Yooka-Laylee Four Years Later - I Was So Wrong! 

This video was a lot harder to put together than usual. On top of experimenting with lighting and audio for the on-camera parts, I also had to deal with corrupted video files, the Shadowplay record button in most of the clips, and the trouble of tracking down the Toybox demo (I didn’t actually get any viruses, that was a joke). But let me know what you think of it! Had some trouble with the audio in the on-camera stuff. I bought a lav mic but it sounds terrible, so I thought I’d try with my new XLR mic, but I’m not super impressed with this set up.

The pants joke didn't mean "ha ha pants", it was a reference to anthropomorphic characters normally not wearing them.

As a fan of Banjo Kazooie games, the weird noises everyone makes while talking sound completely normal to me.

During the boss fight with Rambo you can stand still on the ramp while being in the rolling position, you don't have to be in constant movement. That is never explained but makes the fight a piece of cake

Just started giving this one a try this year due to the bad reviews. For what is considered "the most dissapointing next gen platformer" I sure found myself playing and enjoying it quite a bit. Saying that Yukalalee isn't as good as Banjo is about as helpful as saying Modern Warfare is worse than Goldeneye.

I'm a Kickstarter backer who finally picked up my Yooka-Laylee GOG copy on Steam Deck. I was so happy to have this as one of the first games I played on it 😄 I think it takes until past the first world for things to click, but once they do you realize that this game is just a giant toy box laid out for your enjoyment. It made me feel like a kid again, where you played games just because they were there.. Not because of hype, or cutting tech, or a metacritic score.. but because it's FUN! I loved everything about Yooka-Laylee.. even the purposefully stupid quizzes!!

I love re-reviews like this, because a lot can change in a game after launch. Great new video setup!

I was one of the Kickstarter backers, it's the only Kickstarter I've ever donated to, I never understood the hate this game got. We backed a spiritual successor to banjo kazooie and we got a spiritual successor to banjo kazooie including all the jank associated with the genre and people complained that they literally got exactly what they were promised.

Just bought this game because its on sale for $10, seems pretty damn great so far.

I love Yooka-Laylee so much, I've gotten a platinum trophy in it and I really hope another one comes out. Thanks for giving it another shot!

As someone who first played this game after it was patched, this has set some things in perspective for me as I didn't realize how much the patch had changed. I feel I understand a bit more why so many people disliked it when it first came out, and also have more respect for the developers that went out of their way to fix so much after release. I really hope to see more games from them. With how much they've grown as a company and as developers, I'm sure a sequel could improve on an already pretty good game. We don't see enough of this kind of games anymore, so it's nice to see that are still developers out there that have passion for this genre.

I remember being so excited for this game when it came out. I got it, and I played it, and it almost brought me to tears to see how they continued Banjo and Kazooie's legacy. Since it's almost been 7 years since that happened, I now find myself looking at Yooka the same way I look at banjo. I think about the worlds and how I traveled them so much that they began to feel like home. I was surprised to see such negative reviews about the game. Granted, I got the game after the patch. I'm praying that we get a sequel

The invisibility power also lets you channel lasers to kill enemies or power up batteries. I thought it was one of the more functional powers

Playtonic recently announced a remaster of this game called "Yooka Replaylee" and they have stated it will be a massive sweeping update to the game. They have said they will be reworking the camera controls, highly improving the graphics, adding a little more content, and apparently reworking some of the moves and controls. They are also alluding that they have a proper "Twooka Laylee" sequel planned in the future.

I had a great time with Yooka Laylee right after its release and it really makes me sad to see everyone bashing it. It might not have met most people's expectations (doesn't apply to me) but it's definitely not a bad game! I hope that we'll get Tooka Laylee at some point ;) (a proper 3D platformer, not the Impossible Lair)

I just bought this on sale for the switch for pennies. I was interested when it was announced, but went on to forget about it. I was quite suprised when I looked up reviews to hear it was poorly received. Good to hear opinion for it has improved.

Love this video, everything about it, just fantastic work man!!

Your detailed re-review and, may I mention your beard, are great! :) I've now played YL for a few hours. It's such a strange game.... lots of stuff is really annoying but it's also fun.

I loved impossible lair and it made me think if this game is good maybe yooka laylee wasn’t as bad as I had thought so I also went back and yeah it’s not bad

1:26 You may not know what to do with your hands, but I was surprised by how well-spoken you are, both in tone and cadence. It's a tricky art that I know I'll never master myself, but it seems it comes natural to you.

Bruh who could hate those voices? i love em!

