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

lost a whole star because the "impossible lair" was a really tedious and trash way to end the game. great concept, awful execution. everything else is extremely good though, and this is definitely an improvement from the predecessor.

edit as of 2/25/2021: it's come to my attention that playtonic added an update that now gives checkpoints in the impossible lair, making it much more doable. good on you playtonic. i'm giving you back that star just for fixing the biggest flaw in a fairly timely manner.

And here Playtonic shows that they are able to create really good games, after the first Yooka-Laylee being a "for the fans of N64 collect-a-thons".

By adhering to 2.5D mechanic (such as DKC series), they have found their great strength - good controls, good levels, and INSANELY AMAZING MUSIC! My god, they did a wonderful job with the music on this - kudos again to David Wise/Grant Kirkhope/Matt Griffin and Dan Murdoch.

However, the game is not perfect. Some levels are kind of tiring to go through, and some difficulty spikes are unfair sometimes - the Impossible Lair is almost impossible (well, at least the name for this is OK). I shelved the game with only the last level to complete, but I've managed to complete all the other ones.

Please do give this game a try if you have an opportunity (Xbox Game Pass is a good way to play)

I didn't play a lot of plataform games but this one isn't the best of I've already played. I was thinking about why I didn't like this game and I got some points:

- The tutorial is very boring and the history is not attractive.
- Puzzles in the map is good and was the thing that motivated me to keep playing.
- As other plataform games like Mario, you will need to collect some special item to proceed with the history/stages. Mario's game have the star and moon (Mario Odissey) and you understand that is a important and visible thing you will need to collect. In Yooka-laylee cases this same thing is a common coin that not seems like a big and important item. For sometimes, I passed without see this item because was hidden with your bad user interface.
-Other point is the characters. They aren't charismatic at all! No one have a personality or are cute XD
- Some stages are pretty good and fun to explore for find coins but others are awful and you only think about where is the exit of this stage.

I'd abandoned because I have no time to spend with a game that not bring me fun all the time

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.

Beating the impossible Lair (pre-patch that made it easier) is legit one of my proudest gaming accomplishments. That shit was brutal!!!

This is a fantastic platformer that doesn't hide it's Donkey Kong Country inspirations. And that's a good thing. The controls are simple but the level design gets crazy.

I really love the idea that each level in the game gets a completely re-worked version of it. I found myself looking forward to see how the developer would tweak certain levels and often found myself impressed with what they did.

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 was surprised at first at how well thought the game was, the levels were all very interesting, and all of them have distinct twists. The soundtrack is astounding, it's is realy realy good and even now i listen to it often on spotify.
So all of this made a realy good platformer and i was ready to call it a "Tropical Freeze 2.0" that also had it's own qualitys, like the overworld puzzles wich were fun.
But the Impossible Lair is just not like the rest of the game, even with the checkpoints, is not fun, the difiiculty spike is out of the charts and i wish the game had ended before that, i finished all the levels and will end at that, still recommend the game to everyone, just skip the lair!

When it comes to the platforming in this game, this game is OK. Not my ideal kind of platformer, but pretty fun. But what I do love in this game is the overworld. It's super fun to explore, solve puzzles to win tonics, and find out how to get the 2nd version of levels. Not to mention the overworld has a lot of different ways to reach areas early and sequence break, and I love how much the game allows it and that it never breaks the game itself. Like, seriously I can't say enough good things about it.

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.

Where Yooka 1 was a game that came close to rare classic Banjo, but fell short -- Yooka 2 (Impossible layer, ya know this game) surpasses old DK style rare games. The overworld, levels, evolving levels, all great. Having the impossible layer be ready from the start to take on a la Breath of the Wild, is super smart and fun.

Check out our book club style gaming podcast, Garbage Game Club on Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair - https://open.spotify.com/episode/2BJRCuNtfk25HLf6focw02?si=1O48yyJnT-K0gMAd8gtalg

Yooka-Laylee is a marquee example of misguided nostalgia as the Kickstarted throwback ended up being a boring, dated 3D platformer that couldn’t hang with the current genre stars. To combat that tepid reception, Playtonic squished the series down into 2.5D and more closely chased after Donkey Kong Country over Banjo-Kazooie with its latest game, Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. Losing half of a dimension was a wise choice in many regards as it builds a better game around that style but it lacks some of the precise controls needed to fully bring it into the modern platformer era.

Read the full review here:
https://www.gamerevolution.com/review/603209-yooka-laylee-and-the-impossible-lair-review

Pretty neat platformer with a creative twist where stages can have 2 different "modes", which can be changed on the overworld map.
It has nice level design, cute visuals, simples but passable narrative, nice difficulty (except the last level).
The low point IMO is the last level, "The Impossible Lair" (which I haven't completed), which has an absurd spike in difficulty and even having collected most bees (which act as extra lives), it is still grueling due to being extremely long and having no checkpoints.
Overall, it's a pretty solid game.

solid blend of 2.5D platforming and vaguely Zelda-esque top-down overworld exploration that unfortunately falls prey to one of my least favorite platformer design tropes, making "optional" collectibles that aren't required to complete any particular level mandatory to unlock new levels. just finishing each stage should be enough of a challenge; if you want to hide bonus levels behind collectibles, fine, but effectively requiring that you replay previously completed levels to get tricky collectibles is just a cheap, artificial way to increase playtime and difficulty