asked for! It's just like banjo, isn't that what you wanted?" It's more than that. I played banjo tooie recently, and it confirmed to me that indeed, the games used to be better than YL is. It's not asking much for the guys who made the BK games with 2 million dollars to spare to make something at least as good as that. If it would have taken longer to pull that off I honestly wouldn't mind, but I can't help but feel disappointment. We might have gotten what we asked for, but we didn't get what we wanted.
I think Playtonic did pretty well for their first game. There are some issues, but I think they did an excellent job with the small budget they had. You have to take into account that the Banjo games were funded by Nintendo and likely had a budget far greater than 2 million euros
"their first game" Uh, you lost me dude. Playtonic are ex rare devs, they made TONS of fucking stellar games before even Banjo Kazooie. Not all of them were outstanding, but they have a pretty damn good, if not great lineup. My point still stands, they should be better than this. And as for their budget: Money isn't really a big factor when it comes to the actual making of the game, what a budget means is basically how many cool features they are able to put in the game. It's not just a simple formula of "money = content", making games is hard work no matter how much money you have to spare, and that's why I'm upset because they have done great work for way less than what they got for YL.
I'm aware of their previous work as Rare. It is their first game as Playtonic and they're likely still in the experimental phase trying to work all the kinks out. Also, the budget has a big impact on what the final game looks like. The money they raised doesn't all go directly to developing the game. Some of it went to Kickstarter, some probably went towards the purchase of their new office space, and the majority of it likely went to paying worker salaries. The longer a game sits in development, the more money gets spent paying bills and salaries. If they were working for a larger company like Nintendo, they could just ask for an extension and would likely be given one. As this was a Kickstarted game with a finite budget with no way to get an extension, once the money ran out that would be it. This put a kind of time restraint on the team. There were likely many things they would have liked to polish and I'm sure there were plenty of cut assets, but they all have bills to pay and weren't going to be able to work for an extra 6 months for free. Hopefully, the money they received from this game will be more than enough to fund their next game for as long as is needed to fully polish it
I haven't played Yooka-Laylee yet, but I have recently replayed Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. In spite of negative things I've heard about Yooka-Laylee, I still want so badly to play it. I even expect that I'll really love it.
My biggest thing that I don’t like about Yooka-Laylee is how you have to buy your moves. In Banjo-Kazooie, you would have to find Bottles in order to learn them. In Yooka-Laylee, you have to buy them in a specific location to buy them.
big thanks man! i spent hours an hours to collect all the feathers but i nerver find the last one in the first level. i saw it in this video hidden anywere in a hole near of the end of the world. after 5minutes in the world searching it i found it finally 2 or 3 months after finishing the game ;-)
Honestly I didn't find Yooka-Laylee charming at all. Or well designed. The levels manage to feel cluttered and empty at the same time, the mini games aren't fun and the writing hurts my soul with how self referential it is. Even the designs for Yooka and Laylee aren't really all that interesting to me. There's nothing about them that really pops out. They look like background NPCs.
I actually think the opposite, I love YL's character design, specially the contrast between the strong green and strong blue. I love BK, but kazooie looks like every bird in the universe and banjo just reminds me of that Hannah Barbera bear dude.
@@joaovictor3312 Kazooie's design is simplistic because she's accented by living inside of a backpack and the silly squash-and-stretch that comes about as a result of it. Neither Yooka nor Laylee really have any of that dynamism going on. Their design and movements are all very clinical. They could have compensated for their plain designs with really exaggerated expressive animations, but they didn't.
Franz Pattison. Yeah, I find modern games to be overrated in general. The developers seem to focus on how the games look, more than the characters interactions with environments in each of the levels.
Hum... Have you ever watch speedruns of old games? They're broken as heck. Not to mention the many nes and snes games that everyone wants to forgot because of how horrible they are.
I also kind of enjoyed playing Yooka-Laylee a year ago, but I don't see myself replaying this game anytime soon. Banjo Kazooie/Tooie, on the other hand, is always a pleasure to replay - even a decade after my first encounter with the series.
I didn't play Banjo Kazooie, or any of the Rareware 3D platformers, as those games were before my generation. Speaking from an objective perspective, I thoroughly enjoyed Yooka-Laylee and thought that it was a rather nice 3D platformer with charming characters, good gameplay, and a few nice puzzles and secrets thrown into the mix. I guess there's something special about the nostalgic games of the 90's.
Everything in your video sounds right. And i can sense you're just like the rest of us : a huuuge fan of Banjo & Kazooie! (i understood this when you talked about the "details" : everyone who played BK have a anecdote just like your "pumpkin-&-maze-resolution") The only anecdote/detail i can relate in Yooka-Laylee is the ♥♦♣♠BEWARE the SPOILER, my not-played-yet-YL comrades!♠♣♦♥ galleon transformation in the fith world! To play as a pirate ship in a sci-fi world made me laugh out loud! {In English version, the "Galleon Galaxie" title may have be some sort of give-away for the transformation, but, because i'm Le a french guy, and so i played the french version, i suppose the french title of the fifth world was a little bit more surprising than the original english one ("Galleon Galaxy" / "Galaxie Galère" where the french word "galère" can be : 1/a galleon ; 2/a mishap.} ♥♦♣♠END OF SPOILER, thank you all♠♣♦♥ But after i read few comments, i gain hope anew, because, fricking yes, this is the FIRST game of Playtonic! Yes they have THE bunch if old dudes who are veterans at banjokazooing, but, as a society/organisation/structure, they are still new. So the best we can do is support them, and make them understand in what errors they fell, and how they can be better at banjokazooing, because, as a whole, we, fans of Banjo-Kazooie, are all fricking loving the banjokazooing stuff. (imo Banjo-Tooie is better than Banjo-Kazooie so... "Tooka-Laylee" will be better than Yooka-Laylee?) After my 100% playthrough (the only way to play this game unless it sucks a little bit more), i needed something, and both you, Snoman, and you, fellow comrades of UA-cam, give me this something. And for that, i deeply thank you. (sorry i get emotional and wordy ◖⚆ᴥ⚆◗ )
I absolutely love Banjo-Kazooie so I got Yooka-Laylee even with all the bad reviews I saw. I do agree that Banjo-Kazooie is better but I still love Yooka-Laylee :D But yeh I agree with everything said in this video. Great upload!
2017 3d platformer with God of War 1 camera changes lmao However, as a big fan of the first BK game i really hoped this would turn out better so actually *sadface*
I wonder if yooka-laylee was rushed now you mentioned it feels unfinished :s deadlines can be brutal on games but since they are the creators they could have just extended the deadline until the game was finished I know this is off topic but maybe this is the reason why kingdomhearts 3 is delayed so much,they keep extending their freaking deadline =w= sure I don't want a rushed and unfinished game but at least they're trying not to make any mistakes good for them
Many of the points, you mentioned there, are correct. The Good ones as unfortunately the Bad ones. Except for you CAN recover your Energy with Butterlys by either collecting them or eating them, instead of the other. I don't know what the "Secret" with the 50,1% has to say, but the Skulls could be a hint on Rare's new game "Sea of thieves" wich was still a secret at the time. nobody knows. Maybe they're planning a new shot on "Project Dream" though. I'm really happy that Rare did decide on showing never seen development-state-footages of both "project dream" and banjo-kazooie and of the transformation process from one to another.
