Revealed as part of today’s Guerrilla Collective presentation, Playtonic’s Yooka-Laylee is returning for an encore on PC and consoles with Yooka-Replayleea nod to the 2017 indie original that brought the Banjo spirit back to the 3D platformer genre.
As you can see from the reveal trailer above, this remaster isn’t just a polish in the visuals department, but will feature numerous gameplay changes and additions, including a new world map, improvements to existing challenges, improvements to the duo’s set of moves. and camera, and music by Dave Wise and Grant Kirkhope getting the full orchestral score treatment.
Playtonic says this remaster marks “the culmination of almost 10 years of Playtonic experience along with an exciting new beginning for our favorite duo.”
“Yooka-Replaylee is the result of the growth of the company, the things we’ve learned while working on other projects, and the feedback we’ve gotten on board since the original release.”
Let’s take a look at the full feature list as told by PR, plus some screenshots:
Main features:
• BETTER THAN EVER – With a revamp of art and animations and improved performance and resolution, the favorite duo of friends has never looked or moved better.
• NEW AND IMPROVED CHALLENGES – Improvements to existing in-game challenges and many brand new challenges to discover and undertake!
• NEW GREEK COINS – Capital B’s incompetent friends have been dropping their hard-earned coins all over the country. Collect official Hivory Towers currency to spend at the most beloved video game vending machine.
• WORLD NAVIGATION – Now you can get lost in the game, not the world! A new world map and challenge tracker help you know where you are and what needs to be done. Hooray!
• THE COUNTRY HAS A LOT TO OFFER – Tonics are back with all new flavors! With the option to equip multiple game-changing upgrades, you can truly customize your playstyle. And as if that weren’t enough, Country has new merchandise lines for the modern fashion adventurer.
• REVISED CONTROLS AND CAMERA – A new modified moveset lets you combine moves more freely, while new camera controls make framing the action a breeze.
• A DREAM ORCHESTRAL SCORE – The original score by famed video game composers Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie) and David Wise (Donkey Kong Country) returns but as a beautifully arranged orchestral score. Now seriously, clean those ears.
There’s no word yet on an exact date, and that nebulous “PC and consoles” can always be tricky. Is Yooka-Replaylee coming to Switch? We reached out and Playtonic gave us the following statement:
“We have nothing more to announce at this time, stay tuned for more updates.”
So watch this space, then. Honestly, we can’t imagine it I won’t to be on Switch, given the genre and the team’s historical ties to Nintendo consoles, not to mention the 130 million+ Switch owners out there. Maybe we’re looking at a launch title for the Switch’s successor (imagine Trowzer talking about that), but either way Playtonic is keeping it cross-platform for now.
While not perfect, we really enjoyed the original game and its distinctive humor, which came courtesy of the ex-Rare staff that make up the Playtonic team. Not only does it look like this remaster will shed the original’s rough edges and hopefully bring it up to its sequel’s quality, but the developer’s mention of “an exciting new beginning” suggests there may be plans for something beyond an enhanced version of an existing game.
Playtonic is hosting a Q&A session on its YouTube channel on Tuesday June 11, so we’ll likely learn more about the game and what the team has in store for the future.
Can’t wait to revisit Hivory Towers? Skipped the original but like the look of the upgrades here? Or you are joining some New-has-Laylee? Tell us below.
