Yooka-Laylee |OT| Reptile Rolling in the 90’s

You're not following my point. I'm not saying it's the same thing, I'm saying it's dumb to score a game on anything other than how much you liked it, because it can lead to disingenuous reviews like that. I hated Driveclub. Didn't have one second of fun playing it. I would give it a 2/10 if I reviewed it, because I enjoyed looking at the pretty graphics and not one other aspect. Using your logic I should give it an 8 because it executes what it sets out to do, even if I hated every second I played it.
Well, let's list some games where I'd rather play the shitfest that is Sonic 2006: Dark Souls 3, Gran Turismo (complete series), Forza (complete series), Madden (all entries I know), The Sims (complete series), every first person shooter I have ever played. Now, Sonic 2006, I'd rate 2/10 on a good day, would you expect me and find it reasonable to rate all the above games 1/10 because I personally enjoy them much less, even though I can, by a proper analysis of the games, easily see their draw, how they work towards their goals and how they, often with very good results, achieve what they set out to do? On the flipside: Yooka-Laylee is the most fun I had with a new game since at least 2013 (where there was Pikmin 3). There are numerous flaws in the game that should definitely be pointed out and weighted. But since I am feeling super joyous to finally play such a game again, would you expect me to rate it a 10/10 and just gush over the actual issues with the game? I feel this is not what professional reviews are about.

I think it is very dismissive to say that the people who don't like it are lacking plateformer skills. Especially when the a lot of the people reviewing it are Banjo fans or just fans of plateformers. To them, this isn't a well made plateformer. It is mediocre.
Which is why I did not say that at all. I said that there exist issues that lie more on the side of player skill that are blown out of proportion, I never said or insinuated that everyone who dislikes the game or thinks it is mediocre is doing that or feels this way because he is inept at platformers.

If modern rare can't do better than this whenever they inevitably release the next Banjo game... We're fucked.
Inevitably? I seriously doubt they will make a new Banjo ever, calling it inevitable is a very interesting viewpoint.
 
That's part of a review yes, but it can have every feature ticked off on a checklist and still not be a fun game and deserve a bad score from that reviewer. Games can be more than the sum of their parts, but sometimes they are less. Where are all these high scoring reviews people are reading where the reviewer hated it but gave it 9/10 because it did what it set out to do?

I gave a 9/10 to Viva Pinata because it does its job incredibly well. I personally did not enjoy it at all though (other than its art and music), because I hate busywork.
 
Well, let's list some games where I'd rather play the shitfest that is Sonic 2006: Dark Souls 3, Gran Turismo (complete series), Forza (complete series), Madden (all entries I know), The Sims (complete series), every first person shooter I have ever played. Now, Sonic 2006, I'd rate 2/10 on a good day, would you expect me and find it reasonable to rate all the above games 1/10 because I personally enjoy them much less, even though I can, by a proper analysis of the games, easily see their draw, how they work towards their goals and how they, often with very good results, achieve what they set out to do? On the flipside: Yooka-Laylee is the most fun I had with a new game since at least 2013 (where there was Pikmin 3). There are numerous flaws in the game that should definitely be pointed out and weighted. But since I am feeling super joyous to finally play such a game again, would you expect me to rate it a 10/10 and just gush over the actual issues with the game? I feel this is not what professional reviews are about.

Which is why I did not say that at all. I said that there exist issues that lie more on the side of player skill that are blown out of proportion, I never said or insinuated that everyone who dislikes the game or thinks it is mediocre is doing that or feels this way because he is inept at platformers.

Inevitably? I seriously doubt they will make a new Banjo ever, calling it inevitable is a very interesting viewpoint.

No I think if you don't like those types of games, your opinion wouldn't hold much value to the fans of their genres and series, but as someone with similar tastes as you, I'd appreciate reading that perspective, because if you reviewed one and ended up loving it, I'd be like "Wow, he hates that type of game and had fun with this one, I should check it out!" I think genuine opinions are more valuable than dispassionate checklist filling. And there's a guy in this thread with a Mario Sunshine avatar glossing over the issues of Yooka and saying 10/10, and I don't think that's an invalid take, since for him the issues don't matter. But it's his take on it, not a checklist where he ticked off all the boxes.

Edit: if you gave a 9/10 to a game you hated, I would never trust one of your reviews. "It did what it set out to do incredibly well, except making me like it." That's insane to me, and your score makes no sense. What does it even mean, that it's a 9/10 for people who like busywork? How do you know what other people will like?
 
Played a bit of the first level so far and have a few issues:

-The mac port seems very poorly optimized. My framerate drops like a brick at the start of the level, and often when I pan out over large landscapes. I've had to resort to dropping the quality to fastest and the screen size to the smallest possible to stay above 30 and even then I get 10 fps at times. I might download the game again on my windows partition to make sure its the mac port.

Second: The first world overall has been nice except for some dumb layout things. I keep noticing ledges you can clearly walk on, but lead nowhere, not even to a quill. In addition, the rocks around the edge of the stage are misleading. They look like you are allowed to step there, but after dropping down onto them one or two times, I've realized there's no way to get back to the main stage from them ( at least with my current moveset) without just jumping off the cliff.
 
Which is why I did not say that at all. I said that there exist issues that lie more on the side of player skill that are blown out of proportion, I never said or insinuated that everyone who dislikes the game or thinks it is mediocre is doing that or feels this way because he is inept at platformers.

Here's the thing, it may be 'blown out of proportion' for you, but not the person playing. You really can't say something is blown out of proportion if several reviewers and other gamers have the same thought, especially when a lot of them are platform fans.

A good example is you saying that Breath of the Wild have terrible voice work and several people agree. I personally find the voice work fine to subpar, far from terrible, and I find the voices in YL to be far more annoying than even the worst voice in Breath of the Wild.
 
Inevitably? I seriously doubt they will make a new Banjo ever, calling it inevitable is a very interesting viewpoint.

Agreed. Microsoft has sat on Banjo long enough to prove to me they likely won't revisit the series anytime soon.
 
Well, let's list some games where I'd rather play the shitfest that is Sonic 2006: Dark Souls 3, Gran Turismo (complete series), Forza (complete series), Madden (all entries I know), The Sims (complete series), every first person shooter I have ever played. Now, Sonic 2006, I'd rate 2/10 on a good day, would you expect me and find it reasonable to rate all the above games 1/10 because I personally enjoy them much less, even though I can, by a proper analysis of the games, easily see their draw, how they work towards their goals and how they, often with very good results, achieve what they set out to do? On the flipside: Yooka-Laylee is the most fun I had with a new game since at least 2013 (where there was Pikmin 3). There are numerous flaws in the game that should definitely be pointed out and weighted. But since I am feeling super joyous to finally play such a game again, would you expect me to rate it a 10/10 and just gush over the actual issues with the game? I feel this is not what professional reviews are about.

Which is why I did not say that at all. I said that there exist issues that lie more on the side of player skill that are blown out of proportion, I never said or insinuated that everyone who dislikes the game or thinks it is mediocre is doing that or feels this way because he is inept at platformers.

Inevitably? I seriously doubt they will make a new Banjo ever, calling it inevitable is a very interesting viewpoint.
It's one if not their most beloved franchises, one that they bring up every so often talking about how the devs really want to work on a new Banjo game. Unless rare crashes and burns entirely, it's going to happen.
 
I gave a 9/10 to Viva Pinata because it does its job incredibly well. I personally did not enjoy it at all though (other than its art and music), because I hate busywork.
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It's one if not their most beloved franchises, one that they bring up every so often talking about how the devs really want to work on a new Banjo game. Unless rare crashes and burns entirely, it's going to happen.

If this were any other company, I'd be inclined to agree. It's Microsoft, and they've let me down to many times to believe that.
 
Here's the thing, it may be 'blown out of proportion' for you, but not the person playing. You really can't say something is blown out of proportion if several reviewers and other gamers have the same thought, especially when a lot of them are platform fans.

A good example is you saying that Breath of the Wild have terrible voice work and several people agree. I personally find the voice work fine to subpar, far from terrible, and I find the voices in YL to be far more annoying than even the worst voice in Breath of the Wild.
Well, that's obviously my opinion on that and different opinions may exist.

if you gave a 9/10 to a game you hated, I would never trust one of your reviews. "It did what it set out to do incredibly well, except making me like it." That's insane to me, and your score makes no sense. What does it even mean, that it's a 9/10 for people who like busywork? How do you know what other people will like?
I can observe from playing the game how well the elements of the game are introduced and balanced, how varied the activites are that you are supposed to do, how the difficulty curve develops, how intuitive and simple to use the interface (including controls) is, how coherent the presentation is. What it means is, that it is an exceptionally well-made simulation game that I think anyone who likes simulation games will have a great pleasure of playing. That I, personally, do not value what VP sets out to do is something that should of course go into the text, as well (and went in there), but it should not dominate the analysis of the game.
 
Considering how well the new Killer Instinct turned out, I kinda wish Microsoft could find another talented company to work on a new Banjo, while Rare continues to work on new IPs like Sea of Thieves. Only problem is, who would that talented developer be (that isn't Nintendo).

Insomniac, perhaps?
 
Considering how well the new Killer Instinct turned out, I kinda wish Microsoft could find another talented company to work on a new Banjo, while Rare continues to work on new IPs like Sea of Thieves. Only problem is, who would that talented developer be (that isn't Nintendo).

Insomniac, perhaps?

Insomniac proved quite incapable of making good collectathon levels though, according to my experience with Spyro. On the flipside, Rare still have the original leveldesigner of Banjo-Kazooie on board so it would be a shame if he were not involved.
 
Insomniac proved quite incapable of making good collectathon levels though, according to my experience with Spyro. On the flipside, Rare still have the original leveldesigner of Banjo-Kazooie on board so it would be a shame if he were not involved.

If Rare collapses Mr. Mayles HAS to go to Playtonic and make games with his brother again. <3
 
You know who MS is most likely to be offer a proper 3D Banjo Kazooie game to? Playtonic.

They just made one for probably less than $5 million dollars all up (assuming KS was roughly half of the total budget. Very few other devs can actually say that these days.

The fact someone has made a game like this for that sort of money is amazing. Its just a pity it needs a few patches to fix the cameras and polish stuff up a bit. Maybe not bring it up to 2017, just around 2003-2004 would do. So many of the issues with this game seem to have been solved/minimised by the games influenced by Banjo era. Even the shitty shovelware ones probably cost more to make in real terms.
 
I completed the first world, have about 5 pagies to go in the second, and did a rough pass in the third. So far, I'm loving the game aside from a few awful pagies in each world (e.g. Rampo, the dark cave, and plow nonsense) that need some tweaks to not suck horribly.
 
Banjo Kazooie: Brick n' Blocks

The BK-Minecraft crossover you never knew you wanted!

Lmfao.

Just to put this into perspective, Sony had enough people asking them about Crash after Playstation All-Stars that they got in touch with Activision to help make a new game. Microsoft has full ownership of Banjo' s IP and still won't do anything.

And even if they did, I don't expect them to put much money behind it. Killer Instinct is one of the best games on the Xbox One and Microsoft barely helps fund it, and usually leaves it up to the community to help do things. It's not even going to be at EVO this year.
 
I'm going to have to try turning v-sync off later. The game ran really poorly last night for no good reason (and changing the graphics down did nothing). I can run newer games like Doom at maximum settings, there's no reason this game can't be maxed out on my PC. I think I've had issues with v-sync before.

Does anyone else feel like the game needs more enemies in the levels? There are some empty sections that I think need filling.

Enemies in this game are lame. The Banjo games had specific enemy designs for every single stage, even if they were cloned in behavior. This game just dresses up the same generic grunts in different costumes and pretends it's okay.
 
You know who MS is most likely to be offer a proper 3D Banjo Kazooie game to? Playtonic.

They just made one for probably less than $5 million dollars all up (assuming KS was roughly half of the total budget. Very few other devs can actually say that these days.

