Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
Released: October 8, 2019
Game Length: 13 Hours
Grade: B
Expectations: When I was looking up information regarding Playtonic Games original Yooka-Laylee game, I stumbled what looked like a DLC. However, it turned out that it was a completely separate game entirely. I'm not sure why they didn't just call it Yooka-Laylee 2. Perhaps they wanted to make sure people saw it as it was - a different style of game. I sort of have this bad feeling about a game when the developers decide to drop the 3D environment for a simple side-scroller sequel. At least they were nice enough to include a free demo for Nintendo Switch and Steam. Well, let's get this over with.
Reality: Again, I am pleasantly surprised at the amount of content the designers poured into these games. The way they set the game up was for you to "gain lives" through collecting little bees at the end of each of the levels scattered across the overhead world in order to survive the massive gauntlet the villain set up inside his fortress. In order to open up these levels, the world is vast and requires some heavy-duty problem-solving. Of course, this might also require a good sum of coins and quills from the levels. Your only allowance of not dying is through the use of rescuing your panicked comrade through a Baby-Mario rescue as it frantically flies away from you. Seriously, there were times I was standing inches away and watched it "hug" the corner of the ceiling for 10 seconds. You'll come across known characters from the other game, even referencing things that were said and done beforehand. However, the books themselves present themselves in a new platform-style format. The environment is stylish and tight, sticking to a theme and adding fun things to watch out for in the background. And the music is fabulous.
World: Although there are only 20 books, each one can be manipulated using an element in the world to open up a secondary alternative chapter. Reroute some water and suddenly the level becomes entirely flooded. Throw some ice on the book and everything stops moving. It is fun seeing how each level changes. There are "checkmates" that help keep your sanity in check whenever you are carefully pouncing on every platform available. You can choose up to 3 Tonics to use out of 62 possible. However, 90% of these tonics are either worthless or make an already difficult chapter even worse. Some tonics are practically impossible to find. You can choose to add a filter to the level, alter yourself, make enemies harder to kill, or add some boosts. As much as I wished for a higher jump or a personal shield, there were only a few minor increases to run speed or limited-time strikes. After finding the redundancy of adding more checkmates in exchange of losing 20% of my quills, I ironically found that quills exploding out of enemies, pulling quills towards you, and being luminescent were perhaps the only three abilities worthwhile. Each world ranges on average between semi-hard to infuriatingly difficult. Trust me when I say that there were perhaps 8 different times I was glad to have the option to "skip" a section after repeatedly dying simply attempting to make that one last platform in a series of awful jumps.
Impossible Lair: Of course, the main reason why I decided to not recommend this game to anyone is the so-called challenge level. When the game first came out, you had to do the whole 30-minute level without any checkpoints. Then the developers made it slightly easier by dividing it up into 4 stages. Personally, I can't believe you cannot use tonics! Did you know that? So there is absolutely no reason to collect the remaining 99 coins for the 4th tonic slot when the first 101 coins is enough to unlock all the books (which means you only need to collect half the total amount of possible coins each level). I don't even know why they are rewarding people who pass the final stage without using any extra lives with a Golden Tonic and secret ending. I'd even argue that there isn't a reason to unlock half the possible tonics, especially that "fourth tonic unlock" that scams you out of 2,500 quills. It is "possible" that with enough time and patience I could have succeeded in beating the game. But stressing over every jump for the first 10 minutes during the "final level" killed whatever joy I had for the game in the beginning. I suggest only those who like playing difficult games to try this one out.
12-16-2020