This video did a very great job explaining the game's faults and strengths. I just got done 100 percenting it a few days ago, and overall did enjoy it, but I can certainly relate to these opinions of how much better the game could have been. I am certainly not writing off Playtonic Games, and am generally optimistic to see what they do next.
Yooka-Laylee = Banjo-Kazooie 50.1% HD
LOL I see what you did there. Clever!
Reference to "Loading Exposition %50.1"
Once I'm nice and thin once more, burgers, fries, and chips galore!
Gruntilda Winkybunion lol
Yeah, good luck on keeping that "nice and thin" look! ...if you ever get it, that is!😉
>:(
@Dépayser 😂😂😂 You are hilarious 😂😂😂😂
@@banjoandkazooie8848 jinjonator inbound
Man I've watched this video a few times. You have read my mind.
Ive said before that Banjo is designed in the sense, you know where to go, and points of interests.
You see a giant crocodile head, you know something is there. You see a giant snowman, you know something is there.
Yooka levels are just huge but nothing really stands out, so theres not much guidance. They just feel like they made the level first all at once, and then tried to put a game within the level. They dont seem designed around the gameplay.
Even DK64 didnt have this issue and that game was HUGE. But it still guided the player with bananas / collectables. It's why I never had much issue collecting things in that game cos they always naturally led to something you needed to do anyway. There was rarely just a banana hiding behind a ledge with nothing there.
I think some of the key members behind the design of the game levels in banjo and other key titles of rare are not part of the yooka laylee team.
lajeandom yea everyone of importance that worked on banjo is still at rare for the most part, Greg mayles was the character creator and level designer of dkc banjo conker etc and he's still at rare, the funny thing is most of the people that left rare to work on yooka laylee didn't even work on banjo. the only people that left rare that actually worked on banjo were music composers and artists for the most part. the only person who had a big part in developing banjo that went to platonic was Chris Sutherland but he just oversaw development on yooka he didn't help make it
TheLonelyGoomba absolutely agree , I get bored in yooka and I don't know what to do a lot of the time , currently at a stand still in yooka .
bo Chris Sutherland is the programmer/coder, he still took an important role for that game. But yes, there was less direction without Gregg Mayles AND the Stamper bros.
TheLonelyGoomba OMG Lonely goomba I love your videos!😄😄
I hope Playtonic sees this before working on a sequel. You are spot on with most of these points
Agreed. Thanksfully he's not alone in these points, so Playtonic would have to be intentionally avoiding complaints to not see them somewhere.
@Steve Larson I attribute this largely due to the fact that they didn't have Gregg Mayles on the team; he was the lead designer of the Banjo-Kazooie series and the primary reason why those games were so well-crafted.
Matt first release the switch version
I think they will work longer on it anyway because now they won't have pressure from backers
I know. This game seems so meh, like its a downgrade from the games its based off of.
To be fair, it's important to understand this is not simply "Banjo devs new title". This is first title of Playtonic, a NEW team that happens to hire many of the same people from old Rare - BUT it is their first game as Playtonic. That means new company organization, new business plan, new producer, new designers - a lot has changed, this is not simply Banjo 3, it's not simply them picking up where they left off (especially since even for ex-Rare, it has been NINE YEARS since they worked on a Banjo game - they have right to have gotten a bit rusty) -it's them to try to even get "back there".
Also, obviously - Banjo was a big title backed by Nintendo. YL's 2 million pounds from Kickstarter is I think a fraction of a budget that would be necessary to create game in the scope of Banjo on a modern budget - so the fact that we've gotten what we've gotten is already downright amazing.
I think Tooka-Laylie or whatever they end up calling the sequel has potential to actually live up to Banjo legacy once Playtonic will start to work better as a team and work out the kinks.
These are actually really good points, important things to consider about it ^ thanks
It's a nice start to their company. Rocky, but a nice start. I do hope if Tooka-Laylee is a thing, they add more original elements to the possible series.
shinobody True, I just really wanted it to be the same. Oh well I can suck it up and quit being a fan boy of the original games. It's not like the game is bad or anything.
stephen carter I personally hope they just rip off their original game with some new moves and level design. I love Banjo and the way I see it is, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
its a fucking banjo clone!
I think the true winner here is the to-be-announced 2025 game "Har-Monica"
Featuring Bill Clinton as Har
+Maxonerous X LEAVE BILL OUT OF THIS
ROFL this is just beautiful
Oh. Okay. SANTIAGO
I was thinking the best new name is Mando&Vio while in the game you get to know that their last names are Lin.
wow, pretty much every critique you had to offer was on point imo. you managed to point out all the flaws that really made the game suffer, without really hating on yooka laylee either. ive gotten so tired of all the hate yooka laylee's gotten since its release. it's definitely not an 'amazing' game (objectively, at least) but alot of people like to pretend that there's nothing good about it other than the nostalgia. thanks for making this video, i kinda hope playtonic watches it
Yeah, I was surprised to see that no one else was really talking about these things. All the critique was "its too big. it's too confusing. the camera blegh. its not as charming." Like all stuff that was subjective, but these points that I saw were very clearly just not as good.
I didn't know about the pirate island buddy slam thing. That was interesting though I am releasing an in depth series on this game and frankly I have heard every single reviewer including yourself describe Yooka-Laylee as uninspired in some way shape or form and how certain things aren't "fun" enough which are very unimaginitive criticisms to me considering how you just talked up there about Subjectivity.
I think you are a little blinded by nostalgia with Banjo-Kazooie since the quiz in that game is well beyond unfair also the criticism of the arcade and Kartos are almost unfounded to me, the last 2 arcade games are certainly badly designed but the first three (of which you omitted) work just fine; conversely Kartos works extremely well for those who genuinely get to grips with the mechanics.
I don't know if anyone has come out in favour of Kartos but I certainly will. Since there is a strong set of rules that will reward and punish you in the entirety to the tracks. No offence intended but in your footage; you crashed into 4 barrels in a row. That is the first level, it is extremely easy to manage.
Honestly though this is one of my favourite reviews of the game in terms of fairness I have seen along side Caddicarus; despite a few hitches here and there.
Thank you for providing a view point that differs from what seems to be the big reviewers guideline book everyone else appears to be reading. Sorry if I come across as a bit rude :)
First video of "Snowmans" that I have watched and yes, you can be objective. "The game has X amount of worlds"
Mark Fuzuzu you were the one who said it's all subjective 'smarty' as is for anything provable.
Mark Fuzuzu nope, just that as long as you accept that objectivity exists in video game analysis, then were on the same page
Honestly a really good review of the game dude, agreed on like every single point.
Im here too!
TetraBitGaming I agreed with everything too
You should do a lost bits on this!
