Faithful Banjo-Kazooie nostalgia
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“I wanted a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. I paid for a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. I got a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie.”
Steam review · 4.7 h played ↗
Yooka-Laylee
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Mostly Positive · 78%Mostly Positive · 78%Playtonic Games20173D Platformer · Platformer · Adventure
$19.99
Open on Steam ↗US Steam price, checked 5 h ago
The verdict
A charming, faithful Banjo-Kazooie-style collectathon with great music and visuals, but huge empty worlds, a bad camera and tedium. Skip it if you want polish; the Replaylee remake is widely preferred.
Great for
Banjo-Kazooie and N64 collectathon fans who forgive jank and enjoy exploring big colorful worlds
Main risk
Huge empty levels, bad camera and tedious backtracking that the Replaylee remake fixes
What players love
Colorful, beautiful visuals
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“Gorgeous visuals, amazing soundtrack, and gameplay is polished.”
Steam review · 12.3 h played ↗
Charming humor and characters
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“The writing is clever and hilarious”
Steam review · 7.9 h played ↗
Great soundtrack
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“the soundtrack by David Wise and Grant Kirkhope is an instant playlist addition, no questions asked”
Steam review · 29.2 h played ↗
Fun exploration and collecting
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“One of the few 3D collectathons to actually reward exploration, and not rely heavily on trails of collectibles to hold your hand.”
Steam review · 3.2 h played ↗
Runs well on Steam Deck and PC
Mentioned in ~1 in 21 positive reviews
“The game runs smoothly on the Steam Deck and still looks beautiful.”
Steam review · 3.8 h played ↗
What players complain about
Huge, empty worlds that are easy to get lost in
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“Once I moved onto the second world, it felt large and there seemed to be a lot of empty areas.”
Steam review · 3.4 h played ↗
Bad camera
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“the camera is really, really bad”
Steam review · 1.8 h played ↗
Loose, clunky controls and flight
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“The whole game controls like an ice level”
Steam review · 11.2 h played ↗
Frustrating minigames and bosses
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“Oh that end boss.. every fault of this game gathered in a stupid long fight.. hated the whole game because of it”
Steam review · 33 h played ↗
Tedious design and backtracking
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“I think the worst thing a game can be is tedious, and that's the single word I'd use for Yooka-Laylee.”
Steam review · 25.5 h played ↗
Remake makes the original obsolete
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 negative reviews
“The re-release of this game (Yooka-Replaylee) has a excellent layer of polish that makes this version a janky eyesore.”
Steam review · 9.2 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: VerifiedController support9 GB
Minimum
OSWindows 7 (64bit)
ProcessorIntel i5-2500 3.3GHz
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsNVidia GTS450 / AMD Radeon 6850HD
Storage9 GB available space
OSWindows 7 (64bit)
ProcessorIntel i5-2500 3.3GHz
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsNVidia GTS450 / AMD Radeon 6850HD
Storage9 GB available space
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