Yooka-Laylee gets loads of new details

24 May 2016

By Matthew Fick

Hey, everyone! Did you like Banjo-Kazooie? What about Super Mario 64, or 3D platformers with a heavy collectathon emphasis? Unfortunately, the gaming industry as a whole moved away from the genre that many of us grew up with during the previous console generation, and you might have been craving a fix for a while.

Fortunately, we may have a title to look forward to: the Kickstater successYooka-Laylee. The game’s developers recently revealed a large number of new details about the upcoming title including setting, story, and cast, and it looks like a lot of fun.

This is the first major update on the game since it was successfully funded back in 2015. Developer Playtonic Games has done this intentionally so that they can reveal a product indicative of the final release. Before going into detail about the game, Playtonic promised that more details and in-depth looks into the game will be available soon. These include a presence at E3 2016, and playable code being given to some YouTubers.

Yooka-Laylee bills itself as a “Rare-vival” of the buddy-duo platformer, which bears a great deal of charm and colour. Players play as Yooka and Laylee, exploring the land, sea, and air environments, while trying to gather hundreds of collectibles. The storyline is odd to say the least. After a brilliant tech company is subject to hostile takeover by the villainous Hivory Towers, the duo must collect magical “Pagies” to reassemble the Grand Tome held captive in the towers. In doing so, they will collect power-ups, buy new moves and upgrades, tackle the Towers in any order they see fit, and encounter a colourful cast including a salesman serpent, an exo-suited duck, and more. Yep, it sure sounds like the ’90s…

In case you didn’t know, Playtonic Games is staffed by highly-talented veterans of the very games that inspired Yooka-Laylee, most of whom are former Rare employees. These include Steve Mayles (character articst for Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie), Chris Sutherland (lead programmer for DK Country and Banjo-Kazooie), and many more. The Kickstarter campaign was a roaring success, generating over two million pounds in pledges, and breaking crowdfunding records at the time.

Yooka-Laylee doesn’t have a release date yet, but Playtonic is still aiming for an October 2016 window. The game is set to release on (takes deep breath) Linux, Mac, PC, PlayStation 4, Wii U, and Xbox One platforms.

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