My biggest complaint in YL is that the areas where expansion content happens are accessible even if you havent expanded the world. I'd get to some place and it was very clear that it was an intentional important place, but I didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure if I was missing an ability and needed to come back or maybe there was some puzzle here I just wasnt seeing and it would turn out that it needs the expansion to 'activate'
PSA: A Hat in Time's release has been narrowed down to Fall 2017. Getting closer! :D
As for the video, I agree with pretty much everything you said. People complain about A Hat in Time taking forever (and it has been a while), but I think Yooka-Laylee is a good example of what can happen when a game gets pushed out before it's completely ready. I had fun with it (even 100%'d it), but with a bit more polish it could have been so much better.
In the meantime, I would definitely recommend Poi if you haven't played it already. It's a smaller game and it certainly has flaws of its own (like every single boss), but I had a great time with it in spite of that. It's a shorter one, but still worth a play if you like 3D platformers.
Yeah! So they announced that after I had written and recorded all this haha, but I figured it was close enough :P
And yep - for games like this time is a good thing. This tweet by Hat in Time explains so much about what their focus is: twitter.com/HatInTime/status/849010263303086080
Havent heard of Poi, I'll have to check it out!
+snomaN Gaming I figured that was probably the case, haha. Just wanted to spread the news for people who didn't know. I've been excited for A Hat in Time for so long, just can't wait for it to finally come out! :D And I hadn't seen that interview before--thanks for that!
Poi definitely has some frustrating spots, but overall I had a great time with it. Like I said, the bosses are pretty garbage (especially the final boss, unfortunately) but the levels themselves are really fun to explore and find everything. Hope you enjoy if you give it a whirl!
+Steve Larson Yeah, I liked the beta for A Hat in Time a lot more than I liked the Yooka-Laylee toybox. Before release, I was hoping that was because AHiT used actual levels from the game in the beta while YL was a pretty bland area just to mess around in... But some of the stuff I found a bit wonky (like the Reptile Roll) ended up being pretty similar in the final release.
Fortunately, A Hat in Time still looks really promising! It's more in the vein of Super Mario 64/Sunshine than the Banjo games, so there won't be quite as many collectibles. But each level looks like it's doing something new and creative, thematically AND gameplay-wise. At this point I'm just biding my time until it comes out, haha. I think a lot of people who didn't like YL took it as a sign that 3D platformers are an outdated genre as a whole, but I'm hoping games like AHiT can show that it's still a viable genre if they're done well.
Hopefully the sequel, Twoka-Laylee, will fix all of the issues with this game
And hopefully we actually get a Yooka Laythree!
I came from the future tell you that the sequel for Yooka-Laylee was a 2d platformer
Then Yooka-Laylee: Nuts and Bolts
This was definitely a good Yooka Laylee review. All of the comments about the game were pretty much accurate. But personally, I didn't find any real problems with the game. My brothers and I are huge RareWare fans. Back in the day we used to have so much fun playing the N64. Banjo-Tooie in particular was my favorite rare/n64 game and probably still is my #1 favorite game. Having that said, I was very exited when hearing about Yooka Laylee and I was really looking forward to its release. However I also knew I'd judge it in a way that any obvious flaws would have a chance of disappointing me. After playing and beating the game, I must say I am very satisfied. In my opinion (and my brothers), there isn't anything wrong with this game. I mean sure, to be fair, I could of spotted a few things that gave me a reason to complain. But nothing close enough to the point were it would be a let down. Due to a number of reasons such as originality, overall design, and mostly nostalgia, Yooka Laylee can't really rival Banjo-Kazooie or Banjo-Tooie. However I consider it to be a great addition to the Rare collection along with other classics like Conker's Bad Fur Day and Donkey Kong 64. So Ultimately, this game as a whole was a job well done. I'm not saying it couldn't have been better, but me and my brothers believe Yooka Laylee is worthy enough to be part of the renowned set of rare ware games that lots of fans know and love.
When a game make me feel nostalgia and remind of a game i have played its a big YES
12:11 two tongues? LOL
0:49
Yeah Banjo, kick the f*ck out of that Microsoft Xylophone!
Wonderful analysis of the games man. My first impression of Yookah Laylee was just nostalgia overload. I loved the first hour of it and just hope for more charm. But saw so much just hit the fan too early. I hope to see more awesome games from Playtonic now that they're moving on, but hope to see this genre expanded upon, even if Playtonic didn't innovate much on it.
Banjo made it into Smash before Yooka Laylee so Banjo is already the winner
Sad Yooka-Laylee noise
@@charliefunk3309 Guh-huh!
To be fair to Yooka-Laylee, they did make into a platform fighter before Banjo-Kazooie.
I got my Yooka for PS4 on release day, played for HOURS.. third level... And got bored. I think they same about the game like you, it's BK 0.5 HD. Well, graphics fine, design of main characters etc., but it's not a BK succesor at all... One of few good things about this game is music. What to expect from developers? I want Banjo-Threeie, not Yooka-Tooie. Smaller worlds with SOMETHING in it, not big ass levels with no fun at all. This game is 6/10 for me. Played hat in time - still not the perfect 3D Platformer, but better. Simply better. I hope developers of Yooka-Laylee already saw all those YT videos about disappointment and think about changes for their next game.
The Biggest problem is that Greg Mayles wasn't involved and it shows. Every Banjo game Including nut and blots has always been directed by Greg Mayles. Chris Sutherland is a good producer but I question his directing???????
You see this is the type of review I can believe because you actually point out specific examples and properly compare both games.
Instead of complaining about arbitrary things like words being too big. Or comparing about things that should be done with the genre
Yeah most reviews I've seen have been very subjective issues or broad statements without specifics :/ that's what I was going for :)
Lot of great points brought up in this video. I think I liked Yooka-Laylee more than most, though I agree the number one issue is the lack of polish. I also wish there were more characters to interact with and that the actual motivation of why Yooka and Laylee are even going on this adventure beyond retrieving a book they know nothing about.
That said, what I will defend about Yooka-Laylee is its overall attitude in terms of design. How it does just throw you in a world and asks you to explore it, figure out how it works and get all the goodies. They designed each area distinctly enough that I never felt like I needed a map or an objective marker, and I liked how once you get in the world, how nonlinear it is. For all the great 3D platformers out there, only Rare has been able to scratch this exploratory itch for me, and if nothing else, they still got it right in Yooka-Laylee. I would love a sequel with some polish so they could keep doing this
Now watch Microsoft ACTUALLY make Banjo Threeie and it becomes an actually amazing sequel. Anything can happen.
After Nuts and Bolts??? ROFL, Microsoft took a giant shit on RARE, half the developers have gone. You more likely to see a Nuts and Bolts sequel *Banjo Kazooie Suck my Nuts* with the microsoft logo floating across the screen. The sadder thing is the switch/Wii/Wii U can't get it on the virtual console either cause RARE created Banjo and Kazooie.
Jimmy Jackson nut and bolt wasn't that bad in my opinion it should have been a new ip .it's like they couldn't decide between new game or a spin off that has new concepts but gets tied down to its ip name
Jimmy Jackson LMAO your comment killed me.
Too bad it will be a windows store exclusive.
