'Yooka-Laylee' will be my kind of game

             Yooka-Laylee is looking like a dream-come-true game for me. I knew since its reveal on Kickstarter that it would be Banjo-Threeie in spirit, but now that I see the screenshots and videos, I really see just how much Banjo-Kazooie magic is going to be in this game.

            The look nails it. No surprise that Steve Mayles of Banjo-Kazooie designed the characters. The style of the characters and the world are totally Banjo-Kazooie. And I can glean transformations from the screenshots (that really takes me back. Remember all those cool transformations in Rare’s 3D platformers?). The soundtrack is composed by David Wise (Donkey Kong Country), Grant Kirkhope (Banjo-Kazooie), and Steve Burke (Viva Piñata). Chris Sutherland (voice of Banjo and Kazooie) will be voicing the duo as well (the voices will be B-K style murmurings).

            According to Playtonic’s website, Yooka-Laylee will have five worlds, special moves, puzzles and (of course) platforming. Yooka and Laylee collect “Pagies” (the new Jiggies) to unlock more areas, and throughout the game meet a cast of “oddball” characters and “hulking” bosses. The big bad guy is corporate overlord Capital B (who is, yes, a bee. In a suit.).

           Yooka-Laylee will release on April 11, 2017 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Xbox One and PS4. The Wii U version has been cancelled, but Playtonic plans to bring the game to the Nintendo Switch. Preordering the game on PC, Xbox One or PS4 gives one access to the “Yooka-Laylee Toybox”, a sandbox, demo-esque gameplay experience that samples what it’s like to move around as Yooka and Laylee (this had been available to certain backers as well).

The Steam and GOG releases have a “Digital Deluxe” option, a copy of the game that includes the soundtrack and a digital manual and artbook. The standard version of Yooka-Laylee is forty dollars; the Digital Deluxe edition is fifty.

Check out some screenshots and trailers below: