Yooka-Replaylee (Switch 2) Review

If there was ever a game made for me, Yooka-Laylee should have been it. When I first reviewed it (oh god, eight years ago) it didn’t hit right. It looked like my beloved Banjo-Kazooie, it felt like it, and heck, it even sounded like it. But it also brought back all the baggage that 90s platformers carried when we didn’t know any better. I don’t think even Playtonic knew any better, not until now at least.

So, the team at Playtonic has called a do-over. Instead of simply taking a 90s 3D platformer and dragging it into the modern world, they’ve actually modernised it. They’ve de-Banjoed it somewhat, and rather than just recreating what they did in the 90s, they’ve made a game worthy of 2025, but with a 90s flair. It’s odd, but by making it less like the old games, they’ve actually made it better.

Yooka Replaylee is not a remake, at least not according to Playtonic, but it’s damn close. While the game hasn’t been rebuilt from scratch, almost everything about it has been touched, tweaked and changed to completely revamp the experience. It’s like they sat down with a list of complaints from the internet, along with their own internal frustrations, and fixed every single one of them.

One of my chief complaints with the game was that it was too big. A big game isn’t a problem if you have enough to fill it with, but the original release didn’t. There were things to do, but you had to trudge around finding them without much help or anything to do along the way. I feel the team has taken a leaf out of Super Mario Odyssey or Breath of the Wild — on the way to one thing, there’s always something else to distract you. It’s not just filler either; there are things to collect, see and do that make the same large worlds actually feel like fun places to explore.

There’s now a brand new map and tracker for collectables, and a whole new character, Mark, has been added for warp points. The levels are still big, but it’s easier to get around. It’s all optional too, if none of that sounds appealing to you. In fact, there are Tonics to make things harder, including one that turns on fall damage, if you’re after more of a challenge.

The Pagie count, the main collectable that lets you progress through the game — has almost doubled, and they’re handed out more generously so it feels like you make progress faster, at least early on. The jump in required Pagies for the final boss still makes you backtrack and hunt down the more hidden ones.

There are a couple of other collectables in the game too (well, there’s more than just these, but it’s a 90s inspired platformer, deal with it). Quills are no longer the main currency in the game but just one of several. They now unlock different gameplay changes and enhancements to hearts, energy and other upgrades.

In the original game, these were used to unlock moves, but this time they’ve let us off the leash and given us every move right from the start, which opens things up so much more. We all know how these games work, we don’t need the gradual rollout of abilities anymore, and it’s a welcome change. The rolling ability has also been tweaked so it no longer requires energy, which makes getting around much quicker and more fun.

Q.U.I.Ds are another all new collectable in the game (they’re coins), and these are used for purchasing Tonics (more health, filters, modifiers) and cosmetics (hats, glasses, shorts, etc). They are also hidden in hard to reach places and “around the back” of objects, like coins in Super Mario Galaxy. They provide small rewards for exploring and poking around in the game, something the first game was missing. Rextro’s Arcade returns as well, and the mini-games within it are much better and actually fun this time around, with a genuinely retro look. Tick, that’s another big complaint of mine fixed.

It’s not just that the game is laid out better, or that the things to do in the game are actually more compelling, but how the game controls have been redone as well. Aside from the complete moveset from the start, how Yooka and Laylee move through the world is more fluid and feels like Bear and Bird, more Mario, or even, dare I say it, Astrobot in nimbleness and efficiency. Revamped animations make stringing together complex moves and darting around much easier. I did experience several instances of the camera getting stuck in a different view, with the game forgetting it should have switched back, which forced me to exit the level.

We reviewed the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game, and when you play them side by side it’s obvious just how much better the game looks. Not just because it’s running at a higher resolution, but they’ve redone so much of the game that entire areas have been refreshed, with new textures on everything. Yes, the game runs at 30 FPS, but this is such a great-looking game with bright, alive worlds, great lighting, and impressive environmental effects in the snow, water, and smoke.

The game has been de-Banjoed in a few other ways too, with menus now looking more modern. One big change is that the game’s dialog boxes are no longer a direct copy of those in the old games. From the look of them to the constant chatter from the characters, they still speak gibberish for a moment, but not continually as the text appears on screen — let’s leave that in the last millennium.

Oh and the quizzes, they’re gone.

The original Yooka-Laylee brought us a 90s platformer in a modern skin, but it also carried over a lot of the bad habits of the era. Instead of trying to be its own game, it tried too hard to be a Banjo-Kazooie. Yooka-Replaylee now knows more clearly what it wants to be: a modern platformer that evokes the past rather than being dictated by it. Everything here has been improved: the controls, the game world, the graphics, and the camera. I forced myself through the original release, and when I reached the end of this one, I was like, “Oh, it’s over.” Playtonic listened to feedback, reflected on their work, and have made something really great here.

Rating: 4.5/5