BANJO THREEIE CONFIRMED!!! LOOK ON RARE’S PAGE!!! I CANT BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
"Everything was placed for a specific reason. Distinctive landmarks made navigation and memorizing the level layouts very simple."
Oh I already like where this one is going, so few reviews seemed to notice how clever and purpose-filled every aspect of Banjo-Kazooie's design was, while Yooka Laylee was largely random and pointless (a more extreme version of Tooie and DK64).
Yooka laylee's boss isnt a bee, his boss is Gru
I appreciated your take on it, and I agree with a lot of what you said. I like this game pretty much about as much as I like Banjo-Tooie or DK64, and not nearly as much as I liked Banjo-Kazooie. It has charm, fun parts, and interesting design, but it lacks polish, fine-tuned controls, and proper implementation of collectibles. It's a good callback to the old days of 3d platforming, but it doesn't really bring much new to the table, and unfortunately most people were expecting it to be the next big thing in gaming as opposed to just a fun game. If they do keep fixing the flaws like the camera, badly placed quills, etc, they could still make it into something really special though. All the ingredients are there, it just lacks content & polish.
Yooka-Laylee is a fun game, but can be very challenging and could have 10 large levels instead of 5 large levels. I am looking forward to a sequel.
This is my first video I've seen from you and you REALLY hit the nail on the head while still being in quite a respective and understandable tone. No screaming or shouting or belitting the former rare employees for having some mistakes in their first game in well over a decade, and this is very great information to build upon and benefit to work to a greater end goal. I would really love to see a Yooka Laylee 2 of shorts to expand much more on this and truly polish up to what could be an amazing true spiritual successor. As for it is right now, I do agree, it feels like a fun tech demo to get a taste of what's to come and I await that as playtonic continues to get the rust off and get that spit and polish done.
My biggest problem with the game was that the worlds were too big and empty. Like you I would've much preferred smaller worlds but a greater number of them. In Banjo Kazooie you can finish each world in about half an hour to 45 minutes, in some instances that time is tripled in Yooka Laylee but I don't feel like that's a good thing. You spend so much time searching for some hidden quills or figuring out a puzzle that was poorly set up or not set up at all (the laser redirecting was just the worst). At this point I finished the game in about 10 hours with just 3 quills (in the final level) and one paigie missing (I missed one token in the Casino level) but I have no desire to search for them because it's such a boring and unfulfilling task. It doesn't challenge you in some meaningful, interesting way, it's just that I haven't been in 2 specific spots in gigantic, empty worlds.
That being said I still enjoyed the game more than I do most that come out today and I actually prefer it over Banjo Tooie. I could never put my finger on it but something about that game just didn't click with me at all.
Yeah I'm realizing how much Kazooie just totally gets it - it's SO FAST. Playing it for footage, most levels took 30-45 mins to 100% complete. Feels great
I haven't played YL, but... It took me 8 hours (!) to finish "grunty industries" in Banjo-Tooie. I loved the complex worlds that made your brain hurt. It was truly challenging to "connect all the dots". Big worlds are great, if they are designed carefully. PS: Banjo-Tooie is probably my favourite 3d platformer (or does it qualify as an action adventure?)
The more I come to know the BK fan base, the more I realize I'm the odd man out for preferring Tooie to the first game. In fact it's almost scary how much more i like Tooie. It's the only time I can think of that I view the sequel on a whole other level from its predecessor. I can't really explain why. It just seemed like the game improved on everything I liked about the first game, and fixed the stuff I didn't. The world is way more immersive too, and for me personally, immersion is one of the most important things a game can have. Maybe I just looked for a different thing in these games than everyone else, but BT remains one of my favorite games of all time, while BK just feels like it's inferior little brother.
Many people consider BT to be better, but I understand if BT is a bit too much of the good stuff for some people. What I find odd is that I hated Donkey Kong 64, but I loved BT. I played BT last year, so there is NO nostalgia involved :)
I personally did not like Tooie as much because the levels involved too much walking back and forth. The first level for instance is huge. You walk from one area. Jump up some stairs, and then do a challenge. Now you must walk to the opposite side of the map to another area. Maybe jump three platforms and get another Jiggy. Rinse and repeat. For a platforming game it felt more like a walk-a-thon than a jump-a-thon. BK's levels were small enough where the player was jumping from place to place.
You did such a good job here, man. You've put the care into your review that you want to see in games!
I am excited for PlayTonic's and Yooka Laylee's future. The engine has been built, the character's have been established and plot is prevalent. That means that they can focus more on gameplay and world design, and that's the meat of what was missing in this game.
Woah, I can't believe they released this game with the oversight of yooka having 2 tongues.
yes yooka having two tongues is a game breaking glitch
After 7 hrs of YL I felt quite disappointed. It's not bad, but I just don't feel it.. I couldn't really name it, its like a beautiful but empty shell. Thank you for the video, I'm happy to realize why that is so, and that I'm not the only one.
I'm not even sure I want to finish the game at this point..
I thought Yooka-Laylee was going to be the next evolution in platformers from the masters, but actually it's just a low budget Banjo-Kazooie knockoff. But man, A Hat in Time sure was excellent!
Dont worry Psychonauts 2 will come in 2019 and its going to be the Next evoulotion in 3d platforms
@@שלומייוחאי hope so
You know I played banjo kazooie many times as a kid. Banjo tooie as well. It felt like I was in the world myself running along side of them and it was amazing! I’ve actually gone back and played them all the way through over 10 years later. I wish they would make banjo threeie :(
That was a really balanced and fair critique of where Yooka fell short. Totally agree and it brought points across I hadn't considered and what DOESN'T Dollar Shave Club sponsor?! Argh!
All your criticisms are merited. Like the others have commented, I hope Playtonic sees this and makes an entirely new title and uses what originally made _Banjo-Kazooie_ and its sequel truly great all-around games.
12:00 SO THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO DO. I NEVER KNEW WHAT TO DO THERE
I found Yooka to be a bit of a cluttered mess with the collectables, mainly the quills being placed wherever unlike the nites in Banjo and Bananas in DK 64, which were used as guides around the worlds and different puzzles. Also the worlds were very large with too much empty space with no convenient way to quickly travel around to faraway places in the world like in DK 64 and Tooie. Combined with the quills being placed wherever, exploring felt like a chore rather than something I wanted to do
I agree with so many of the points made in this video. My biggest gripe personally is how each of the sub-characters you meant don't really seem to fit with one another aesthetically, which might come down to polish. It feels like a different artist was grabbed for each them, without really fitting a similar theme to their artistic style. It made the characters, even the same worlds, feel disconnected from one another in a really uncanny way. Also the entering various worlds thing could have opened up a neat way to add different artistic filters to each level, which could have been neat.
I think Yooka-Laylee is a good game, but I agree with you regarding the lack of secrets, enemies and overall charm. Lots of missed opportunities.
Growing up with Banjo-Kazooie, secrets were definitely a big part of the experience.
Banjo Kazooie is the king of the duo character platforming games. Even games like Jak and Daxter, Ratch and Clank and now Yooka-Laylee just don't match the magic of a Banjo Kazooie game.
