Yooka-Replaylee

Yooka-Replaylee works a little better in this remixed iteration, but introduces all sorts of new wonkiness along the way.

In short, Yooka-Replaylee is a brilliant remake of the original game. It expands and improves upon so many areas that it leaves the original release in the dust. It took a long wait, but Yooka and Laylee finally have a 3D platformer worthy of the Banjo-Kazooie comparisons.

Yooka-Replaylee, in most ways, feels like the game that Yooka-Laylee was always meant to be. The core experience has remained the same, but much has been added or tweaked to make for a significantly more confident and streamlined experience.Though the technical issues hold it back a bit, at least on Switch 2 at launch, this is still a clear improvement over the original and a game that no fan of the 3D platforming genre should miss out on. Even if you played the original to completion, I'd say Yooka-Replaylee is still very much worth your time and money.

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As a collectathon platformer, the goal of Yooka-Replaylee is to hoover up every item in the entire game, from the endless coins to scarcer book pages.

With 64-bit charm, orchestral music, and smart quality-of-life improvements, Yooka-Replaylee delivers a love letter to classic platforming with a modern soul.

The competition today is a lot more fierce than it was a decade ago – and yet, even with that tougher playing field, Yooka-Replaylee still manages to stand out as being one of the better 3D platformers you’re likely to come across.

While absolutely a major improvement over the original Yooka-Laylee, some of the changes also create frustrations

Those looking for a good 3D platformer in 2025 will find exactly what they are looking for in Yooka-Replaylee.

As someone who enjoyed their time with the original Yooka-Laylee, I was eager to see how Playtonic applied lessons learned from Impossible Lair and other modern platformers into this revisit of their original adventure. With a strong presentation, fantastic controls, improved gameplay, and a combined combo of improved progress and level design, Yooka-Replaylee is a fantastic experience. It is the realization of what the team at Playtonic set out to create back in 2017, and I’m eager to see what the team has in store for their next adventure for Yooka & Laylee.