The fact someone has made a game like this for that sort of money is amazing. Its just a pity it needs a few patches to fix the cameras and polish stuff up a bit. Maybe not bring it up to 2017, just around 2003-2004 would do. So many of the issues with this game seem to have been solved/minimised by the games influenced by Banjo era. Even the shitty shovelware ones probably cost more to make in real terms.

I kinda feel Playtonic would knock them back if they were asked. They want to do their own IP.
 
Fired this up for PS4 Pro last night, and wow!!! To each their own, but this game is fantastic! They nailed the old school humor and Banjo feel, and the gameplay to me is spot on! No issues at all with framerate, and the game looks gorgeous even though it's not Pro Enhanced (would love to have a Pro patch too lol). The camera has some issues, but to me, they're easily overcome and don't ruin the game at all. I feel a patch could tweak them even further and fix them.

Music is great too, and to me the jibber jabber voices add to the old school vibe. lol I get why some wouldn't like them (lol my girlfriend hates it haha), but to me, its all part of the charm.

If you loved Banjo and DK64 back in the day, picking this up is a no brainer! I'd give it a 9 so far based on what I've played.
 
I kinda feel Playtonic would knock them back if they were asked. They want to do their own IP.

I can.maybe imagine them trying to do a switch exclusive funded by Nintendo(depending how sales go, I kinda still expect the switch version to end up the best selling one) if it came to it, but yes. I think they'd rather not tie themselves down to a publisher at this stage.

They probably would, they know how much people would love a classic BK.
That's why they made one. I don't think the specific characters are anywhere near as important to them as you think.
 
I played for about 2 hours last night. Really taking my time and trying to learn my way around the first world. I played just far enough to expand the world. It would be nice if I could replay the cutscene showing you which areas expanded, because I will definitely not remember all of them by the next time I play.

Rextro's minigame aside, this has been a total joy to play.

In addition, the rocks around the edge of the stage are misleading. They look like you are allowed to step there, but after dropping down onto them one or two times, I've realized there's no way to get back to the main stage from them ( at least with my current moveset) without just jumping off the cliff.

This happened to me, too. Many of the rocks loop around the border of the stage and really look like there should be something hidden there.
 
Despite the criticisms about the second boss I didn't find it that bad. Went on a bit too long but didn't find it that bad and completed it second time.

Really enjoyed that section of the second world inside the palace, a nice change of pace.

On the other hand, fuck the gloomy cave!
 
I really wanted to enjoy this game, and I've followed it forever, but I can't. The controls feel like shit, there is a weird stutter when the camera pans (I have gsync and even tried locking fps to 60), the camera is miserable, and the areas feel so void at times. Really disappointed in this one, but will keep going in hopes I get used to it or they patch it again.

Side complaint: the voices were endearing at first, but now I want to play on mute lol. The sounds go on forever if you don't skip through dialogue and are so annoying after about 5 minutes.
 
Camera turning feels offf, and makes me feel a bit sick.

Interesting to see someone else say this, my friend said the game was giving them a headache and made them feel kinda weird. It didn't seem to bother me but I didn't play for long periods at a time.
 
Interesting to see someone else say this, my friend said the game was giving them a headache and made them feel kinda weird. It didn't seem to bother me but I didn't play for long periods at a time.

The default camera turning speed was off for me....I had to turn it up a bit, and then it felt better. It never made me feel off either way, but have your friend try adjusting the setting if they haven't already.
 
4.5 hours into the game, I really like it.

Some notes:

29.99 may have been a better price fit for thr game. I got it for 10 pounds during the kickstarter and I think that was a steal.

It does what it does well, it's not the be-all-end-all of platformers. There's definitely room for improvement in a sequel.

Some areas would need some more polish, but that's rather nitpicking.



People need to keep in mind this game was made in 2.5 years, on a tight budget, by the very definition of an indie developer.

Also, fuck JonTronBots. I see a lot of reviews on Steam that give the game a negative review eith 0.2 to 0.6 hours played, criticizing the level design and shit. Oh okay, like you've been there and played it you plonker.
 