I just got this game, and im honestly in love with it. Alot of these design issues mentions are avlidable. You can easily get other pagies and leave the level to do other stuff instead. Kinda like in sm64. Some of the stars in each level can be left alone to speed up gameplay instead of constantly slowing down and struggling. All that aside, i cant wait to see where they go next.

Bought this for 10 bucks recently and was wondering why I slept on it for so long but I guess it took a while to get good.

1:58-2:02: don't forget spyro. Plus it's five-year plan was up. As a side note: i hope it goes out with a big bang!!! It was good while it lasted.

The Quizzes should of been put at the end like in the Banjo games

Nice review. Impossible Lair is possibly the best 2D platformer I've played... need to go back to this one and give it another chance.

9:50 Yooka and Laylee also appeared in Demon Turf, in which Beebz has to speak in garble to communicate-very cute.

Just got the game on a massive sale, so even if I’m not crazy about it, it’ll still be worth the money.

YO at @12:55 on his bookcase with the games etc. You aee 3 action figures. The one that's on the left that's black and yellow. WHAT IS THAT FROM?!? I ask cause I have it as well and i dont honestly remember.

now there's a remastered version coming, i hope you make a new video when it's out

I played it on my Switch for a while, but then left it for other title. Thanks for motivating me to go back to play it

Yooka Laylee isn't anything like banjo kazooie and that was the problem. Yooka Laylee plays like a modern 3D collectathon platformer while banjo kazooie plays like an old ZX spectrum game. Banjo kazooie has much less emphasis on exploration and much more emphasis on gameplay execution and puzzle solving.

Great video, but I hope you're leaving the overly self-deprecating comments out these days.

I had a lot of fun playing this game, yeah the karto parts were of the least enjoyable but on the other hand I hated the flying bonus areas of Spyro even more!! And everyone seemed to hate the casino stage which I enjoyed the most. With the new patch fixing to make things better I think the game is still underrated to this day. And at least you can turn the voice sounds off now.

Yooka layley would be so much better if the worlds were just more condensed. It would have been entirely possible to just push them together more and make it ascend higher or add more buildings or something like banjo It feels daunting and even maybe impossible to find all of the “quills” in every level , until you get the tracker tonic. That is something banjo never suffered from because the levels felt like they all revolved around one big central area. Mumbos mountain. The pyramid in gobi desert. The Christmas tree in freeze easy. I really liked yooka layley but I think the massive levels take away from the design core that banjo is so famous for. And even though I did enjoy yooka layley more than the critics or your average fan. I do find it much less replayable than a banjo or Mario 64 with more centralized worlds

Everyone seemed to jump the bandwagon. I actually loved it then and i love it now. The 3D platforming genre is back to stay and i give full credit to Yooka Laylee for reopening the floodgates to allow others through like Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Ty The Tasmanian Tiger, Klonoa, and other games like it to come back. Back then, you had modern gamers who hated collectathons from the N64 era calling them dated. It was the old N64 fans who funded the game and made it possible.

I liked the voices and the "juvenile jokes" that's just the charm of the world, it's a vibe rather then a then them trying to be funny. I will say though that naming a entire character as "Kartos the God of Ore" is just dumb to me, it's just a flimsy tie-in gag.

Pants is a reference to an obscure Rareware game called "It's Mr. Pants"

I love the quizzes. They're like the Gruntilda quiz game from Banjo Kazooie.

I learned the hard way overhyping for Smash Bros. Brawl

I’ll give it another go but I did try it a few times as I really wanted to like it but it just felt so lacking to me, not a patch on the charm and polish of BK, I think it needed a lot more time in the oven!

Nice review! I really like your style! Especially how you poke fun at your own mistakes. I'll have to give the game a try when I get the chance.

Nicely done, i must give the game a try now👍🏻

I wish there was more direction in the game. I felt like it was a giant maze.

Free on epic games tomorrow! I originally played it on the ps4 but am looking forward to playing it with the patch. I want to 100 percent it for the first time! Good review, it was really interesting to listen to you talk about it

Good video, subbed. I was curious after watching this if you ever reviewed pumpkin jack since thats another platformer i love and i saw you talked about it an upcoming games video and said you would review when it came out, but i cant seem to find it, do you plan on making a video about it someday?

This video wreaks of insecurity. Enough with the self deprecating jokes.

5:35 does anyone else believe the rumour that JonTron was *tricked* into saying something r*cist?

@Triple Eye Hi, grate video. At mark 11:00 you say, that you can not install earlier builds on steam, I just wanted to inform you, that is not true. There is a Web interface to the Steams Package Database where you can find all Package Numbers from all Kinds of Updates DLC and so on. With the Console in steam you can install every Version of a Game and go back, you will find plenty of tutorials about this topic. Hope that information will help you in future projects.

