In Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, each level you play has five collectibles. And in each level you play, it is absolutely possible to get every one of those collectibles in your first visit in a level.

That might sound like a weird point to start off the review on, but you need to understand that this kind of thing makes or breaks these kinds of platformers to me. In games in this vein, like New Super Mario Bros, Donkey Kong Country, Sonic Colors, Crash Bandicoot or Kirby, actually beating whichever stage you're on can often be more of a trivial matter compared to getting the collectibles within. In my eyes the fun of these games is not to just beat them, but to show mastery of them, both mastery of their movement systems as well as of their general level design philosophy. Yet in so many of these instances, they just screw the process up in one or three ways: Sonic, for instance, can't collect all his Red Star Rings in Colors without first unlocking all of the Wisps, which arbitrarily locks half of the games' collectibles behind beating most of the game. Crash Bandicoot and the original Donkey Kong Country, despite the attention they both place on collecting, make so many of their objectives unnecessarily cryptic, removing most of the fun of feeling like you've solved the game.

I could go on, but my point here is that Playtonic's first endeavor into 2D platformer design absolutely NAILS collectible pacing. Levels are straightforward enough to where you'll always be able to find detours toward collectibles with a keen eye, and the controls of the dynamic duo in question lend themselves beautifully to moving around the environment in fun ways.

I feel like Playtonic is a studio not just made up of people who worked on some of the best platformers of the 90s, but of people who want to recapture the feel of those games without the hassle and standards of todays gaming world. Whilst I have little experience with Yooka and Laylee's first game, you can definitely feel that energy in this one in a lot of ways beyond just the excellent level and collectible pacing. Dedicating a solid 40% of your game to the space used to navigate between levels sounds like a disasterous idea by the standards of today, for instance, as things distracting from the "main gameplay" in many new games today become deephasized further and further, but in Impossible Lair they stuck to their guns and knew how good the team were at making it feel exceptionally well paced. This isn't a situation like Wind Waker where the space inbetween gameplay feels like a waste of time, rather that the developers gave just as much love and attention to the thing breaking up the pace of the main game as the main game itself.

That sense of flow really is the main takeaway I have from this game: The music is quite good, the level design is quite good, the overworld puzzles are fun to crack but not anything to write home about and the trademark Funny Dialogue is servicably Funny, but it really is the quick clip at which all of this is strung together that really elevates it all. The controls are a big reason for this of course, Yooka and Laylee have a fantastic moveset that lets you weave through levels crazy fast yet with enough weight to it to where it feels like you need to properly earn that good-feeling speed. Enemies make satisfying KER-PLUNK - sounds when hit on the head, launching the characters way high, and you can blast off at top speed right after your ground-slam move, and so on. The controls just strike that perfect balance, not just being nimble to let you skip everything to eliminate all actual challenge - though that has its benefits, go read my reviews on the Sonic Boom 3DS games to learn more - yet also not giving you so much restraint for the sake of balancing as to make moving around feel basic and uninteresting.

I feel like the Tonics are the best representation on all of these key points summed together, the pacing, the developers' mindsets and the prominent overworld. Essentially, they're little modifiers that you can equip a handful of to change your gameplay experience: Some flip the screen upside down, some give enemies more health, and some just give Yooka a really big head. There's no consistency to their use, be they difficulty modifiers or silly cheat codes, yet they all have the same value as a set of collectibles. They're one of the main reasons the game has such a great pace, as you're never too many steps away from a new Tonic and a new satisfying reward jingle for unlocking it. It gives the overworld a greater sense of purpose than it probably otherwise would have, and their varied effects makes each one a fun time to find since you never know what to expect. There's a Tonic for every type of player: Me personally, I put on the Tonic that halves checkpoints for a more engaging challenge.

Many of these tonics feel like they'd be toggleable by default in other games, or found in some plain shop, or god forbid sold as DLC, but here they're little fun bonuses to reward you for still playing the game, like a new set of surprises after each level. The game feels like one that respects your time, that wants you to have fun and be genuinely engaged with completing the game, and it was an offer I couldn't help but comply with: I 100%ed this game in a nice and tasty 20 hours and am really glad I did. Even if the individual parts aren't remarkable, and I've seen many aspects of it done better elsewhere, the remarkable flow of it all makes it one of the easiest recommendations for an uncomplicated fun time I could offer.

Also like, yeah, obviously, the music is amazing.

[Playtime: 20 hours]
[Key Word: Pacing]