October was an enormously packed month for games. Among the titles released were: Ghost of Yotei, Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection, Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2, and Yooka-Replaylee. A couple of these titles were given to us to review, and we will be posting reviews of these games along with a gaming roundup with all the news you may have missed. The first game we were given to review is Yooka-Replaylee, developed by PlayTonic and published by Team17. Here’s my review of the title.
Yooka-Replaylee is less of a new game and more of a second chance at a first game. The title was made by a group of individuals who were key to Rare’s success during the Nintendo heyday. The game was envisioned as a spiritual successor to the beloved Rare title Banjo-Kazooie and its sequel. The game was pitched as a Kickstarter project, and it surpassed its stated financial goal amid a flurry of media attention.
The core of the game features a chameleon named Yooka and his bat friend Laylee as they attempt to retrieve an enchanted book from an evil corporation. The main baddie of the game is a character named Capital B, who looks like Gru from Despicable Me, if he were a bee. The plot and story weren’t the focus of the game; the collectathon and gameplay loop were supposed to handle that.
The original title game out to largely mixed reviews. The game had the foundation of an early-3D platformer, but it lacked the soul that made those games so beloved — and that’s why they’ve held up over the years. Most of the criticism was centered on the camera, the soundtrack, and the level design. The positives of the game were enough that people largely felt okay with what they got — remember, this is a Kickstarter project. It just wasn’t the game people felt PlayTonic had hyped up.
While some companies would take the “mixed to average” reviews that Yooka-Laylee had received, PlayTonic took it as a challenge and immediately got to work on their next project — fixing and re-releasing Yooka-Laylee with all the criticisms addressed, and additional features that time didn’t allow the last time around. Thus, we were given Yooka-Replaylee. The title was released to the public on October 9th, 2025. The reviewers enjoyed the game this time around, awarding it an average of 77– generally favorable on Metacritic.
As I had never played the original game, I wanted to grab it and see what it played like. I didn’t feel I could properly review the title they had given to me without having a point of comparison. When you’re looking at a rerelease of a title that just came out in 2024, it made editorial sense to me that I should play both if I truly wanted to offer a valid opinion. It took me a little longer to review the title, but I feel like I understand the initial criticism a bit better.
One of my major criticisms of the rerelease was the timing of some of the challenges. I can count the number of times — especially early on, never mind the later ones — when you needed nearly frame-accurate, perfect timing to complete a challenge on time. This put me off some of the exploring early on. Some ’90s games were focused on difficulty, but rarely that early on. I’m not even a bad platformer; I just couldn’t complete the challenges on time. I couldn’t complete the first puzzle, where you use your sonar to reveal the platform and collect 8 red coins. Maybe I’m worse than I think I am, but that one gave my entire house fits.
My favorite stage in the entire game is Capital Cashino. I’ve always had a thing for the casino aesthetic in gaming; it goes back to Casino Night Zone in the Sonic franchise. The world just looks outstanding, and the newly upgraded soundtrack to the title slaps on this level. You can tell that PlayTonic went out of its way to give people a soundtrack worthy of a game that raised millions of dollars. The graphical overhaul that accompanies the new soundtrack provides you with a much brighter world for Yooka and Laylee to explore.
As someone who actually remembers the camera controls of the 64-bit and 3D era, it was nice to see tighter controls and a modern feel to the replay. While people had varying opinions on the level design, many people appreciated how they handled the remake. Not only are there different story elements, but you also have better level design and a bevy of skills that you don’t have to waste your time opening because they’re all there from the jump. You also have more freedom from the jump and no longer have a bunch of stuff walled off.
If you’re into simple platformers that you can play with your family, then Yooka-Replaylee might be a great choice for you. Some aspects of the game might frustrate you, but the later levels truly reward you for sticking with it. There are tons of homages to games like Donkey Kong Country, Mario 64, and Banjo-Kazooie, as mentioned earlier. If you’re into games where you have to collect a bunch of items and make it from A to B, then you seriously can’t go wrong with Yooka-Replaylee. If I were scoring it, I would give it an 8.5 out of 10.
