{"id":23103,"date":"2020-02-05T20:46:14","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T10:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=23103"},"modified":"2020-07-12T23:18:44","modified_gmt":"2020-07-12T13:18:44","slug":"yooka-laylee-and-the-invisible-lair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=23103","title":{"rendered":"Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"yookalayleeimpossiblelair\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Developer:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Playtonic Games
\nPublisher:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Team 17
\nPlatform:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Nintendo Switch<\/p>\n

Y<\/em><\/span>ooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair<\/em> is a spiritual successor to modern Donkey Kong Country games made by Playtonic Games, a developer comprised of ex-Rare staff.<\/p>\n

Any DKC fan will realise in their first couple of minutes that the movement, jumping and barrel rolls are hugely influenced by DKC and to be honest, this is a very welcome thing as we’re now going on SEVEN YEARS since Nintendo last published a new\u00a0Donkey Kong Country title.\u00a0 Who knows when we’ll get an actual follow up to Donkey Kong Country:\u00a0Tropical Freeze<\/em>\u00a0but unofficially,\u00a0this is it<\/em><\/span>.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0The Impossible Lair<\/em>, the evil Captain B is back and he’s trapped a bunch of bees (???) and devised a sinister and deadly dungeon – the eponymous Impossible Lair.\u00a0 Its up to Yooka (a chameleon) and Laylee (a bat) to save the day by rescuing the 48 bees and gathering enough tonics to navigate the lair to defeat the Captain.<\/p>\n

I’m going to get\u00a0the biggest grievances off my chest about\u00a0Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair<\/em> before I tuck into the good stuff.\u00a0 This is a rough looking and visually mediocre game.\u00a0 When I think of\u00a0the stable of modern platform games –\u00a0Mario Odyssey, Rayman Legends, <\/em>the\u00a0Crash<\/em> and\u00a0Spyro<\/em> remasters – each of those games has a pleasing visual style whereas The Impossible Lair<\/em> is just kind of gross-looking<\/em>.\u00a0 Yooka, Laylee, stupid Captain B and most of his minions look like some kind of cheap knock off version of Donkey Kong characters and I never really warmed to them.<\/p>\n

But honestly, thats my only real beef.\u00a0 Playing\u00a0The Impossible Lair<\/em> is an absolute delight.<\/p>\n

\"yookalayleeimpossiblethumb\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Easing into the game will be a cinch for most platform aficionados.\u00a0 The timing of the jumps, the handling of the controls, the assortment of crates, mine kart levels and boss stages will all feel comfortably familiar in the best possible way for anyone who grew up playing Donkey Kong Country<\/em>.\u00a0 It is no bad thing to get this type of gameplay when it is so scarce and hard to come by.<\/p>\n

The level design is excellent and smartly crafted.\u00a0 Early stages introduce the various play-mechanics to the player and once you attain a mastery of the controls and familiarity with the enemy types, the end game really throws the kitchen sink at you with some deviously challenging (yet highly enjoyable) courses that will test your mettle.<\/p>\n

What excites me most about\u00a0Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair<\/em> is that it takes a very safe genre and explores dozens of creative ideas, almost all of which are well executed and could\/should become staples of the genre.\u00a0 Take world maps.\u00a0 We’ve had them in platform games ever since\u00a0Super Mario Bros 3<\/em> but to my knowledge,\u00a0The Impossible Lair<\/em> is one of the first games to make it something more than just a cosmetic overlay.\u00a0 The game sprinkles hidden tonics throughout the overworld, adds some puzzles that are fun without being overly taxing and basically makes it an additional exploration component of the game.<\/p>\n

The tonics are also another great concept.\u00a0 Players unlock them throughout the game and Yooka can take as many as three of them into any level.\u00a0 Some of the tonics only superficially change the level (big head mode, monochrome filter, change Yooka’s appearance) and others substantially change the gameplay, with options to make it easier (more checkpoints, longer jumps etc) or harder (inverted controls).\u00a0 Players taking difficulty-raising tonics into levels will get a multiplier on the quills you collect (the ingame currency) and those who use tonics that make the game easier cop a reduction in the percentage of total quills.\u00a0 I loved this concept and had a good time throughout the game tinkering and experimenting with the tonics.\u00a0 They personalise the experience for each player and I think is a mechanic that can be explored much further in future titles.<\/p>\n

Lastly, the Lair itself.\u00a0 Reading about it online, the Lair seems rather divisive.\u00a0 It is a brutally difficult and long level that includes four battles with Captain B and a timed escape run afterwards.\u00a0 An interesting thing about the Lair is can be accessed straight away so potentially, a supremely talented player could finish it without playing a single regular stage.\u00a0 For 99% of us, we’ll need to rescue the 48 bees in the game, each of which allow Yooka to survive an extra hit in the Lair.\u00a0 I went in with all 48 bees collected and after 13 attempts, I eventually finished it with 2 bees left.\u00a0 In other words, I was hit\u00a0forty six times<\/em> whilst trying to beat the challenge.\u00a0 Now, for some people, thats probably too daunting.\u00a0 A step too far.\u00a0 But for anyone who lives and breathes platform games and enjoyed the masochistic challenge of the recent Crash Bandicoot stage\u00a0Stormy Ascent<\/em>, this should be an enticing and hugely entertaining mountain to conquer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In summary:\u00a0Yooka Laylee\u00a0<\/em>plays like a dream.\u00a0 It is challenging in a fun and fair way.\u00a0 It’s full of ideas that reinvigorate the genre.\u00a0 For fans of classic platform games, this is a very welcome and most pleasant surprise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This spiritual successor to Donkey Kong Country made by ex-Rare developers is full of surprises and great ideas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":23106,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2618,2891,2892],"class_list":["post-23103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","tag-nintendo-switch","tag-playtonic-games","tag-yooka-laylee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23103"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23206,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23103\/revisions\/23206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}