Thank you for presenting your video in a level-headed/calm/professional way while still being honest. I've seen people give negative reviews of this game in a way that's "ranty"/venting of frustration. I'm all for listening to negative feedback, but when it's presented in a bitter-related manner, I just get turned away. It would be hard to listen to myself in the case I presented in a bitter manner, regardless of how good my points were. Thanks for the refreshing video Sno! :D
Glad you felt that way, that's exactly what I was hoping for. Constructive criticism
I highly disagreeing with the humor since it mostly contains "Oh we are aware we are in a game, let us break the 4th wall 24/7" it got pretty old early on for me ^^'
Also with the World Expansion, but to be fair since comes from a Purist's perspective here, Banjo-Kazooie just did it right for me, the World Expansion is annoying backtracking, it doesn't add anything to the game, but addtional playtime you could spent exploring the world, you need to expand every world anyways in order to beat the game - so why have it in there to begin with?
completely agreeing with the text skipping thing, it really made me angry when Laylee did a joke on Rextro being like "Did you learn how to skip Character-Dialogues?" And take a guess in which game you Can't do that, the lack of self-awareness is amazing actually.
Your videos are so elaborate, profound, passionate and true at the same time.
While I don't think every level suffers from this particular issue equally, I feel that a good portion of the levels in YL have no direction to them. In BK & BT you would enter a level and see 1-3 paths laid out before you for you to explore, that each provide clear splitting points as you explore. This acts as a double-whammy on the quill point made in the video because they create these large boxes for players to explore but put little effort into drawing your eye to certain areas beyond obvious landmarks, while notes created clear paths for the player to explore.
Mumbo's Mountain had the bridge and the hill paths, Treasure Trove Cove had 3 paths surrounded by water and cliffs to direct you, and so on with the levels to give players areas to take note of while exploring. YL says in Tribalstack Tropics, once you go up the first ramp, that there's this huge world to explore now just go out there. Of course you need to find Trowzer in order to do a lot of the stuff in that level, but you'll find him eventually. You found a character that offers a Pagey not because there's a cobblestone path leading to them or an archway right next to them or because they're up on a landmark, you found them because in your aimless exploration you happened to stumble upon them randomly like Sir Hamalot in the first level.
The whole "where do I go next" question in YL often relies on the player deciding which path or area they haven't gone to before and checking to see if anything's there, rather than BK's method of leaving breadcrumbs.
The only thing I can hope that they don't do in the future is go full blown DK64 and segment off each individual section of the level with hallways between their disjointed ideas.
____________________________________
And one last aside about the enemy variety, I also feel like they could've gotten a lot of mileage out of a few more enemies. The slot machines in Witcheyworld were awesome as well as the dart totems in Mayahem Temple and even the aggressive hives that give you health were neat additions anywhere. The eyes were a neat idea that reminded me of the nuts and bolts in Grunty Industries, but I felt like most of the enemies are so non-noteworthy parts of them game, that the only purpose they serve is force players that are unfamiliar with the controls of platformers to adapt to them.
it feels good to hear someone who really liked the genre reviewing Yooka-Laylee, everyone else was just talking about how bad it was because they generally didn't like it. Your review made me want the game at first (despite all the bad things I've heard), and then slapped my hand and said "NO, IT'S NOT AS GOOD AS IT LOOKS"
I absolutely *LOVE* Yooka Laylee. The characters, worlds, music, jokes, references, fourth wall breakings are too amazing. But yes, the camera could be better.
Jeffzzzz They said they're going to have an update to fix the camera.
Jeffzzzz banjo kazooie is to the mon and back more better than yooka laylee dont tell shit
Luther King That i like YL doesn't mean i dislike BK. Lol wtf
Yeah, seriously wtf? xD
@Ali Kefou Well, not all the rextro minigames
i like how he says the quiz asks how many quills you have and says anybody would know, as he gets it wrong and dies
yup thats called sarcasm! worst quiz ever
you made me want to play banjo kazooie
Spot on! I talked about a lot of this stuff in my review as well. What it comes down to is that Banjo-Kazooie was just a much more clever game than Yooka-Laylee. YL was created as a venture and not as an inspired piece of design like BK.
Finally a good video like this. In the Y+L reviews so many people talked about how they kept too many things from banjo that aged poorly but really banjo ages fine. The new game just had worse level design and lacked polish. Also I have no idea why there is sooooo much pointless dialogue that drags on and on. Like 10x more than the old games and it doesn't add much more at all. I wish they would have kept smaller levels and made them more interesting and full as the original games instead of some giant less interesting worlds.
The game came out pretty quick after the kickstarter even with the delay it seems like they rushed it to meet their dates which would also save money. I still can't believe they made the full game that quick but I would have liked another year to polish everything.
At 7:00, why was there not a pun like, "it should of have been there from the 'gecko"
These were my thoughts exactly, the game was released too soon and with more time playtonic could have polished it to be a true gem.
A lot of people want Playtonic to make a racing game next because of how beloved Diddy Kong Racing is. What genre do you want to see them tackle next?
Your review is accurate, but I must say I found Yooka a nice, fun game. People are way overreacting with its reception, like if it was plain garbage. Not true!
I think a lot of it has to do with backers who are pissed at money being taken and promised features not being delivered.
And hopefully my critiques didn't come across as overreacting. I still enjoyed the game, but it could've been much more
Steve Larson Would you appreciate Yooka Laylee more after playing Mighty No 9?
Rafael d'Ávila So much saltiness for a game that really only meant to be a Banjo Threeie to the IP that former Rareware employees sadly don't own anymore. Nobody really asked for the genre to evolve, just another collect-a-thon game. I just want 3D platformers to comeback, and I'll probably be satisfied with Yooka Laylee, though not as satisfied as I would have been...
Tommy Deonauth's Archives If you're not satisfied then don't take it and not do anything about it , if developers see consumers being okay with garbage or mediocrity than that's what they'll give us.
I think what the developers meant when they told us what they were making and what the audience anticipating the title thought yooka laylee to be were vastly different concepts. I think everyone expected a monster game that was supposed to succeed banjo as opposed to a simple nod to the series.
8:50 and so once again we play... THE WAITING GAME *dun dun duun*
you put into words what i felt, but couldnt describe.
like, i seriously thought after finishing yooka that maybe id just lost my taste for these types of games, but then went back to banjo and had the time of my life. i just couldnt put into words why yooka left me so lukewarm bbut banjo was so fun, but now i can
I guess my thoughts on Yooka-Laylee mirror yours; it's a good game with creative ideas, but it doesn't quite live up to its own potential and it's gameplay issues , namely the lack of actual checkpoints, messes with the experience. I can definitely agree that I would've preferred 10 smaller worlds to the huge 5 that we got. Makes exploring entire levels much less exhausting and gives us more worlds to play through. And *FUCK* Rextro and Kartos' mini-games! Those are the most infuriating things I have ever had the misfortune of playing (well, okay, the first few weren't so bad, but the mini-games in the casino level can seriously go to hell)
I agree very much with your review, especially the transformations. I was actually waiting on such an honest analysis, lots of people are either praising it to heaven or deeming it the worst 3D Platformer of all time.
