Given that in the N64 generation the folks at Rare seemed to be capable of giving even Nintendo a run for its money when it came to making great platformers, in principle Yooka-Laylee looked like it had great potential. Obviously tapping into the spirit of the classic Banjo-Kazooie with former Rare developers who worked on it, and adopting much of its style, sense of humor, and even elements of presentation, it was exciting to think it could possibly run with that ball from so many generations ago. Unfortunately, the results were inconsistent and generally underwhelming, showing glimmers of hope in some areas but falling short in others. Weirdly enough, the 2D Impossible Door follow-up felt spot-on by comparison, so when I heard they were taking another crack at the formula with Yooka-Replaylee my hopes were buoyed once more.

The result is absolutely a better game, featuring refinements to improve its story, an opening which does a better job of tutorializing core controls, and stages that don’t feel so weirdly empty. The personality and charm of the old Rare style still comes through, there are some cool cameos to enjoy, and if you like running around and challenging yourself to try to collect everything in sight you’ll truly have plenty to fill your cup with. In each of the large areas you’ll be transported to, you’ll initially feel like you can’t turn a corner anywhere in sight without running into something to collect, or obviously tied to unlocking a collectable in some way. Whether it’s skill challenges, needing to wipe out enemies, mini boss battles, a race of some kind, or some sort of puzzle to solve, there’s thankfully a tremendous amount of variety to be found here, and in general to grab everything, you’ll want and need to get comfortable with just about all of the controls.

That said, the same large areas you can enjoy exploring initially will soon end up feeling more like a liability. Without there being some structure and specific direction for how you go through an area, by the time you’ve found only half of the collectables available you’ll be likely to feel a bit lost at times. Since the stages are so packed full of stuff, and since collectables you’ve already gathered will continue to show in place (which you won’t be able to tell are greyed out until you get a bit closer to them), it starts to be a challenge to then find everything you haven’t yet grabbed. In that same vein, while you may appreciate how tougher and easier items will be right next to each other, it can make the game’s difficulty feel all over the place when something more structured would have made for a far smoother transition to tougher challenges. Throw in some periodic instability and a glitch here and there and while this new crack at the old Rare formula is an improvement, it also feels like it managed to take a few steps forward but at least one backwards in the process.