Yooka-Laylee is a 2017 platform game created by Playtonic Games and published by Team17. The game was made by a team of former important workers from Rare, and it is considered a spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie series. The story follows a chameleon named Yooka and a bat named Laylee as they work together to recover a magical book from a harmful company.
After many years of planning, Playtonic Games started a Kickstarter campaign to fund the game. This campaign received a lot of attention from the media and raised more than £2 million. The game was released for Linux, macOS, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One in April 2017. It later came out for Nintendo Switch in December 2017 and Amazon Luna in October 2020.
Yooka-Laylee received mixed reviews. Some critics believed that copying the style of older games was enough to make it successful, while others thought it relied too much on nostalgia. Most agreed that the game captured the feel of classic platformers but also noted problems with its technical quality and outdated gameplay.
A spin-off called Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair was released on October 8, 2019. A remake titled Yooka-Replaylee was released on October 9, 2025.
Gameplay
Yooka-Laylee is a platform game played from a third-person perspective, meaning players see the characters from the side, not from inside their heads. The gameplay is similar to games like Banjo-Kazooie and Chameleon Twist. Players control two characters, Yooka, a male chameleon, and Laylee, a female bat, who work together to explore environments, collect items, solve puzzles, and defeat enemies. The game takes place in worlds found inside magical books. Players complete challenges to collect "Pagies," which are golden book pages used as currency. Pagies can be used to unlock new worlds or expand already unlocked ones. Yooka and Laylee share one health meter, but they have unlimited lives. If they lose all health or fall into a bottomless pit, they will restart at a checkpoint.
Yooka and Laylee can learn abilities such as "sonar blasting," "tongue whipping," "sky soaring," and eating berries for temporary powers like fire breath or a "fart bubble" for underwater breathing. Most abilities use a power meter, which is filled by collecting butterflies (or eating butterflies to restore health). Each ability is earned by collecting enough quills to buy them from a character named Trowzer. Collectibles called Mollycools are given to Dr. Puzz, an octopus scientist, to unlock transformations that grant new abilities. "Play Tonics" are modifiers that change or improve ability stats and are bought from Vendi, a vending machine-like character. Levels also include Ghost Writers, collectible characters that offer challenges like catching or fighting them, and Play Tokens, which are used to play secret arcade games hosted by a low-polygon tyrannosaurus rex named Rextro Sixtyfourus. The game includes "quiz show challenges" similar to those in Banjo-Kazooie. A character named Kartos, a sentient mine cart, allows "mine cart" sequences, similar to those in Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong 64.
The game has a local cooperative multiplayer mode for two players. It also includes a 2–4 player adversarial local multiplayer mode with eight minigames. The game features an optional "64-bit" mode, which mimics the graphical style of Nintendo 64 games.
Plot
At Hivory Towers corporation, CEO Capital B and his assistant, Dr. Quack, use a machine to remove all books worldwide. Their goal is to find a special book called the "One Book," which has the power to change the universe. Meanwhile, on Shipwreck Creek, Yooka and Laylee, who currently possess the One Book, watch as the book is pulled into Hivory Towers. Some pages of the book escape during the process. Yooka and Laylee then travel to Hivory Towers to retrieve the book.
Inside Hivory Towers, Yooka and Laylee explore five different worlds to collect pieces of the One Book called "Pagies." After gathering 100 Pagies, they face and defeat Capital B in his office. There, they discover that Hivory Towers is part of a larger organization named V.I.L.E., and that Dr. Quack is actually Capital B's supervisor. At this moment, a friendly cannon named Blasto, who is a companion to Yooka and Laylee, accidentally fires a cannonball at Capital B and Dr. Quack. The cannonball hits them, knocking them onto the One Book, where they become trapped inside. After this, Yooka, Laylee, and their friends celebrate their success with a party.
