From Kickstarter to Release: Yooka-Laylee

One of the best things about Yooka-Laylee is that it had a quick turnaround. Playtonic launched its Kickstarter campaign in May 2015, and in less than two years, put the game in backer hands last week. It says a lot about a game when how quickly it was released is one of its strong points.

Yooka-Laylee has received a mixed reception from fans and critics alike. I for one, Cliqist’s foremost 3D platforming authority, think it’s garbage. Playtonic’s collect-a-thon platformer delivers an almost one-for-one copy of the original Kickstarter pitch.

As Promised, Oh Well

Unfortunately, the 3D platformer has died a slow and rather quiet death since the days of the PlayStation 2. That’s when former Rare employees Steve Mayles, Chris Sutherland, Gavin Price, and Grant Kirkhope escaped from whatever broom closet Microsoft had them locked in after they purchased Rare, and stood at the ready to revive my favorite genre. They were beloved back in their day, and pioneered the 3D platforming genre with Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country 66.

That is, more or less, the groundwork that formed their crowdfunding campaign: a return the mid-1990’s 3D collect-a-thon platformer that dominated the era all the way up until the PlayStation 2. They promised several features from classic Rare games, such as dual protagonist, unlockable abilities, and the ear-gasm inducing stylings of a Grant Kirkhope soundtrack.

To Playtonic’s credit, what they created is more or less the unofficial official third Banjo-Kazooie game. Check out our video above to find out why that’s a actually a problem.