Welcome to our review of Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, the second game in the Yooka-Laylee series. Out now on Switch!
Yooka & Laylee are back in a brand-new platform hybrid adventure! They must run, jump and roll their way through a series of challenging 2D levels, face a puzzling Overworld and rally the Royal Bee-tallion to take down Capital B and his Impossible Lair!
Each level offers beautiful, rich visuals with detail and depth. Yooka, Laylee and a whole host of colorful characters (good and bad) are realized in stunning 2.5D
The overworld isn’t just a hub to hop from level to level, it provides a whole separate gaming experience! Explore and unlock more 2D levels by completing objectives and puzzles, rescue Royal Bees and find collectibles.
Alternate Level States!
Think you’ve got a level figured out? Try it in its alternate state! Flip switches in the overworld to create new landscapes.
Bee-at the Impossible Lair! Players are free to tackle Capital B’s Impossible Lair at any time; however, they may find it too much of a challenge without the help of the Royal Bee Guards.
When I first booted the cartridge of this game, I was intent on naming it Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Loading times. It took forever to get to actually playing and it sort of ruined the mood. I got the v2 Switch and was expecting it to be faster than this, to say the least. Even between levels, when you are faced with loading screens, you get stuck with some lengthy periods of waiting and often these come without sound. Imagine a 20+ seconds loading time without even a little tune to keep you distracted. Something I would actually consider a negative point.
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a nice game though once it gets done loading and the one thing you will immediately notice is how good looking it is. The levels are bright and sparkly and you suddenly forget all about the loading times.
The game is easy to figure out too, you need to go through the levels in order to free up your beetallion which will in turn aid you in your quest to beat the final boss. You are given the choice to take him on at any time and even in levels, it becomes quite clear that there is no real death. You just respawn at the previous save point when you fail the level.
Save Points are properly used and not overly present. It often does take some maneuvring the level in order to get to the next place that has a save point. There are quite a bit of enemy in this platformer but not to the extent that they are too present. I would say the balance is near perfection even.
As I never played the original, I can not compare it to its successor. Maybe one day I will pick it up. I would like to see how it performs on another console though. Those loading times, I want to find out if they are console related or not.
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair gave me quite a bit of fun and what one might call a lighter challenge. I’d situate them around the Super Mario style of challenge, obviously harder than a Kirby game but nothing Megaman like. Those games can be brutal and I would not call Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair brutal at all.
In conclusion, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is only plagued by the loading screens and once you “finally” get past those on Nintendo Switch, you got a fun platformer on your hands. Nothing perfect, but also very few things wrong with it. I will say I did take off 1 entire point due to the lack of a tune during some of the lengthy waiting times. It annoyed me a lot.
