The spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie is getting an HD remaster for modern consoles and PC with new features
Team up with Yooka and Laylee for a remastered edition of their classic debut title in Yooka-Replaylee
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What you need to know
On June 6, 2024, during the Guerrilla Collective event, the indie studio Playtonic Games made an appearance to reveal their latest project. They will be returning to their classic indie platformer, Yooka-Laylee, and remastering for a new generation of gamers with Yooka-Replaylee.
Yooka-Replaylee is scheduled to be released sometime in the future for PC via Steam and home consoles. No specific consoles have been announced at this time; however, it’s fair to expect a release forXboxSeries X|S, as the original Yooka-Laylee was released on Xbox One.
For those unfamiliar with Yooka-Laylee, it was a crowdfunded, indie 3D platformer created all the way back in 2017 by Playtonic Games, which consisted of developers who worked on genre-defining platformers such as Donkey Kong Country and Banjo-Kazooie.
The game follows the adventures of Yooka the Gecko and his best friend Laylee the Bat as they journey to stop the evil corporate tyrant Capital B from stealing all the world’s books and converting them into pure profit for his money-grubbing schemes.
It was praised back in the day for recapturing the magic of early 3D platformers with its charming cast of characters, complex collect-a-thon gameplay that could be customized to fit your playstyle, rich cartoony worlds packed with secrets to uncover, and catchy, memorable music composed by Grant Kirkhope (who worked Banjo-Kazooie’s soundtrack) and David Wise (who worked on Donkey Kong Country’s soundtrack).
The HD remaster, Yooka-Replaylee, aims to improve upon everything that fans loved about the original game while polishing some of the rough edges that held it back.
These new features that Yooka-Replaylee will have are:
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I do enjoy my fair share of classic platformers like Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog, Spyro the Dragon, Donkey Kong Country,Psychonauts, and the occasionally indie platformers like A Hat in Time. Unfortunately, I never played Yooka-Laylee when it first out in 2017 due to other games taking up my time.
After seeing Yooka-Replaylee’s reveal trailer, though, I’m considering giving this new version a shot as this game’s cutesy art style is adorable to look at, and it looks fun to play thanks to its new gameplay features and quality-of-life improvements.
However, will the graphical and gameplay upgrades help Yooka-Replaylee earn a spot among thebest Xbox kids gamesif it comes to Xbox? Stay tuned to find out as we keep an eye out for the full release date of thisupcoming PC titleand potentiallyupcoming Xbox title.
Yooka-Replaylee
Yooka and Laylee are back to thwart Capital B’s evil plans to steal books for profit in Yooka-Replaylee. Relive the classic 2017 indie platformer, Yooka-Laylee, now remastered for next-gen platforms with improved controls, enhanced graphics, new gameplay features, and more.
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Alexander Cope is a gaming veteran of 30-plus years, primarily covering PC and Xbox games here on Windows Central. Gaming since the 8-bit era, Alexander’s expertise revolves around gaming guides and news, with a particular focus on Japanese titles from the likes of Elden Ring to Final Fantasy. Alexander is always on deck to help our readers conquer the industry’s most difficult games — when he can pry himself away from Monster Hunter that is!