Thanks for the video man :)
It annoys me that people are constantly running to say "this is banjo-threeie, they never said that they would revolutionize anything, therefore it's passable." Isn't Mario Galaxy technically mario 64 three? Nintendo could have remade mario 64 over and over again but instead they thought of new ideas and refined what was not perfect in 64. Stop saying that playtonic did what they promised, this is not how sequels should be approached by any company in my mind. Let me know what you think about this.
There's plenty of creativity in the game. Don't compare this game with a budget of 2 million and only 2 years of development time to Mario Galaxy.
Sequels should always strive to improve upon the original.
@@hubblebublumbubwub5215 Budget =/= quality. A Hat in Time only had a an _eighth_ of the budget that Yooka-Laylee had (that's about $300,000) and Gears for Breakfast produced a vastly superior game with that money. Super Mario Galaxy also had two years of development (development began in 2005 and lasted until 2007) and Nintendo were able to make a great game during that period. Playtonic had no excuse.
Mario Galaxy didn't have the budget of Yooka Laylee. A Hat in Time didn't have the development time of Yooka Laylee. You're bringing up some of the best 3D platformers of all time as if they prove that it's easy to make games. I might as well call Yooka Laylee a masterpiece by comparing it to some obscure flop.
@@hubblebublumbubwub5215 I never said that it's easy to make games. I'm saying that the budget or time it takes to make a game doesn't always determine the overall quality of the game. You basically said that the game's two-year development cycle excuses its poor quality and therefore it shouldn't be compared to Super Mario Galaxy, a game that also took two years to develop. Would Yooka-Laylee had been better if it was given more time to develop? Maybe, but I think that comparing it to a game that was developed for roughly the same amount of time is a bad comparison. You also implied that a bigger budget necessitates a better game when that isn't the case. The quality of the game mostly comes down to the talent of the developers. You can have all the time and money in the world to make the best game ever but none of it matters if your development team is a mess.
As someone who played banjo kazooie & tooie, many many many times ( my favorite of all platformer on the N64 ) Yooka Laylee was amazing to me. Tons of childhood reflections to banjo kazooie, and it felt like an extension to the game, aside no longer being a bear and a bird. I experience very little issues/glitches in the game, personally. It was everything i expected and didn't have any letdowns or complaints. If i HAD to say something, it's wishing for smaller levels, and more levels. After awhile, a level gets boring. Because you play it for sooo long due to the size. The fun of banjo kazooie, was having sooo many levels. It kept things exciting. 5 i believe in Yooka, 9 in Banjo. 6/10 if you count the hub
I was about to ask why Yooka's music sounds so much like that of Mario + Rabbids, but then I was like ohh
Hylian Alph Gaming hey, I thought of that too.
Man, you should become a game designer. Really good review and insight.
Just wandered here. The exposition % has changed over time. So who knows what will happen when the secret is revealed. Hmmmm
Your description of what made Banjo-Kazooie fun was so on point. People who criticize BK for its shallow mini games and mediocre platforming are missing what made the game good: its personality, sense of exploration, and mystery.
Yea, i think it comes down a lot to just... not having enough assets/materials/time to work with (the 5 expandable worlds look more like an excuse to make 10 worlds with half the cosmetic changes), and trying to meet every staple on the Rareware checklist to the point where it just felt like Rare-esque cud.
I think there's a few things they could have done better: They could have been more transparent in explaining the expansion system and what one could do in the world in it's current state. They could have even made small, like "expansion-pads" in world so you could Expand it piecemeal for cheaper. Yooka moves faster and has a bit more mobility than Banjo, but in accommodating this, the game felt weirdly hollow and confusing to navigate for its worlds' vast sizes; so it would have been cool to see them make speed-oriented obstacles reminiscent of the good 3D Sonic titles, but in a Collect-A-Thon exploration arrangement rather than linear action platforming, so navigating would feel fun and engaging.
As far as things like the Stamina meter goes, it was done explicitly to streamline the Collect-A-Thons' age old dilemma of too many collectibles, something that harangued the genre's most overstuffed titles before their decline, so I appreciate the effort. If nothing else, I would have liked to see two different kinds of Butterflies instead of needing to remember how exactly I need to collect the pink ones to fill my Health or Stamina.
idk, I am really happy the Rare crew is back together, and I want them to have more shots at this; but for it to fall short after so much effort was seemingly put into it to differentiate it from things like Mighty No. 9, it's hard not to be cynical about this Retro Revival craze being helmed by old creators.
One of my biggest gripes with Yooka Laylee is the fact that once you unlock the flight move, you can use it pretty much whenever you want. It’s super easy to take advantage of
exactly , the game just isnt made for such a move , how many things in tribal stack tropics are hidden vertically , good thing you can just fly up , same with other worlds like glitterglaze glacier , whats the point of anything if you can fly up , in banjo kazooie and tooie , even worlds that let you use fly do this properly , you have to climb terridactylus land and beat the boss so he gives you the flight pad so you can get to some of the egg locations with kazooie , thats good level design , and even with the flightpad you might reach higher up parts easier but that doesnt make the jiggies in the world easier because non of them are just lying around in a cage waiting to be picked up by hitting a switch , like the wind section in glitter glacier , that can be skipped with flappy flight entirely
Minene Uryuu922 I PC Masterrace I
100% agree. As much as I want to love Yooka Laylee, I just can’t. I can like it, but not love it
@@tannereustace i tried to love it as well now i didnt back it on kickstarter but i was really hyped , also hoped they would make a spiritual banjo kazooie successor somehow , but the end result , i just dont know , the whole progression felt weird , the backtracking in yooka laylee just felt weird , like having to return to world 1 with the invisibility move
the quills are another issue , i dont mind collecting pons in hat in time , i love doing that , but the quills are too hidden to be fun to collect
Minene Uryuu922 I PC Masterrace I the lack of checkpoints/warp pads in the worlds is also a bit disappointing since Banjo Tooie successfully incorporated those elements several years back
What about the music? The only song that is memorable or that I really liked it Tribalstack Tropics.
Yeah it was a bit underwhelming too
The other Kirkhope song I loved was from Glittergaze Glacier. But it also made me sad listening to it, since the game was just not as magical as the track. Oh and don't forget about David Wise's tracks, they're all pretty good. Especially World 3 Minecart!
I know the remaster came out almost a decade ago now, but seeing Banjo-Kazooie in widescreen will never cease to feel weird to me.
I looks so much better tho, the Xbox version is the best IMO
We can only hope that make good on their promise to "improve" the game for the Switch release
It seemed like a lot of reviewers were saying "It's designed like B-K, which is old so it's bad." You've really pointed out that in a lot of areas, it falls short of Kazooie & Tooie's standards.
This was a very articulate and detailed video, and it's really obvious that your criticisms weren't out of any hate for the game, but just disappointment at wasted potential.
Another excellent video. I don't know why I haven't subscribed yet, but I'm doing so now.