Nice Re-review! AND Right now the game is for free in the Epic Games Store! It's a steal *wink wink*

I don't understand how they screwed up the lighting so bad. When Yooka's in shadow his red parts don't turn shaded red, they just turn solid gray. Why.

Yooka Laylee was a great game. i really enjoyed it. nice little platforming collectathon.

By far my worst complaint about the game is the bosses. Especially Capital Bee. You gotta go through 3-4 phases without healing once. Everything else is like a game where you can just turn your brain off (mostly, besides the minecart sections, the 4th/5th world's minecart sections were ass). Maybe that is a skill issue on my part but I did not have a good time trying to actually finish the game.

I remember that time.. and JonTron fanboys all attacking the thought of this game

Coming from a banjo fan in the 90s Yooka laylee is great

Annual video throwing shade on Star Citizen when?

8:00 Okay Mr. Krupp

Huh never heard of unbox but it looks interesting!

Where can I find the game mentioned at 3:27?

I just got it on sale, and I can't put it down, its really good.

Unbox is awesome! Didn't finish it but it was a charming game.

Those flaming sounds are the point - it’s just funny - because it’s so ridiculous lol

Great video! 👍 I think your beard would look great encrusted with my se men!

I'm really nostalgic about the N64 era, and I still enjoy 3D plateform games a lot. I had a blast with Yooka-Laylee, it's a truly great game. I don't understand the backfire. It's not a masterpiece, it could have been better with better level design and more interesting objectives for the pages. It suffers from the competition of Super Mario Odyssey of course, but it's a great game nonetheless. It looks, sounds and plays fantastic. I think it's up there will the best platform games of the N64 era. It's better than DK 64 but not as good as the Banjo games or Mario 64, that doesn't make it a bad game.

its a fantastic game that got hated on because jon tron had his fart jokes removed. I've loved it from the start, and when that happened. It made me lose so much hope in the game industry because this was our one chance in a decade to bring back 3d platformers to AAA Studios. while they are a AA studio, a big enough name would've made a massive difference. I was furious at the reception caused by a streamer and it made me realize how much sheep mentality the gaming industry has. Also sorry, that polish patch. wasn't that much different from the game before the polish patch. You were just judgemental during your first review.

Great vid! But part of me wonders if there’s a better patch for the game that you’re using (just installed the new one on switch) Look, I really want to love this game, I’ve finished both Banjos about 6 times each, but this game plays so much worse than the n64 games. It still feels too floaty, attacking enemies feels like nothing when you can hit them, most of the combat is attacking and missing cause it doesn’t feel tight at all. The worlds are too big and the basic things you need to find are too convoluted to find or too hidden. Going back for the fourth time and each time I remember why I stopped playing. It just doesn’t feel good to play, Banjo is vastly superior in that aspect. So I think I’m finally giving up on finishing this one :/. Now impossible lair is a completely different story. It still feels a little floaty and jank, but it is a huge improvement over the first one.

Love this, thank you

I never played the unpatched version, but I got it for $6 for ps4. I still didn't find the platforming particularly great, and the camera is okay but it sometimes doesn't go as high as I wish it would. Its still a lot of fun, I didn't want to put it down for the most part. But its not the kind of game I'd like to 100%: Rextro suggested I beat the high score for another Pagie and I said, yeah we're not gonna 100% this. The frustration threshold on this is not high.

Games are allowed to do these things freely more and more but mainly Indie amd AA games mostly

Great video as well

hi, are you a fan of YOOKA-LAYLEE ?

24:32 by publishing them they’re not really indie games

People were so blind of nostalgia for banjo they refused to see the good aspects of yooka

Yes.

YES

I had no build up for this game. Just came off finishing Banjo-Tooie in late 2020 on my beloved n64 and bought a Switch. Got this game as I heard it was from old Rare developers and I enjoyed it muchly. I was surprised at how much it gets panned online, however I wasn’t around the scene when it originally released.

i remember hating this when it came out but im happy to hear its better. gonna give it anotrher go. also the bosses, Rare's DK 64 had some of the best boss fights ever and i wonder if thats what the idea was supposed to be. jack-in-box boss fight was soooo memorable

You realized it a little late, didn't you?

23:07 Not enough or bad Quality Assurance.

You should play The tower of monsters

Jon Tron

I gotta say I am kinda disappointed... I love Banjo Kazooie, and was excited because of it to play Yooka Laylee, but I gotta say control are a BIG failure for it... Not really sure if it is only the switch version, but having worst control than that of N64 with so many years apart? It seems beautiful and will continue to play just because, but I have a bad feeling I might leave it without completing it...

