Two new titles will become free on theEpic Games Storeon August 19. Currently, 2015 sci-fi titleRebel Galaxyis free on the store. These new free games areYooka-LayleeandVoid Bastards. Both games are debuting on the Epic Games Store this August. This follows with the trend of some notable new Epic Store games releasing for free. Both games offer a unique take on classic genres.Void Bastardsreimagines the first-person shooter genre by incorporating strategy elements and a really open set of gameplay options.Yooka-Layleeis the triumphant return of many ex-Banjo-Kazooiedevelopers to provide a comprehensive example of a modern mascot action-platformer.
WhileYooka-Laylee’s 2019 2.5D platformer successor,Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, is already on theEpic Games Store, this will be the first time that the original game will come to Epic. Playtonic Games, the game’s developer, put it together as a spiritual successor to many of the titles they worked on together as part of Rare. The studio crowdfunded it through Kickstarter, raising nearly 3 million dollars relative to its initial $200,000 funding goal. It stands as an incredibly successful gaming crowdfunding project. While this is still magnitudes shy of Kickstarter breakouts like the Ouya,Yooka-Laylee’s lasting impact on the gaming industry is undeniable.
What is Yooka-Laylee?
Yooka-Layleewas a 2016 pitch from the newly formed Playtonic Games as to what was possible in older genre spaces. The mascot action platformer was huge back in Rare’s heyday, so it made total sense for ex-employees of the company to team up and create one. What gamers ended up with was a vibrant, exciting, and intoxicatingly nostalgic title that counts among thebest indie platformers. The base game takes place across several different worlds, starring the chameleon Yooka and bat Laylee. Playtonic perfectly understood that the protagonist duo was essential toBanjo-Kazooie’s success, and implemented that perfectly in its spiritual successor.
Playtonic’s 2016 outing offers a gorgeous, incredibly faithful recreation of the collectathon experience. Many of the original Rare mechanics appear inYooka-Laylee.This even includes the area transitions present in the older games, despite modern hardware being more than capable of rendering entire areas. In fact,Yooka-Layleeuses this conceit, one born out of necessity, to make itself stand out among modern open-world titles. Rather than directly mapping the interiors of the world to the scale of the buildings themselves, they are separate areas. This means that certain dungeons are bigger on the inside than out, allowing for some incrediblycreative level design.
It also stands as a brilliant open-world game, an exciting addition to the action-platformer genre. Playtonic also iterated on the series in a fascinating way. The sequel toYooka-Layleewas a slightly less ambitious, but still exciting, 2.5D platformer in the same setting. It not only performed well but also demonstrated that Playtonic’s new IP was robust enough to survive as amodern indie platformer.
Is Yooka-Laylee Modern Enough?
Rather than just revitalizing the mascot platformer gameplay genre,Yooka-Layleealso changed the direction for it going forward. The incredibly open world and meaningful player choice in its navigation made the game stand out. It also does not hide its collect-em-up leanings and, instead, makes the collection process incredibly dynamic. It definitely evokes theDonkey Kong 64style games of old, with a fair amount more polish.Video game rebootsare very common, but wholesale genre remasters are much rarer.
However, its status as a “modernization” of the genre was somewhat contentious. The game kept a huge amount of gameplay conceits from its spiritual predecessors, and as such alienated a lot of new players. It was also arguably more difficult to navigate thanmodern open-world gameslikeAssassin’s Creed, as it does not include a mini-map, and gives players precise and direct control of the character movement.
More than just specific mechanics were up for debate, however. Due to its adherence to game design conceits of old,Yooka-Layleearguably did not make the case for this older genre’s place in the modern gaming sphere. There are countlessforgotten video game genres, each with classics as famous asBanjo-Kazooie. However, when these genres fell to the wayside, they have not returned with the impact of the open area platformer collectathon as seen withYooka-Laylee.
WhilePlaytonic’s gamedid stick to this old genre a lot and did not do too much to adapt itself to modern sensibilities. Its mere existence proves that’s exactly what a lot of gamers wanted. The mostly positive reviews it has on Steam, combined with the 800,000 backers who provided nearly 3 million dollars, demonstrate the place it deserves in the modern gaming market.
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Who Made Yooka-Laylee and Why It Matters
Playtonic Games createdYooka-Layleeas its debut game. Bringing it to Kickstarter proved to be an excellent move, raising more money than any UK-based project in the history of the website. It also stood as a pledge from ex-Rare staff to create the kinds of games the company originally made.
Rare suffered a difficult tenure under Microsoft, with the breakoutswashbuckling hitSea of Thievesmarking one of the studio’s first notable original titles in the last decade. Rare spent a lot of time working on Xbox Kinect titles under Microsoft, a far cry from theBanjo-Kazooiegames of generations passed. It is perhaps not a surprise then that the antagonist ofYooka-Layleeis a monopolizing corporate boss called Capital B.
Four years after the release ofYooka-Laylee,Playtonic’s indie publishing labellaunched. February 12 saw a frankly adorable Twitter video drop on the Playtonic’s birthday, where Grant Kirkhope, Steve Mayles, and Gavin Price announced the move to publishing and developing.
Overall, this move demonstrated that Playtonic was putting its money behind the sentiment ofYooka-Laylee. It is a publisher focused on representing smaller indie games, as shown by its partnership with Fabraz, the developers of3D platformerDemon Turf. So, whatever people think of the value ofYooka-Laylee, its success allowed Playtonic to become a publisher focusing on the representation of independent titles.
Yooka-Layleewill release for free on the Epic Games Store on August 19.