Thanks so much for the kind words :)
I very much enjoy the game, but it falls short of the classics it is trying to emulate. The main reason I think is due to the fact of the lack of interesting characters. As you pointed out there are tons of interesting side characters in the old Rareware games and yet with Yooka Laylee not only do the enemies get reused, the side characters get reused as well (mostly those pig knights). The worst part is that the characters that are in the game aren't even that memorable. I feel that Yooka Laylee decided to focus more on being a "platformer" and wanted to show that platforming is fun instead of focusing on what was truly enjoyable about the old 3D platformers, which was exploration and experiencing the world. I really did enjoy your description of levels being little amusement parks, because that is true in my mind. Each level was supposed to be a fun, goofy place to explore and see. It was never meant to be about just jumping from platform to platform.
Ever since I saw beta footage and there were these terrible "cut and paste" moving platforms, and stock striped rings to go through I was like oh no, it's just so basic :/
Excellent video! This basically sums up my feelings of Yooka-Laylee and its comparison to Banjo. Well done
Well, you do need Sonar 'Splosion to break glass. But it can only break those giant, solid glass cubes, not thin, cracked glass panes. Makes sense.
But you might not even know they were glass cubes, because they look a lot like ice cubes, and you even encounter them in the ice world for the first time, so how could you ever assume it's glass and not ice?
But then again, there *is* one cracked glass pane that has to be destroyed with Sonar 'Splosion (in the overworld arcade) but can't be destroyed with Reptile Rush.
It's a mess.
I still really loved the game, though. Except for those last two Rextro minigames.. they made me die a couple of weeks earlier. :/
Yeah I found out about that one pane in the overworld and I was even more pissed. It is truly a mess
I actually thought I was just over the Banjo style and it turns out that Yooka-Kaylee just wasn't very good. I recently started playing Banjo Kazooie again on Switch and I'm loving it. So used to games not holding up that it was kind of a surprise.
As someone who didn't grew up with Banjo-Kazooie, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. Not perfect mind you, but still fun in my opinion. Plus, keep in mind, this is also the closest thing to having a proper Banjo-Threeie.
Douglas Levin I never grew up with banjo ether so that's why we don't know how shallow yooka laylee actually is
It's like having a bootleg without trying the original product so we wouldn't be able to tell
I've never even played Banjo but LOVE this game to bits. It has flaws though. Camera can be a pain, even after patch, tonics are very underwhelming and tbh really useless, not many secrets, but I love the worlds(I'm in world 3 btw) the charm, the DESIGNS of the characters are wonderful, love Yooka's design, and it's exciting to explore new worlds. It has ups, downs, and I hope the game is added upon with new DLC or patches. More, fun to play with tonics, cheats, secrets, etc
And this game really gives me hope for more from Playtonic. In my opinion, a very nice start, but rocky start. Also hope for more original 3D platformers again
N&B was super disappointing - maybe I'll buy a next gen console by the time they fix this game up in the form of a sequel. either way it's pretty to look at right now, haha
16:52 YOU CAN USE YOUR TOUNGE TO MOVE THAT SEED!?! (it took me like a hour to push it...)
tbh as a character designer, I feel like Yooka Laylee had much better and creative designs than the Banjo Kazooie franchize but those designs were devoid of the charm that the original exuded. I also thought that Yooka Laylee had a much less diverse moveset than Banjo Kazooie. Banjo Kazooie had a multitude of ways to approach and confront an enemy, each being different with each type of enemy. But due to the lack of enemy diversity and moves to combat foes (the only real ones being the default spin and leap spin) made for very boring enemy encounters. The enemies were more like minor annoyances than legitimately challenging, and different, malice-filled henchmen.
because it's a platformer, the enemies are obstacles, they weren't focusing everything on the combat
I agree completely, great video Snoman! (Btw I hated that glass tip so much lol)
Yooka-Laylee was okay but not good as banjo..
U didnt played it already 😲😲😲
Liza Strauss Just shut the f*ck up. People like you can't even explain anything. Besides, saying that Yooka-Laylee is a sh*t game isn't even an opinion in the first place you brainless human.
@Matthias Stegert is his opinion
Everyone fucking says Yooka was a piece of shit, but forget is a fucking opinion, try learning what opinions are, dumbasses.
@@spaghettiioassassin8151 your brainless, is his opinion on the game, your a fucking dumbass for not knowing what a fucking opinion is you fucking dumbass.
I really appreciate this. Everyone else makes points like "Why are the characters just making noises in 2016" and "the game just doesn't feel right." Nobody explains what's wrong and they usually blame supposedly antiquated game design that works just fine in the original banjo games. These people don't feel like real fans, only fans due to happenstance. If banjo was released for the first time tomorrow I wouldn't have a different view on it.
I wanna start by saying I'm one of the biggest fans of the original games for the N64. I love the Banjo games and I'd be the first one to say that I wanted this game to be good, I wanted Banjo back.
But perhaps my hopes, all our hopes, were misguided. See, what we wanted wasn't just Banjo Threeie. What we wanted was that same magic feeling that the Banjo games gave us, that same burst of charm and wonder, which this game sorrowfully falls short of. Now we are older; now games have gotten better over the years. And, in a few small ways like you mentioned in your video YL does improve. But in the ways it counts, the evolution isn't there. The bar has been raised, guys. And yet Yooka Laylee lacks the ambition to meet it.
Sure the charming writing is there, but a lack of restraint really makes the fourth wall breaking less special. It's like as soon as the game starts it's saying "Oh hey, you're playing a video game, do you know that? LOL I'm so clever for making that observation haha!" Unlike the originals, which saved the fourth wall jokes for times when it's actually funny or poignant. Your lacking polish complains are also on point: Wonky camera, and inconsistent mechanics make the game rather frustrating.
Its got its heart in the right place, but at the end of the day Yooka Laylee is pretty much just a mediocre 3D platformer with pretty visuals and a comedic tone. I wanted a true return to glory, and instead I am playing what feels more like a fan tribute of it's predecessor from 1998, but even then ends up just being worse.
And for everyone defending the game saying "Oh but you got what you asked for! It's just like banjo, isn't that what you wanted?" It's more than that. I played banjo tooie recently, and it confirmed to me that indeed, the games used to be better than YL is. It's not asking much for the guys who made the BK games with 2 million dollars to spare to make something at least as good as that. If it would have taken longer to pull that off I honestly wouldn't mind, but I can't help but feel disappointment. We might have gotten what we asked for, but we didn't get what we wanted.
I think Playtonic did pretty well for their first game. There are some issues, but I think they did an excellent job with the small budget they had. You have to take into account that the Banjo games were funded by Nintendo and likely had a budget far greater than 2 million euros
"their first game"
Uh, you lost me dude. Playtonic are ex rare devs, they made TONS of fucking stellar games before even Banjo Kazooie. Not all of them were outstanding, but they have a pretty damn good, if not great lineup. My point still stands, they should be better than this.
And as for their budget: Money isn't really a big factor when it comes to the actual making of the game, what a budget means is basically how many cool features they are able to put in the game. It's not just a simple formula of "money = content", making games is hard work no matter how much money you have to spare, and that's why I'm upset because they have done great work for way less than what they got for YL.
