Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

So this was a free game on a service called epic games in early February of 2022 and it had a lot of promise as it stood out compared to what I was playing at the time. You can really see the inspiration from Spyro, crash bandicoot, gex, donkey kong, super mario brothers and a lot of others I can't remember at the moment that it it pays tribute to and I love those era of video games more than the loot box driven, half completed games on most shelves today.

The game is colorful, it's quite pretty to look at, it's quite unique all things considered compared to what I've been playing these days and most importantly most levels have their own distinct look to it.

The open world portion of the game I can't stand that single sound effect a lot of the non playable characters use. I know it's a nod to some classic games but besides that I wish I could move the camera angle around a bit. Similar to Mega man legends 1

The soundtrack is pretty hit or miss. Some tracks are fantastic. Others I would mute if it wasn't for the enemies or traps. I want to hide that stupid ukulele most importantly this isn't some hipsters vacation video or review of a diet, vegan, sugar free, gmo free, fair trade, organic peanut butter that was only 40$ for 100g. It wasn't until the 4th day playing this I realized the name of the game is pronounced ukulele.

When you play this there are two sets of levels the standard one you can usually beat on your first try without dying at all sometimes in those early ones. Some gold coins called twit coins are quite well hidden where you need a second or third play through to see where they are or a trip to youtube. Then there is a second level usually you unlock by doing a certain task in the overworld. Some more cryptic than the others and they are for more hardcore .. or dare I say patient players or possibly the parents to play. Most levels are a good size not too small, yet some feel like they drag on forever. There are plenty of checkpoints and they are usually placed quite well. Certain levels have themes such as wind, honey (my least favorite) , some take inspiration from other video games. I'd love for there to be power ups such as invincibility, a projectile or stuff like that from iconic side scrollers.

Why did I rank this game so low then? Sounds like you like it. I found the game can spike in difficulty in places it shouldn't and that last level hence the games name even if you had 48 bees that is no assurance you'll get to the end boss your first few tries. The big issue is it's a very long level and that's the only reason it's so "impossible". Yes we get it, that's the name of the game. Impossible lair. This is just insulting. They even show how many attempts we've done which is just going to upset a lot of people. Did the programmers have a scoreboard above some hot girls head every time they got rejected, how about job interviews to a bigger development company to give them the salary they think they deserve! .. nope! Get rid of it. The last time I played a game with a final level that long was on steam. River city ransom underground which I thought was sadistic for a few frames of some garbage second rate ending. There are some legitimately enjoyable levels in this but for the most part the last few were an absolute chore. They even have the audacity to let you skip past hard parts which I find isn't necessary. This isn't GTA 5 or the chicken hat in MGS5. Retro side scrollers should not have that. That would be like putting the steering wheel in the back seat of a car or a cellphone charger on the screen so you can't use it while you charge it. Apple should invest i this! Thankfully you still get a bee if you use the skips and there isn't these silly awards like oh no hit bonus! There was some really "no life" ones in metal gear rising I played a few years ago I doubt anyone would get.

There are 40 levels to collect bees and 200 coins which are pretty much useless to collect anything more than 90-101 of them. It'll take you about 10-14 hours to 100% the game. Some good news is that when you get hit which will be a lot your companion Laylee you can usually catch again so as long as you do that you can take a second hit as if super marios mushroom left his body and you had to go get it back but Laylee flies in usually the worst possible spots as if we're 9 years old and assume someone on the other side of the world is controlling the purple bat looking creature making sure we don't get it. There are thankfully unlimited lives similar to ninja gaiden on NES. The game does a poor job explaining the power ups and hopes you played the other games in the series and would rather tell you this crappy story 90% of us don't care about the first 5 minutes. Thankfully after the first level or so there is very little story. Unlike playing through metal gear solid 2 or 3 for the 10th time (it's a short game). You just can't wait for the dialogue to be finished and there is no skip button.

If this is the first time you've played the game they just throw you into this level with invincibility where you have no idea what the heck you're doing. You are supposed to lose like in mega man X.

They do implement power ups that make the game easier called tonics but you get less money for doing so which you need to buy better tonics which is a pathetic attempt to add more hours onto this game and some will make the game easier so it's got some structure or for those who need a real challenge they can do the annoying visual effects and scrambling the controller to make the game more difficult in annoying ways. I would have rather they place the tonics in the levels or unlock them if you get all 5 coins similar to goldeneye on N64 if you beat the levels in X amount of time. But this case no time trials. I managed to get about 15 potions in the 2 days on and off without any help from youtube and focused on those pointless coins. Some tonics are quite easy to find and I managed to 100% the game in 5 days give or take thanks to youtube as the sickening amount of spiking in difficulty was what made me lose a lot of respect in this game it was like speeding up a terrible movie just to finish it. The ones where you have to head butt a certain part of the ground and pay for hints is kind of silly. Two I would never have got is the underwater one in the south western part of the map where you have to tap X in the pause menu with the map and of course the one in front of the stormy cloud where you jump down on this certain post which is difficult to get on. There are very few tonics actually worth your time such as the magnetic one to attract all the money, the one enemies give you more coins and they seem to have spent more time for different visual ones.

Yooka which as we know is the green one I wish his attacks were more useful and and its forward roll attack would be on a separate button similar to guacamele I played on steam.

I'd compare the difficulty to Donkey Kong 2 and that boss fight is heavily inspired by king k rool. They should have implemented more boss fights instead of that sickeningly long one. Since there are 40 levels i wish the games difficulty wouldn't spike until the 25th-30th level. At around 8 I was starting to lose my patience and this is coming from someone who grew up playing side scrollers. This isn't something you can speed run through or play level for level like Donkey Kong 1 which is a far better game and this isn't nostalgia speaking. I wish there was a better reward for getting all 200 twit coins without spoiling anything. I hate the fact there are tonics that lower the amount of money you get. Thankfully there are no races or time trials to give less replay value. Is this worth full retail? Not at all. Wait for it to go on sale. On one hand I wish more games were made like. On the other hand you have out of touch developers making these too difficult where the future generations won't pick them up and would rather play that 9999th round of call of duty with their auto aim and other cheats. You have these bright and colorful characters and I'm not expecting a spoon fed shovel ware kids games by any means where it's too easy but calling the difficulty of this game "Fair" someone described this as was an over statement. It's not cheap or unforgiving but I really feel like they should have spent more time on this where they understood their demographic(s) more. I ended up deleting this garbage after getting that last tonic purchased and twit coin. I refuse to do that garbage impossible lair again.