Development
In September 2012, a group of former employees from the video game company Rare tried to create a new game inspired by Banjo-Kazooie. They used the Twitter handle "Mingy Jongo," which was the name of a character from the game Banjo-Tooie. The group included former Rare designers, such as composer Grant Kirkhope. In December 2014, the project was put on hold indefinitely, as Kirkhope confirmed in a Reddit interview. However, in August 2015, the group formed a new company called Playtonic Games and revived the project under this name. Playtonic announced a new game titled Yooka-Laylee, which was previously called Project Ukulele. At the start of development, six people worked on the game. To fund the project, the team used Kickstarter, a website where people donate money. They aimed to raise £175,000, which was reached in just 40 minutes, a record for the platform. The campaign later became the fastest to reach US$1,000,000 in pledges. Within weeks, the game raised £2.1 million from over 80,000 supporters.
Yooka-Laylee was designed to bring back the style of 3D platformer games from the late 1990s and early 2000s, where players collect items to progress. Some collectibles were made using 2D images. Additional content was planned for release after the game launched, and supporters received this content for free. The game’s main language is English, with versions in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Wil Overton, a former artist at Rare, created the game’s instruction manual.
The game was developed using the Unity engine, along with other tools that helped the team fix problems and work more efficiently. The name "Yooka-Laylee" was inspired by the word "ukulele" and went through several versions before being finalized. The game’s 3D environments were designed by Steven Hurst, who also worked on Banjo-Kazooie and Viva Piñata. Characters were designed by Kevin Bayliss, who worked on Donkey Kong Country, and Ed Bryan, who designed characters for Banjo-Kazooie. Originally, Yooka was imagined as a lion, but the team changed him to a chameleon and made Laylee a bat to match their abilities in the game. Characters were not given voices to allow players more freedom in choosing how they play. The game’s perk system was inspired by other types of video games. Animations were used to improve character movement. Composers Grant Kirkhope, David Wise, and Steve Burke created the game’s music. A soundtrack CD was given to some Kickstarter supporters. The game’s music quality improved because of better technology compared to older games. A character from the indie game Shovel Knight appears in Yooka-Laylee, voiced by the game’s director, Sean Velasco. This was announced after Yooka-Laylee’s character trailer was released in September 2016.
In March 2017, Jon "JonTron" Jafari, who was set to voice a character in Yooka-Laylee, had his voiceovers removed from the final game after making racist comments during a live stream. Jafari said he understood Playtonic’s decision and wished them success.
After Yooka-Laylee was released, Playtonic announced updates to improve the game’s camera and controls, as well as add new features and other improvements.
Release
The game was published by Team17, who also helped Playtonic Games with tasks such as translating the game for different languages, ensuring it met quality standards, checking that it was safe for sale, promoting it, and handling other non-developer responsibilities. The game's funding project was launched on Kickstarter in May 2015. It met its first goal of £175,000 in 38 minutes and reached its highest initial goal of £1 million in 21 hours, becoming the fastest video game on Kickstarter to reach £1 million at that time. Playtonic Games later thanked supporters in a public message and promised future updates. The campaign added four extra funding goals, all of which were achieved. Contributors who gave specific amounts received special rewards tied to the game's release. It is currently the most-funded UK video game on Kickstarter, surpassing the previous record held by Elite: Dangerous with £2,090,104 raised. The success of the campaign allowed the game to be released on consoles in April 2017.
In October 2016, Playtonic Games confirmed the game would be sold in stores and digitally, offering backers who received the digital version the option to get a physical copy. In December, the game was set to be released both digitally and in stores worldwide on April 11, 2017, for all platforms. At the same time, Playtonic Games announced the Wii U version would be canceled due to "unexpected technical problems," with development shifted to the Nintendo Switch. Backers who supported the Wii U version could choose a refund or move their pledge to another platform without extra cost. Details about the Nintendo Switch version were to be shared in January 2017. The decision to cancel the Wii U version was not related to the console's sales performance, and some developers expressed hesitation about the change. In February, Playtonic Games stated that a physical version for the Nintendo Switch was not planned at the time. Limited Run Games later announced physical copies for the Nintendo Switch in North America, starting in August 2018. Playtonic Games also announced a special Collector's Edition of the game for December 2017, which included a statue, concept art, a keychain, and pins.