The presentation is rough.

It's deliciously ironic that the game chugs and stutters during the fade in/out animation that displays a simple 2D "made with Unity" logo. I mean, seriously? A simple fade/in out animation of a 2D splash screen and you can't get that right? Was this done on purpose?

But the loading screens have to take the cake. They're so heavily animated with that constantly-moving background that any stutter sticks out like a sore thumb and looks absolutely jarring. It fucking hurts. And boy do they stutter. They stutter constantly. And if constant stuttering wasn't enough, I've had several of those loading screens completely freeze dead on me for well over 10 seconds. At one point one froze for what must have been around 30 seconds. I thought the game had just locked up and was about to hit the Home button to check on it when it finally resumed.

User feedback is just shoddy all around. Poor UI response, or lack thereof. When selecting a save file slot, nothing happens. No chime, no visual cue. It's just about like one second later (and that's an eternity in UX design) do you see the transition animation starting, finally indicating that yes, you did indeed press the button. It's minor stuff like that, and it wouldn't be such a big deal if it was just occasional, but this game is stock of this stuff. It goes a long way into making feel a product professional rather than amateur. And this one feels much more like the latter...
 
The presentation is rough.

It's deliciously ironic that the game chugs and stutters during the fade in/out animation that displays a simple 2D "made with Unity" logo. I mean, seriously? A simple fade/in out animation of a 2D splash screen and you can't get that right? Was this done on purpose?

But the loading screens have to take the cake. They're so heavily animated with that constantly-moving background that any stutter sticks out like a sore thumb and looks absolutely jarring. It fucking hurts. And boy do they stutter. They stutter constantly. And if constant stuttering wasn't enough, I've had several of those loading screens completely freeze dead on me for well over 10 seconds. At one point one froze for what must have been around 30 seconds. I thought the game had just locked up and was about to hit the Home button to check on it when it finally resumed.

User feedback is just shoddy all around. Poor UI response, or lack thereof. When selecting a save file slot, nothing happens. No chime, no visual cue. It's just about like one second later (and that's an eternity in UX design) do you see the transition animation starting, finally indicating that yes, you did indeed press the button. It's minor stuff like that, and it wouldn't be such a big deal if it was just occasional, but this game is still of this stuff. It goes a long way into making feel a product professional rather than amateur. And this one feels much more like the latter...

What system are you playing on? I at least didn't notice any stuttering during loading screens and no issues with button response.
 
The presentation is rough.

It's deliciously ironic that the game chugs and stutters during the fade in/out animation that displays a simple 2D "made with Unity" logo. I mean, seriously? A simple fade/in out animation of a 2D splash screen and you can't get that right? Was this done on purpose?

But the loading screens have to take the cake. They're so heavily animated with that constantly-moving background that any stutter sticks out like a sore thumb and looks absolutely jarring. It fucking hurts. And boy do they stutter. They stutter constantly. And if constant stuttering wasn't enough, I've had several of those loading screens completely freeze dead on me for well over 10 seconds. At one point one froze for what must have been around 30 seconds. I thought the game had just locked up and was about to hit the Home button to check on it when it finally resumed.

User feedback is just shoddy all around. Poor UI response, or lack thereof. When selecting a save file slot, nothing happens. No chime, no visual cue. It's just about like one second later (and that's an eternity in UX design) do you see the transition animation starting, finally indicating that yes, you did indeed press the button. It's minor stuff like that, and it wouldn't be such a big deal if it was just occasional, but this game is still of this stuff. It goes a long way into making feel a product professional rather than amateur. And this one feels much more like the latter...


Playing on PS4 Pro and I didn't see any stuttering, freezing, at all. It's like were playing 2 different games.
 
PS4 (not pro).

Ah, ok. Well...I'm really glad I get to enjoy this on the system they built it for. Phew!!! Team 17 seem to have a rough time optimizing it for consoles but from what I heard it's much better after that launch patch. At least Digital Foundry didn't have major problems with their testing systems.

I wouldn't worry too much because they'll probably iron out most major glitches and annoyances with their later patches.
 
