This might be sacrareligous but, honestly think this does Tropical Freeze better than Tropical Freeze.

A really fun, if hard as fuck platformer, and speaking as someone who didn't care for the original this is a MASSIVE improvement. High point for me was actually the overworld, the light puzzle solving/exploration was a nice break from the often intense levels.

Also, sorry about your house Trowzer

Esto es una gran idea que se me fue desmontando poco a poco por la simpleza de sus niveles y la poca profundidad que tienen los mundos individuales.

Lo de tener el nivel final disponible desde el minuto 1 y poder probar cuando te venga en gana es maravilloso, el overworld esta super bien diseñado y te da un montón de posibilidades al ser practicamente otro nivel, pero es que los niveles individuales son aburridos como ellos solos, invitan 0 a explorarlos y, encima, el juego tiene unos picos de dificultad extrañísimos.

Segundo juego de esta gente que no termina de convencerme, al menos no fue drop como el collectathon.

Very disappointed by the design decisions of the final level. Obviously, with a name like "The Impossible Lair," the level should be hard, but the game does not prepare you for the difficulty spike in the final level, so it ruined the feel of the game for me. It turned a very fun, and occasionally challenging 2D platformer into a frustrating death loop akin to something like Super Meat Boy. The rest of the game is beautiful, well made, has memorable music. The final level really sours the overall experience, and it's very disappointing. 4/5 without final level, 3.5/5 with.

Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair is the Donkey Kong Country game we are desperately missing between Nintendo's own offerings. While it borrows a lot of DNA from Tropical Freeze, Impossible Lair's best qualities are uniquely its own.

Coming off the back of its Banjo-Kazooie style 3D platformer, Yooka and Laylee feel way more at home in the 2D style. The movement feels tighter, the script is funnier, and the gameplay suits this version of Retro's history. The levels are broken up into two parts, the classic version and a transformed version, fundamentally altering the level and creating double the amount of content in the game. You change the level type in the overworld map, which is one of the game's two greatest achievements. Playing like a 2D Zelda map, you traverse level to level in a puzzle-filled open world, interfacing with characters, and finding hidden secrets. It's a glorified level select, but it has so much personality that outside of the levels are equally as fun as being in them.

The game's other achievement is the titular Impossible Lair. The game opens taunting a nearly impossible gauntlet of platforming prowess, asking players to defeat the final boss right from the start. You can return to face this challenge at any time, but you can swing the odds ever so slightly in your favor if you beat the levels and collect each of the Bee Warriors, which grant one extra hit per level completed. It's a self-rewarding system that makes 100% completing the game feel not only valuable, but necessary, as the Lair is brutally difficult, requiring mastery of every gameplay mechanic and tight precision skill and endurance. Initially, the Lair was even too difficult upon completing all 40 levels, but Playtonic has since added checkpoints to the final level if you want to ease the tension, which are balanced perfectly and don't dampen the epic challenge awaiting you.

The presentation of the game is always charming and inviting. The soundtrack has a lot of memorable tunes, and the aforementioned overworld has a wide variety of themes and locales. It's a shame that doesn't carry over to the levels themselves, as a lot of them feel like they reuse similar design elements and ideas. Additionally, many of the hidden collectibles are more trouble than they are worth, especially some which are limited to one try per run, or you need to reset, which is unnecessarily punishing.

Yooka Laylee's second outing is a much more riveting experience. Playtonic managed to channel a different element of the platforming genre and still add bold new ideas to keep their iteration as a standout among its contemporaries. If you loved DKC: Returns or Tropical Freeze, this is a must purchase.

Definitely satisfied my itch for a good platformer and then some. Started off not feeling the movement and the difficulty, but the game had answers for both on deck. Mess around enough and you can discover some neat tech to get YL moving fast, and those challenge tonics, especially Less Checkmates and Googly Eyes, were just what this game needed. Big props to the devs for making those two accessible early in the game.

Without question, this game definitely feels like Tropical Freeze 2.0, but its in no way a budget knockoff. Biggest feather in YL:IL's cap is the overworld. It was genuinely fun to run around, solve puzzles, and figure out riddles. Another highlight of this game: the Impossible Lair. The fact that it's available right from the jump and that its realistically doable to beat it without any Bees is godlike. My 1st attempt, I can't get past the first large gap with the flame drones in Section 1. By the end of my playthrough, I'm autopiloting Section 1 with no hits. Love shit like that.

I thought this fact was a gripe initially but after beating it, I don't mind the lack of collectibles here when compared to DK:TF. Quills and T.W.I.T. coins have direct use on the overworld, as opposed to Banana Coins and Balloons being kinda fluff at a certain point. Also don't mind the lack of bosses here; those were never the highlight of the DK Return games. Terms of music, the tracks here are just as catchy and memorable as DK:TF; I can't choose between the two.

While the level design was super solid throughout, I will say there weren't as many standout levels as DK:TF. Everything felt either 'On Par' or 'Good' whereas TF had some bangers like Sawmill Thrill, Grassland Groove, Scorch N' Torch, Beehive Brawl, etc. YL:IF could have used some more level gimmicks/variations IMO (No Kartos Playtonic???). Also would've been nice to see more useful tonics, especially ones that increased the difficulty. Way too many visual gimmick ones.

Without a doubt, if you like Donkey Kong platformers, you need to play this no questions asked.

i really liked the overworld and solving simple puzzles to get new levels and level variants. unfortunately i viewed the levels themselves as a kind of unfortunate barrier to doing more of the overworld stuff. which is more about me than the game!

the platforming was surprisingly generous with checkpoints and allowing skips. it looks gorgeous. the movesets were clever and useful and there were plenty of secrets. i, uh, just didn't care to invest myself in any of them. its generous but fairly demanding (but not unfair) and it just isn't my bag.