I recently played the game too, and while I enjoyed my time and 100% it I wouldn't recommend it for not fans of the genre, the game is too bit for it's own good and goddamn that final boss is brutal.

Free on epic rn

So Crash Bandicoot that also came at in 1996 the same year as Super Mario 64 doesn’t lay a foundations for platformers? Does that revolutionary game not count?

It's a good game indeed, but Banjo Kazooie had unique characters and enemies in each level, secrets, collectables that guided you, the quiz stage was enjoyable and you only do it once, and also no stamina bar. I replayed it yesterday and still felt like inside a fantasy world. Yooka Laylee is a very good game but doesn't have the charm that BK has (in my opinion, sorry if it's different than others :)

Honestly, I think Yooka gets a bad rap. I swear, most of the hate for it came from the fact that it "wasn't as good as Banjo", and everyone had massively inflated hopes for it because of who was making it, and that they specifically called it a "spiritual successor to Banjo Tooie." I feel like the game would have had a way better reception if they didn't mention Rare, or Banjo, and just made it as a completely unrelated standalone thing. Then again, it's kickstarter probably wouldn't have blown up, so who knows? Here's the funny thing. I'm not a fan of Banjo, but I actually enjoy Yooka Laylee. And I think I know why. The movement controls. The ol' N64 controls of Banjo 1 and 2, and Conker, always felt super clunky to me. At least, as someone that didn't play them back in the day. I played 'em eventually via emulation, and even again via Rare Replay on Xbox. But playing Yooka Laylee, I'm having quite a bit of fun just dicking around while I play. Yooka Laylee just feels really nice to control. Not to mention that you can do that attack-off-a-ledge to get extra distance thing that Donkey Kong Country did, and add to that the extra burst of distance you get from an air attack, and you get do some pretty neat things with just the jumping. And then there's the rolling thing you can do. I dunno, I don't think Banjo is bad. I never have. But I never really ENJOYED playing it. Meanwhile I'm over here playing Yooka Laylee, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. ____________________ Side note, this and A Hate in Time or some of my favorite 3D Platformers.

doesn't have the banjo magic, looks large and empty and unpolished with ugly characters which is uncharacteristic of rare

“SOME RU-vidr did voice acting” ok Mr. Big shot video game RU-vidr

I absolutely loved the fane at launch and now. I don't over hype about anything and I'm usually very certain of the things I'm gonna like. It was everything I wanted it too be. Perfect ? No but a third babjo game that wasn't banjo but in a weird other dimension where it was made by playtonic not rare yes. I had a blast 100% the game gonna play it with my son in the future. I still haven't beaten Banjo tooie but one day.

I remember when the kickstarter was going around and there were three projects that launched almost at the same time which was FurFun, Kewpie Jazzy and Yooka Laylee. Seeing what Yooka Laylee turned out to be it's OK but that's about all that can be said for this game its just ok and nothing over that... I think that was the main issue when backers expected something a bit different rather than a game that almost copied Banjo or Spyro with very little creativity. To be honest i wish one of the other projects would have gone through instead.

to bad their waset a level where yooka gets giant stomping all over the levels like in pyconouts Yooka Zilla should be a thing! XD

Dude that's not funny it's just irritating 14:25 get on with video.

Tried to give it a go recently and eh.....sooooo much damn textboxed that constantly interrupt the flow of the gameplay.....heck, let me find out on myself what which button does....also quite convoluted upgrade system with having to buy and unlock new abilities to be able to advance in the game.....like that one quest in world one where you first have to buy the ground stomp to open up the temple top windows and THEN you ALSO have to buy a shooting ability to participate in the shooting range.... Super Mario 64 showed hot it is done properly and that game is TWO decades older, minimal (and OPTIONAL!) explanations when you DECIDE YOURSELF to talk to an NPC AND all abilities of Mario unlocked right from the start. Dunno what the developers of this game were smoking, but it certainly was the wrong stuff..... ....also....STOP THE GIBBERISH VOICES, PLEASE! I'm STILL healing from "Okami"...that one is at least a great game, but uuungh, the gibberish there....At least you can turn those off...

You Clickbaited a great game, saying it was bad. Now you are clickbaiting again. Shame on you !

sony phoney

This game is forever tainted in my eyes because of how they developers screwed over Jontron and the fans who wanted refunds. You must be exceptionally diabolical to mock and deny the people who crowdfunded the game who demanded refunds because they opposed the moral grandstanding in the form of removing a few lines of VA from someone who was involved in controversy.

Shame this isn't a switch review

I was looking forward to this game’s so much before release but I had to cancel after what they did to Jon Tron. Looks like Playtonic had to learn, the hard way.

Jon Tron did nothing wrong.