I'm aware of their previous work as Rare. It is their first game as Playtonic and they're likely still in the experimental phase trying to work all the kinks out. Also, the budget has a big impact on what the final game looks like. The money they raised doesn't all go directly to developing the game. Some of it went to Kickstarter, some probably went towards the purchase of their new office space, and the majority of it likely went to paying worker salaries. The longer a game sits in development, the more money gets spent paying bills and salaries. If they were working for a larger company like Nintendo, they could just ask for an extension and would likely be given one. As this was a Kickstarted game with a finite budget with no way to get an extension, once the money ran out that would be it. This put a kind of time restraint on the team. There were likely many things they would have liked to polish and I'm sure there were plenty of cut assets, but they all have bills to pay and weren't going to be able to work for an extra 6 months for free. Hopefully, the money they received from this game will be more than enough to fund their next game for as long as is needed to fully polish it
I haven't played Yooka-Laylee yet, but I have recently replayed Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie. In spite of negative things I've heard about Yooka-Laylee, I still want so badly to play it. I even expect that I'll really love it.
Yooka-Laylee was overhyped as for being 10x better than tooie, and kazooie, and it failed to live up to the hype.
Your eloquent explanations are one thing. But those green and blue colors get you to top tier.
My biggest thing that I don’t like about Yooka-Laylee is how you have to buy your moves. In Banjo-Kazooie, you would have to find Bottles in order to learn them. In Yooka-Laylee, you have to buy them in a specific location to buy them.
big thanks man! i spent hours an hours to collect all the feathers but i nerver find the last one in the first level. i saw it in this video hidden anywere in a hole near of the end of the world. after 5minutes in the world searching it i found it finally 2 or 3 months after finishing the game ;-)
lol yeah it was a devilish little guy >:(
Honestly I didn't find Yooka-Laylee charming at all. Or well designed. The levels manage to feel cluttered and empty at the same time, the mini games aren't fun and the writing hurts my soul with how self referential it is. Even the designs for Yooka and Laylee aren't really all that interesting to me. There's nothing about them that really pops out. They look like background NPCs.
Gonna agree with you. The art was uninspiring even though I know this was a lot of work to make.
I actually think the opposite, I love YL's character design, specially the contrast between the strong green and strong blue. I love BK, but kazooie looks like every bird in the universe and banjo just reminds me of that Hannah Barbera bear dude.
@@joaovictor3312 Kazooie's design is simplistic because she's accented by living inside of a backpack and the silly squash-and-stretch that comes about as a result of it. Neither Yooka nor Laylee really have any of that dynamism going on. Their design and movements are all very clinical. They could have compensated for their plain designs with really exaggerated expressive animations, but they didn't.
i loved yl so much. I am 32 and i felt like a kid again back in the 90s playing nintendo games.
it's a testament to how basically every game these days is rushed out unfinished. they didn't used to do that.
Franz Pattison. Yeah, I find modern games to be overrated in general. The developers seem to focus on how the games look, more than the characters interactions with environments in each of the levels.
Hum... Have you ever watch speedruns of old games? They're broken as heck.
Not to mention the many nes and snes games that everyone wants to forgot because of how horrible they are.
I also kind of enjoyed playing Yooka-Laylee a year ago, but I don't see myself replaying this game anytime soon. Banjo Kazooie/Tooie, on the other hand, is always a pleasure to replay - even a decade after my first encounter with the series.
Nice video. I really want to play banjo one day
I didn't play Banjo Kazooie, or any of the Rareware 3D platformers, as those games were before my generation. Speaking from an objective perspective, I thoroughly enjoyed Yooka-Laylee and thought that it was a rather nice 3D platformer with charming characters, good gameplay, and a few nice puzzles and secrets thrown into the mix. I guess there's something special about the nostalgic games of the 90's.
Everything in your video sounds right.
And i can sense you're just like the rest of us : a huuuge fan of Banjo & Kazooie!
(i understood this when you talked about the "details" : everyone who played BK have a anecdote just like your "pumpkin-&-maze-resolution")
The only anecdote/detail i can relate in Yooka-Laylee is the
♥♦♣♠BEWARE the SPOILER, my not-played-yet-YL comrades!♠♣♦♥
galleon transformation in the fith world!
To play as a pirate ship in a sci-fi world made me laugh out loud!
{In English version, the "Galleon Galaxie" title may have be some sort of give-away for the transformation, but, because i'm Le a french guy, and so i played the french version, i suppose the french title of the fifth world was a little bit more surprising than the original english one ("Galleon Galaxy" / "Galaxie Galère" where the french word "galère" can be : 1/a galleon ; 2/a mishap.}
♥♦♣♠END OF SPOILER, thank you all♠♣♦♥
But after i read few comments, i gain hope anew, because, fricking yes, this is the FIRST game of Playtonic! Yes they have THE bunch if old dudes who are veterans at banjokazooing, but, as a society/organisation/structure, they are still new.
So the best we can do is support them, and make them understand in what errors they fell, and how they can be better at banjokazooing, because, as a whole, we, fans of Banjo-Kazooie, are all fricking loving the banjokazooing stuff.
(imo Banjo-Tooie is better than Banjo-Kazooie so... "Tooka-Laylee" will be better than Yooka-Laylee?)
After my 100% playthrough (the only way to play this game unless it sucks a little bit more), i needed something, and both you, Snoman, and you, fellow comrades of UA-cam, give me this something.
And for that, i deeply thank you.
(sorry i get emotional and wordy ◖⚆ᴥ⚆◗ )
I absolutely love Banjo-Kazooie so I got Yooka-Laylee even with all the bad reviews I saw. I do agree that Banjo-Kazooie is better but I still love Yooka-Laylee :D
But yeh I agree with everything said in this video. Great upload!
2017 3d platformer with God of War 1 camera changes lmao
However, as a big fan of the first BK game i really hoped this would turn out better so actually *sadface*
Just wanted to say you're doing a great job and to keep it up!
I wonder if yooka-laylee was rushed now you mentioned it feels unfinished :s deadlines can be brutal on games but since they are the creators they could have just extended the deadline until the game was finished
I know this is off topic but maybe this is the reason why kingdomhearts 3 is delayed so much,they keep extending their freaking deadline =w= sure I don't want a rushed and unfinished game but at least they're trying not to make any mistakes good for them
Many of the points, you mentioned there, are correct. The Good ones as unfortunately the Bad ones. Except for you CAN recover your Energy with Butterlys by either collecting them or eating them, instead of the other. I don't know what the "Secret" with the 50,1% has to say, but the Skulls could be a hint on Rare's new game "Sea of thieves" wich was still a secret at the time. nobody knows. Maybe they're planning a new shot on "Project Dream" though. I'm really happy that Rare did decide on showing never seen development-state-footages of both "project dream" and banjo-kazooie and of the transformation process from one to another.
After the next Yooka-Laylee game, you should make a Yooka-Laylee vs Donkey Kong Country
This video did a very great job explaining the game's faults and strengths. I just got done 100 percenting it a few days ago, and overall did enjoy it, but I can certainly relate to these opinions of how much better the game could have been. I am certainly not writing off Playtonic Games, and am generally optimistic to see what they do next.