Yooka-Laylee

A must-play for any Donkey Kong Country fan, it has the same core gameplay mechanics and the same 2 legendary composer, David Wise and Grant Kirkhope! Every stage has its own unique song and even in 8-bit version, it made the experience very enjoyable. ❤️

The game is a fun twist on the DKC formula. While I wouldn't call this game the hardest platformer I've ever played (Impossible Lair level excluded), It is still a reasonably challenging and rewarding experience with a fun overworld to explore and progress through. On the topic of the Impossible Lair level itself, I think it's a VERY difficult level, but thats what makes it fun. It is a standout level in terms of its difficulty relative to the rest of the game, but the same was true for the bonus levels in DKCR:3D/DKCR:HD and that never stopped that game from being a top 5 game for me personally, so I take no issue with the difficulty spike (Your opinions and mileage will vary on this). Overall, I would highly recommend this game to people who are big fans of more difficult 2D platformers. Inversely, this game gets VERY difficult by the end, so if you aren't big on massively difficult levels in your 2D platformers, pass on this one.

Did you play Donkey Kong Country and think it was too easy? Do you also enjoy solving some simple puzzles and collecting tons of extra crap?
This checks all those boxes. Really great level design, and the overworld is a joy to explore as well.
If you don't enjoy platforming (or do but are terrible at it,) this probably isn't a game for you though.

This game has been slept on SO MUCH I actually can't believe how good this is lol. Yooka Laylee was the team shaking the dust off, but this is them in their element.
Unironically one of the best 2D platformers I have ever played, it's stellar! If you're curious about this one, I absolutely recommend picking it up. It's essentially DKC 4 but with the added bonus of a detailed overworld that is practically it's own level, with all the secrets and such around the place. This game SLAPS!
Special shoutout to the soundtrack as well, it's crazy good.

6.5/10
I never played the original YL, but I did play the remake. And while this is a decent 2d platform that is similar to donkey kong country, there are a lot of issues and strange design choices that really hold it back and hinder enjoyment.
The good part of the game, the actual stages, are mostly well done. They look fairly good and offer a good amount of challenge, until you get to the impossible layer, in which the difficulty spikes hard, especially if you don't collect most or all of the bees that act as shield points. The soundtrack is one thing that is improved upon the original game and the remake. If the game was simply the platforming stages, I would have have an easier time recommending the game to all 2d platformer fans. But like I said, it has problems.
The most glaring issue is how the overworld and tonics work. Between levels you explore the overworld which acts like a hub. And while you might think its just a glorified level select like in DKC or 2d mario, you'd be wrong. The map is free roam and there is a lot of puzzle solving and exploration that makes it feel like a sort of 2d zelda like experience. The problem is that it really breaks up the flow of the platforming, and it would have been better if they had just chosen 1 lane and stuck with it. The other issue is the tonics. While some are in plane sight, others require ground pounding or throwing items at specific points, which you learn through buying hints. (One of which trolls the player by telling you to look it up online). And even once you collect the tonic, you then have to buy the right to use it. And these things get expensive, especially since you also have to use currency to unlock cages to progress the overworld. And the game once again trolls you buy giving you a fake 4th tonic slot, requiring you to collect all 200 coins to have the real one. And by that point, its pointless. The impossible layer doesn't allow the use of the tonics.
Speaking of progressing, there are several gates that block overworld progression that you unlock with coins collected in the stages. You need half of them to unlock the entire map. I prefer when these kinds of things are optional.
Still, the game can be fun when everything comes together properly, and it is a fun DKC like game. Its just that you have to be willing to put up with a lot of issues that slow or hinder progress. I would recommend checking out the far superior Yooka Replaylee first

I never played the original Yooka-Laylee despite the initial promise and overall reception being very divisive at the time. Eventually, this game was revealed as a standalone game and follows more closely towards 2D platformer games than it's counterpart. Gameplay and post reactions were on the positive side this time, so I took a chance to see if it's something I would like, and I'm happy to report that this is a solid indie platformer that most can enjoy on it's own!
Capital Bee took all the bees from the kingdom, and it's up to Yooka and Laylee to stop him. Simple as it gets, but that's where the titular Impossible Lair comes in! You immediately start in the last level of the game, and unless your a professional, you harshly discover that it lives up to the name and reputation.
The game is split up in two ways, with regular 2D levels that each hold a bee to help you at the final stage and an overhead hub world where you can find levels, secrets, hints, NPC's and Tonics which grant various perks or flaws depending on your playstyle.
The levels themselves are plentiful with a good amount of variety, challenge, and discoverability, some compare this to the DKC games, but I'd also argue it heavily reminds me of Rayman Origins as well! There's 20 levels, but each one can be altered in the hub world to create an new stage altogether, making it 40 levels instead that can range from playing the stage with snow, water, more aggressive enemies, etc!
Special mention goes to my favorite level and it's second act, Cliffside Quest, where you need to gather five keys at your own pace, and the music becoming more lively the more keys you gather!
The impossible lair itself will be a make it or break it for a lot of people, since you do need to beat it in order to complete the game, but while it's very challenging, there has been an update that eases the difficulty by adding in checkpoints. Besides the final boss, there are no mini or main bosses to defeat along your journey, and there's no true upgrades to your move-set from beginning to end, excluding tonics.
If the original game disappointed you and had no interest in this one, I say it's worth a shot and play through! It has a lot more going on despite it's shorter length, with fun and tight level designs, a neat hub world full of secrets and interactivity towards said levels, and being a great standalone game that anyone can enjoy! Proud to have beaten the impossible lair without any bees too, I love a challenge haha!

I'm going to tentatively call this one complete as I have beaten the final boss, I just haven't beaten the final final escape sequence, but I don't feel particularly bad as I will explain in detail later!

This game is fun and charming. I love the visuals and the majority of the humour. The way this game is divided into simple overworld exploration combined with light puzzle solving to change the environment within the 2D sidescrolling levels is really clever, interesting and original! The vibes here are great, with the charming visuals and excellent music really pushing this great positive feeling the game proudly exudes.

The majority of what this game does well almost feels wasted when it comes to the final level however; the titular Impossible Lair. This level really shines a blinding spotlight on this game's shortcomings and pushes them front and centre in what feels like a deliberate attempt to be frustrating and meme-worthy in terms of difficulty, rather than presenting a final challenge that the game has built to. The difficulty scaling is pretty minimal throughout the majority of the game (helped by generous checkpoints) but then this level hits and it's like a straight line upwards. All of the small flaws that didn't really cause huge issues in most of the levels are now on full display because of the completely unforgiving nature of this specific stage; the camera sometimes just kinda doing its own thing (in a 2D platformer!!), the sometimes quite imprecise and seemingly rng dependent hitboxes on objects (I've literally had obstacles deal damage to me when I am rolling underneath them as the level intends) and what stings the most here is the load times combined with the complete absence of a "retry" button. Every time I want to reattempt the level knowing I've taken too much damage on one particular boss, I have to back out to the world map, wait for that to load, hold Y to enter the level again, select what part of the stage I want to continue, wait for that to load, walk back into the boss room, wait for him to say the dialogue that isn't funny, then finally reattempt the boss fight. It doesn't sound like much but it really starts getting grating when you've been trying to get through a level for the past 45-60 minutes.

With that rant out of the way, this game is absolutely still worth a play, but I genuinely recommend that you do NOT attempt to beat it fully. Just play all 40 of the normal stages and call it a day imo!