Yooka-Replaylee Review - The Best 3D Collect-a-Thon Platformer in Ages?

Yooka-Replaylee

PC/SWITCH/PS/XBOX

10/9/25

Playtonic Games/PM Studios, Inc

I’ve been playing 3D platformer collectathons dating back to the ’90s. You know, games like Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie? These releases featured large 3D playgrounds full of collectible trinkets to discover, adorable enemies to ground pound, whimsical music, and villainous bosses. But by the time the early 2000s rolled in, the genre began to lose its luster. Misfires like a not-as-well-received Banjo-Kazooie follow-up and Donkey Kong 64 led the way towards the ultimate demise, with players drifting towards more action-based affairs like Ratchet and Clank. Sure, collectathons aren’t as prevalent today, but every now and then an indie takes a stab at making one, with mixed results. There’ve been games such as A Hat in Time, Clive N’ Wrench, and—back in 2017—Yooka-Laylee, which hoped to revive the failing gameplay model and looked poised to do just that!

Released in April of 2017 following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Yooka-Laylee was created by Playtonic Games, made up of former Rare developers who worked on classics like Banjo-Kazooie. Much like that title, it starred two heroes: Yooka the chameleon, and Laylee, an adorable bat. Players would explore large areas, collecting “Pagies” to progress further on their quest to retrieve a magical book stolen by the evil Capital B and his corporation. The game had decent bones and was certainly nostalgic, but critics weren’t over the moon about it. A clunky camera, dated controls, and a general lack of polish prevented it from being considered a true classic. But now, some eight years later, Yooka and Laylee are back—in a new, old adventure? But does Yooka-Replaylee achieve what the original set out to? Or should we turn the page on this franchise? Let’s find out in our full review!

Yooka-Replaylee is an updated version of the original game that keeps the skeleton intact but adds some welcome changes that make it a much more enjoyable experience. Your goal remains the same as ever: to explore a variety of open 3D environments, gathering enough magical Pagies to progress further. Optionally, there's no shortage of other items to gather such as feathers and ghost writers if you choose to pursue 100 percent completion, meaning that players can expect 25–30 hours of gameplay if they wish to explore every last nook and cranny.

Odds are you know how this genre works if you are watching this review, so let’s talk a bit about what’s new over the original game. For one, gameplay has been much improved. Players will have access to the duo’s entire move set from the offset, and those moves will feel much more responsive thanks to improved animations. There are even some new moves to explore that make the experience all that much more entertaining. You can roll on your partner to get around quicker, create a magical bubble to sink to the bottom of watery holes, glide and ride, buddy slam, and even slurp up flames and shoot them back out.

I greatly enjoyed all of the different moves and found most of them to come in handy at one point or another. No, Yooka-Replaylee still isn’t the most technically sound gameplay experience I have had, as the platforming and camera are still far from perfect, but the difference over the first game is vast and noticeable. Just as your move set has been improved, so too have the worlds themselves. They are mostly the same thematically, but Playtonic Games have fleshed each area out further, offering double the content of the original game. There are new challenges to discover, a retro arcade game that’s both challenging and a blast to try and get through, new enemies, new props, and even different locations for collectibles—meaning that if you thought you knew the original game well, you won’t be breezing through this version.

Yooka-Laylee, a name I’m still not sold on to be honest, also features modifiers for players in the form of tonics. These tonics can make the game both easier or harder for a price. There’s also no shortage of adorable cosmetics to collect, 104 total in fact, so you can dress your duo up in plenty of ridiculous ways, like in Shovel Knight armor. But that’s not all that’s new, as even the story has been tweaked a bit to make it more entertaining. Sure, it’s still not amazing, nor does it need to be, but the changes all felt like welcome ones, presented in new ways with a reworked ending. 

Wait, there’s more? That’s right—tracking and navigation have been improved, meaning it is now easier to find collectibles, discover warp locations, see where NPC characters are hanging around, and utilize fast travel with Mark the Bookmark, who makes getting around a breeze. Some of these changes may sound minor, but they make a huge difference in playability, enhancing the overall experience.

Yooka-Laylee offers a good amount of gameplay variety as well. You might find yourself gliding through rings one moment, or riding in a mine cart the next. I appreciated how the game never became all that stagnant or repetitive, offering a good amount of different activities to partake in. It’s not a hard game, mind you, unless you opt for those modifiers—but a great way to unwind for a while after a hard day's work. I loved that I could explore at my own free will in an order somewhat of my choosing and not feel overly stressed or burdened. Ok, maybe some of the timed sections were a bit stressful, but I don’t care for those in most video games, to be fair.

Visually, while the game does look a bit dated in spots, some effort has been given in improving the art and quality of the textures. Visual effects have also been touched up, but make no mistake, Yooka-Laylee still isn’t amazing nor modern to look at. Still, the art has its charms, with lovely character designs, colorful worlds, and a good amount of imagination too. It’s never sounded better either, with Grant Kirkhope, David Wise, and Steve Burke’s original score now featured in orchestral arrangements from the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. While each composer has a distinct sound, they come together on this OST in beautiful harmony. The songs are lovely and melodic throughout, backed by great sound effects and use of surround. 

In terms of performance, Yooka-Laylee mostly ran well on my 4070 rig, with just a few hitches here or there that didn’t have much of an impact on gameplay. I played at the 4K resolution for the duration of my review, and really only came across one major bug, where I broke the screen entirely and fell endlessly. Luckily, I wasn’t stuck in Chameleon purgatory forever and was able to fast travel my way out of the situation, but other than that, the game seemed to run fine outside of some surprisingly long load screens that were a bit of a hindrance. For players on Steam Deck, you’ll deal with even longer load times and a mostly steady 30FPS, but it's perfectly playable depending on your tolerance for lower framerate. The game looks pretty decent on Valve’s handheld too. 

With 300 Pagies to collect, countless quills, ghost writers, pirate treasure, and more, Yooka-Laylee offers up great value. It’s a massive improvement over the first game and a great release in its own right if you missed out the first go-around. No, the camera and controls aren’t perfect, and you might hit the occasional bug, but overall this is one of the better 3D Collectathon Platformers to come around in some time, and I would definitely recommend it to fans of the genre. Even better, you don’t have to hear the DK Rap every time you boot it up. Your promises from 2017 have finally been delivered.

SILVER - GREAT