Do you yearn for simpler times, when games like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and Rayman came packed with secrets, vibrant levels, and no DLC? Have you actually gone and replayed some childhood favorites and found they just don’t look how you remembered them? Well Yooka-Laylee aimed to offer a modern take on those vibes, but sadly faltered a little at launch. Overlooked and underrated, the better-than-you-might-have-heard platform game is getting another shot at life, thanks to a huge new remaster on its way soon.
Playtonic has revealed it’s remastering its underrated platform game Yooka-Laylee under the brilliantly punny name of Yooka-Replaylee. Laylee doesn’t seem happy their name was butchered, but Newka-Laylee just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Playtonic is made up of many of the same developers who brought the classic platformer Banjo-Kazooie into our lives, and while I’m sad they can’t remaster one of my childhood favorites, Yooka-Replaylee looks as close as it gets.
Playtonic says it’s taken on board feedback from the original release of Yooka-Laylee and is adding a world map and challenge tracker to help players as they play through the visually enhanced world. Yooka-Replaylee is coming with an art and animations overhaul as well as better performance and resolutions.
It shouldn’t just look better, though, as the remaster is also coming with new challenges and some changes to previous ones. So, even if you 100 percent completed the 2017 game, there will be more for you to dive into when it launches.
The 2017 game is a fresh take on the classic third-person platformers we all grew up with. It stars lizard and bat duo Yooka and Laylee as they take on an evil CEO who has sucked up all the books in the world in the hopes of finding a magical one that will let them rewrite the universe.
As well as fresh controls, Yooka-Replaylee has a rearranged score, based on the original music by Donkey Kong Country composer David Wise and Goldeneye legend Grant Kirkhope. While we’re still waiting on a release date, the Playtonic team will share more details on Tuesday June 11.
If you want to play some retro games while you wait, we’ve got a list of the best out there, as well as some of the greatest best PC games available right now.
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