Yooka-Laylee Nintendo Switch Review

Yooka-Laylee Nintendo Switch

Release: December 14, 2017
Publisher: Team 17
Developer: Playtonic Games
Genre: Action, Adventure, Platformer, Switch Reviews
PEGI: 10+
Comments:

 

Comment

 3D platformers have been making a major comback. Super Mario Odyssey has been the best of the best, but there are plenty of other cool 3D platformers to play too. The Nintendo Switch has been a good home for platformers and recently another one was added to the eShop: Yooka-Laylee! Is this a good game? Will 3D platformer fans enjoy it? Lets take a look!

Yooka-Laylee doesn’t have a good story. The game lets you know, right at the start, that its a fetch quest platformer and doesn’t try to hide that. In fact, it often makes fun of itself. Yooka-Laylee may not have a good story, but it has excellent dialogue. This game is so very funny. I love how it breaks the fourth wall left and right. And it has some of the best NPCs I’ve seen in any platformer! It even has a Shovel Knight cameo! I love talking to the characters in this game. Its too bad that the dialogue will repeat itself if you don’t finish a quest and then come back to it later. Thats really the only compliant I have with the dialogue.

Otherwise, I think players will enjoy the dialogue in this game a lot. And if thats not enough for them, well, Yooka-Laylee has good gameplay too!

Yooka-Layee is a lot of fun. The platforming in this game is very good and there is a big variety of sidequests and mini-challenges to take on in each world. The big hub world is a lot of fun to explore too.

There are also new abilities that pop up, especially when you are ready to go into a new world, that continue to add new and interesting twists to Yooka-Laylee’s gameplay. There is also a varying degree of difficulty to Yooka-Laylee. Some areas are pretty easy, while others will give you a bit more challenge.

Thankfully, though, Yooka-Laylee has excellent controls and it easily handles new powers and tricky platforming fails are never the fault of the game. That said, Yooka-Laylee does not have any special Nintendo Switch controls. I could see motion controls coming in handy for some of the retro arcade games or some boss fights. I’m not sure how touch screen gameplay would’ve worked in this game but it might have been neat.

Yooka-Laylee does have a great single player campaign, multiplayer co-op, “retro arcade games” to play, and you can even play the mini-games with more then two players! There is a lot of content in Yooka-Laylee. This game is definitely not perfect but if you are done with Super Mario Odyssey, then its very easy to recommend Yooka-Laylee as your next platformer! And while the game isn’t as good looking Super Mario Odyssey, it is pretty close!

Yooka-Laylee is a really good looking game! Both in handheld and on the TV, Yooka-Laylee’s graphics shine. There is a ton of visual variety to each world you visit and among the game’s hub world. All of the characters in the game, from enemies to allies, look good and each world has its own unique enemies/allies to run into.

Unfortunately, the game does have some frame-rate issues here and there. Most of the time, the game is completely fine but occassionally there is some slow down and noticable hiccups. Overall, Yooka-Laylee looks great and runs pretty good.

The music in Yooka-Laylee is really good! There are a lot of catchy tunes in this game. And the game has pretty unique sound effects too. I wouldn’t say they are as good as the music, but none of the sound effects are annoying and they do add even more personality to the game. There is one minor issue with the music though.

Whenever the game loads into a new area, the music will skip a bit. Its not a big deal but its sad to see the otherwise really well done music be dragged down even for a moment.

Overall, Yooka-Laylee is a fun game. It doesn’t reinvent the platformer wheel but it has a lot of content and it looks and plays great on the TV and in handheld mode!

Yooka-Laylee is a great game. It may not be Super Mario Odyssey great but there is so much fun to be had here. The game’s humorous dialogue, among with its fun gameplay and cool secrets makes it a must play for Nintendo Switch platformer fans. This is the type of 3D platformer that won’t make you a fan of the genre. Instead, if you love 3D platformers already, then Yooka-Laylee for the Switch should already be on your radar. I’ve been having a blast with this game!

Thanks to Team 17 for providing a review copy of this game. Yooka-Laylee is currently available on the Nintendo Switch eShop!

Trailer