It’s been awhile since we last heard about Yooka-Laylee, the Kickstarter funded 3-D platformer from former Rare developers. Today, a huge update was announced for the game, revealing details on the story, gameplay, and an exclusive demo for certain Kickstarter backers.
Probably the most exciting news is that Playtonic announced that the Toybox will be available in July to anyone who donated more than $32 on Kickstarter. As explained by Playtonic, the Toybox is not so much a demo but a “self-contained, spoiler-free sandbox designed to give Yooka-Laylee backers a taste of the platforming to come from the final game. There are plenty of moves to try, custom-built props to play with, secrets to discover and yes, shiny collectables to hunt out.” Even for those who didn’t back enough money, this means we could actually get a look at Yooka-Laylee’s gameplay in action soon.
The update also gave us a better look at the game’s story and gameplay mechanics. In the story, Yooka and Laylee’s world has been taken over by a evil businessman named Capital B, whose plan is to convert all the world’s literature into profit. Yooka and Laylee have to “seek out the magical Paiges required to explore the mysterious Grand Tomes.” The post also mentioned some other characters, including a multi-limbed scientist named Dr. Puzz and her colleague Dr. Quack, who has been corrupted by Capital B. Dr. Puzz is “the gateway to all of Yooka-Laylee’s wild and wonderful transformations,” which sounds similar to Mumbo-Jumbo’s transformations in Banjo-Kazooie.
Speaking of Banjo-Kazooie, Yooka-Laylee’s gameplay features a variety of shiny things to collect and huge worlds to explore. Scattered throughout each level are “Quills” which can be used “to purchase and unlock moves from the serpent salesman Trowzer, which they can choose to do in virtually any order that the player decides.” There is also the new power meter, which is designed “to empower fun and challenging platforming gameplay while avoiding the all-too-occasional tedium of resource management.” The power meter sounds like a way for developers to get rid of the backtracking that ate up player’s time in Banjo-Kazooie.
Although no release date has been confirmed yet, Playtonic announced that the game will be at E3 this year, so we will soon get more details on Yooka-Laylee before it’s released on Xbox One, PS4, Wii U, and PC.