Back when I was growing up and first starting to get into gaming the platformer was king. Whether it was my first taste of the genre in Pitfall on the Atari 2600 or Mario Bros. on the NES I was hooked. I kept my hand in throughout the years with the likes of Donkey Kong Country, Crash Bandicoot, and Mario but somehow the original Yooka-Laylee past me by so when the chance to review the newest edition, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair came along I jumped at this opportunity.
Warning! chance of Bee puns ahead
At the start of Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair we find our lead characters, Yooka (a Chameleon) and Laylee (a bat), in Queen Pheobee’s royal Stingdom (I did warn you about the puns) as the evil Capital B has made a scepter that can control the Hive mind and is held up in his Impossible Lair.
Your task is to travel through the Stingdom and complete chapters (levels) that are scattered about picking up quills (in-game currency), T.W.I.T coins (5 per chapter) and most importantly members of Queen Pheobee’s Royal Beettalion which there are 30 of as they act as a shield around Yooka-Laylee as they try and beat the Impossible Lair.
Hybrid in more ways than one
Playtonic Games has made a good looking platform game here, they mash the 3D outer-world with a fast-paced 2D platform game like if Zelda: Breath of the Wind had a baby with Rayman: Legends and it works right from the beginning.
After you complete a quick tutorial you get immediately thrown into the ominous Impossible Lair which lives up to its name as you go up against crazy obstacles with no checkpoints and finally Capital B himself but all is not lost as this is were you will learn about the importance of Queen Pheobee’s Royal Beettalion as they act as hit points as such for your characters when attempting the Impossible Lair, unless you are inhuman and can defeat it without them as with Zelda: Breath of the Wild you can challenge Capital B and his Impossible Lair whenever you want throughout the game.
Bee Vigilant
In the 3D outer-world, you will be solving puzzles to reach different areas and unlocking new Chapters. They were really smart with the Chapters as you will need to collect the T.W.I.T coins to unlock the smartly named Pay Walls that separate some areas. This and the fact the Chapters can be altered in various ways to make completely different levels which not only gives the players new challenges but the levels and areas a replayability factor which was ingenious by Playtonic.
As with the outer-world in the Chapters themselves, you will need to be alert to every nook and cranny as there are secret doors and platforms spread throughout. Most of these hidden places will house the coins but others quills or throwable objects you will need to further the level along. There are some enemies in the levels of various difficulty to kill but because they aren’t really named or it’s not explained why they are there they are really just an afterthought which is a shame really.
In saying that some of the characters you do meet and interact with have appalling names like the “Pagies”. These are book pages that are spread around the Stingdom and on completing this side challenge opens up more of the world. Then there is Vendi the sassy vending machine who teaches you about the various Tonics you can find and equip on your characters that will give them different abilities.
The names and the fact there is no voice acting just text and sounds (similar to Undertale) lets the game down a small bit. I would have been happy with just the text as the noises got annoying after a while.
BEETTALION ASSEMBLE!!
All in all, this is a very fun and imaginative game and should be played by all the platform lovers out there. The controls are easy to pick up, the levels fun and challenging and the Impossible Lair itself is a Mario Makers lover’s dream.
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