After a first chapter of the Collect-A-Thon genre, Playtonic games comes back with an adventure sidescrolling platform with more classic tones. Will she be able to convince us?
The return of the dynamic duo!
When the wicked Capital B come back to attack, touch once more a Yooka and Laylee stop him, but the trouble starts when the villain locks himself up nell’Impossible Lair, a very difficult and apparently impossible level.
I Beettallion they can protect the duo by allowing them to take extra hits, but they have all been captured and scattered throughout the different levels.
Each time we complete a level, we will have an extra Beettalilion to defend us when we decide to face the Impossible Lair, guaranteeing us more chance of success. It will therefore be up to us to save as many as possible and defeat the enemy.
A new adventure!
Unlike the previous chapter, this time we will not be faced with a 3D platformer with open maps but with a platform 2D.
Within the levels, Yooka he will be able to jump, attack with his tail and roll, as well as use his tongue to pick up and throw objects, while in the company of Laylee he will be able to spin in flight landing slower and attack in mid-air.
If we get hit with Laylee, this one he will run away, and we can retrieve it either by chasing it or using one of the bells present in the level to recall it.
Getting hit without Laylee will have to restart from the checkpoint.
When we are off the levels, we will find ourselves in a overworld with top view. Here we will have to carry out certain actions to unlock passages for new levels, in order to reach and save other Beettallions.
However, sometimes these actions will be extremely unclear. We will also encounter many points where it will be necessary to grind a certain number of collectable in order to pass, breaking the rhythm of the game at times.
In this context we will also be able to use the tonic, or objects that can guarantee extra skills to the player, increase the difficulties and rewards or donate aesthetic filters to the title (one for example gave the game a gameboy-style pixelated filter).
These will not only be a nice addition, but they will contribute to greatly increase its replayability.
A colorful world
Graphically Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is shown with a graphic look detailed and colorful, with an excellent texture cleaning: the models are not who knows how detailed, but they work and are very beautiful to look at.
The settings they are a lot e they vary greatly from each other, making us find ourselves in woods, caves, mines, villages but also factories and laboratories.
A sound sector that meets expectations
Being veteran game developers such as Banjo-Kazooie e Donkey Kong Country, it is no surprise that the soundtrack of this title also harks back to them, while retaining some elements that give it uniqueness.
The most common levels will have a sound cheerful and playful, which in the long run will remain etched in the player's mind.
Levels set in factories and other similar facilities will sound more serious and industrial, but even here the quality remains of the highest level.
Our favorite songs, however, are precisely the OST of the impossible Lair and the boss fight against Capital B, more serious pieces with a more soul. rock.
The only flaw maybe we find it in the songs in which they are used too much kazoo and choirs, which in the long run can be annoying.
The sound effects are spot on for the most part, and the dialogues, while only written, are expressed by each character with strange sounds synthesized in style. Banjo-Kazooie.
In conclusion
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair succeeds in proposing the setting created by the original game while maintaining the classic canons of a 2D platformer.
Despite being burdened by some annoying defects, mainly related to the smokiness of the methods of accessing new areas and from grinding absolutely unnecessary, we believe that the experience itself was a lot more than pleasant, ensuring plenty of hours of fun.
We recommend it especially for lovers of 2D platformers whether or not they tried the first chapter, as these two games are very distant from each other.