Just 100%'d World 3. I wasn't expecting to love it when I first saw it but dang, it's the best world so far. It's like a giant Kazooie level.

Actually, I'm starting to feel like the worlds were specifically designed to appeal to different types of fans. Worlds 1 and 2 are for the Tooie fans who like expansive areas to explore, Worlds 3 and 5 are for the Kazooie fans who want tight level design with no space wasted, and World 4 is for DK64 fans who said "more things to collect please".
 
Alright downloaded the game, will play soon.

Lots of people gave their support for this game. Makes me think parents should be more creative with names lol.
 
Didn't have much time to play last night but expanded the first world and did the first boss battle. After this play session I'm just going to have to say people complaining about the camera are either smoking something or are having a random buggy moment or two and projecting it for the whole game. I was able to rotate the camera 360 around my character, alter my view upward, downward, and had an instance where I walked up to a thin scaffolding of a tower, got to the corner, and could rotate the camera to show me what was around the bend. What more could you possibly want from it? I'm not getting the complaints...at all.

The first boss Rompa? I found a fun little boss battle if simply laid out. Adequate for the first world though I'll hope for more sophistication in latter boss battles when I have more move sets. Hopefully I'll have time to finish the rest of the first world tonight. I'm actually not even sure what all I unlocked with the expansion of the world that I haven't addressed besides a second cloud. Is what you unlock just
the shovel knight path, the boss, and the cloud? I missed part of the game showing me the new areas when I first re-entered

Anyway, still really enjoying it so far. I think the only gripes thus far are the lame mini-game and I have to say that that the regular enemies don't feel threatening at all which makes them kinda just there. Yooka's tail spin is too OP, Banjo didn't have nearly as deadly an attack with how rapidly you can spin. My hope is that there are more complex enemies later that you can't just spam the spin move against but I'm not fully expecting it ;p I also agree that it would have been better to slow down Yooka a little bit but it's kind of fun at the same time and just a matter of getting accustomed to platforming at this speed so I don't really consider it a negative at this point. Oh, I also don't find the writing as funny as BK but maybe it's because I was younger back then and have nostalgia glasses now for those games. It's nothing terrible or offensive in this game, I just think the jokes could be better.

If the worlds progressively get more interesting I'm sure I'll love this game when all is said in done. Time will tell! Also, interesting that you have some choice in the order you learn abilities. Although by the time I found trowzer in the first world I had enough quills to buy all of them at once anyway lol Didn't bother with the secret reveal one, wonder how useful that is.
 
Is the Casino (World 4) really that bad? I find that hard to believe. I was a really big fan of it in Sonic Adventure. I thought it was incredibly fun in that game.
 
The - cameo in this game is kind of jarring. Feels really awkward and forced.
That can be said about almost every piece of dialogue.
I enjoy 4th wall breaking jokes and bad puns, but they went overboard with this game. It's too much.
 
Just 100%'d World 3. I wasn't expecting to love it when I first saw it but dang, it's the best world so far. It's like a giant Kazooie level.

Actually, I'm starting to feel like the worlds were specifically designed to appeal to different types of fans. Worlds 1 and 2 are for the Tooie fans who like expansive areas to explore, Worlds 3 and 5 are for the Kazooie fans who want tight level design with no space wasted, and World 4 is for DK64 fans who said "more things to collect please".

Didn't you find it incredibly bland visually, compared to the rest of the worlds? I'm surprised to not seeing it commented here, so maybe is due to the quality of the footage I've seen of world 3 but man, it looked like an early PS2 game in HD while the tropics, the glacier and the hub are just stunning and a delight to look at. That swamp could really use more illumination and a background that is not made of black tree silhouettes.
 
Want to spoiler tag that?
Why would anyone spoiler tag something that appeared in a trailer and in multiple news sites when it was revealed?

Let's spoiler tag every post while we're at it. "ONLY READ THIS POST IF YOU HAVE BEEN AT COORDINANTES 50,30,150 IN WORLD 2 AND HAVE MET THE CHARACTER LOCATED IN 70,50,450 IN WORLD 3"
 
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