The release of Yooka-Laylee was delayed to early 2017 to allow the team more time to improve the game. Playtonic Games focused on developing the PC and Wii U versions, giving the latter more attention because of higher demand from Kickstarter backers and nostalgia for older games. Team17, the publisher, created the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game. On April 1, 2017, Playtonic Games released The Yooka-Laylee Rap!, which was a stretch goal on Kickstarter. This song honors the DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64, with Kirkhope returning as the composer.
Reception
Yooka-Laylee received "mixed or average" reviews on the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, while it received "generally favourable" reviews on the Nintendo Switch, according to Metacritic. Another review site, OpenCritic, reported that 57% of critics recommended the game, giving it fair approval. Most critics agreed that the game reminded players of classic 3D platformers, but opinions were split on whether this was a strength or a weakness, as some felt the gameplay and design seemed outdated. Kickstarter backers were satisfied with the final product, even though they were disappointed with delays to the pre-release demo and the cancellation of the Wii U version. Many backers received Steam codes instead of Switch codes. The game debuted at number 6 in the U.K. all-formats chart in its first week and reached number 2 in the Australian sales charts during the same period. By 24 November 2018, the game had sold over 1 million copies.
The game won the "Game in a Small Studio" award at The Independent Game Developers' Association Awards and was also nominated for "Action and Adventure Game." It received additional nominations for "New Games IP," "Animation," and "Visual Design" at the 2017 Develop Awards, as well as for "Game, Original Family" at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards.
Many critics praised Yooka-Laylee as a successful follow-up to the original Banjo-Kazooie games. Steven Bogos of The Escapist called it "Banjo-Threeie," describing it as a nostalgic experience that brought classic N64-style collect-a-thons into the modern era. James Kozanitis of GameRevolution noted improvements in gameplay and the importance of collectibles. Chris Carter of Destructoid praised the game's large levels and colorful design but said the retro style might not appeal to all players. Marty Sliva of IGN stated that the game showed the 3D platformer genre still had potential, praising its level design, soundtrack, and characters, but criticized the camera controls and noted that some aspects felt outdated. Kallie Plagge of GameSpot appreciated the collectibles and non-linear structure but criticized the camera and some confusing level designs.
Colm Ahern was more critical, pointing out issues like camera problems, unclear puzzles, and repetitive levels. He also said the game struggled to decide if it was aimed at children or adults. Chelsea Stark of Polygon called the game a reminder that some memories are better left in the past, criticizing its combat mechanics and controls. David Houghton of GamesRadar noted repetitive missions and said some power-ups, like flight, made parts of the game feel unnecessary.
Darran Jones of Retro Gamer reviewed a version called Yooka-Replaylee and said it was an improvement over the original, citing better visuals, audio, and gameplay features like starting with both characters' abilities and a redesigned map and camera system.
Spin-off, remake and other appearances
A spin-off game titled Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair was released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on October 8, 2019. Unlike the original game, Impossible Lair includes levels that look like those in the Donkey Kong Country series, with a 2.5D style. However, the game also includes a 3D overworld, which is a larger map that connects different areas.
A remake of the game, called Yooka-Replaylee, was announced in June 2024. This version includes improved graphics, updated character designs, and adjusted controls. It also features revised challenges and puzzles, along with new features such as a map to track goals and a fast travel system. In this remake, players can use all character moves from the start of the game, and the world expansion mechanic has been removed. All worlds are fully expanded when players first enter them. Additional collectible items have been added, including a new currency that allows players to unlock special abilities called tonics. Yooka-Replaylee was released on October 9, 2025, for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S.
Yooka and Laylee appear as playable guest characters in the fighting games Mighty Fight Federation and Brawlout. They also appear as a skin for the character Violet in the party battle game Brief Battles and as assist characters in the beat ’em up game Jitsu Squad. Developers Komi Games and Playtonic Games collaborated to create a story for Yooka and Laylee in Mighty Fight Federation that takes place between Yooka-Laylee and Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. Additionally, Yooka and Laylee are available as paid costumes in the game Fall Guys.