New video Game developer Playtonic Games (Founded 10th February 2015) announced recently that a team of ex-Rare veterans would be working on a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie with “Project Ukelele”. The game has tuned out to be called Yooka-Laylee, and is similar to the previous franchise as the title refers to the game two main characters. Instead of Banjo the Honey Bear and Kazooie the Red-Crested Breegull, players will now control Yooka the green bloke with no pants and Laylee the wise cracking lady-bat with a big nose.
Yooka-Laylee Kickstarter campaign page which launched less than an hour ago has already passed its £175,000 goal which only took about 30 minutes. It is currently at around £440,000, and has already reached four stretch goals. There are ten stretch goals in total at the moment which range from including local multiplayer modes to having a simultaneous day one release of Yooka-Laylee for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U.
“Yooka-Laylee is an all-new 3D platformer from the creative talent behind the Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country games. We’ve come together to form Playtonic Games and create a spiritual successor to our most cherished work from the past!”
“Our new heroes, Yooka (the green bloke with no pants) and Laylee (the wise cracking lady-bat with the big nose) were conceptualised from the ground up for stellar platforming gameplay, created by the same character artist behind the rebooted Donkey Kong family and legendary Nintendo 64 heroes Banjo and Kazooie.Using an arsenal of special moves like Yooka’s tongue grapple and Laylee’s tactical sonar blast, players will explore – and expand – gorgeous 3D worlds drawn up by esteemed environment artist Steven Hurst (Banjo-Kazooie series, Viva Pinata) and through skill discover the plethora of delicious collectibles hidden within.”
I am not sure I will be backing the project, sure it be cheaper and I can say that I was there with everyone else but the game doesn’t look very interesting or original. I guess that isn’t surprising as they are playing into people’s nostalgia for the old Rare games but the game at the moment looks very uninspiring and the stretch goals are pretty laughable. Most of the stretch goals should be included as default in a game like this. The game might turn out good and I can see the characters being turned into a franchise with other games, figures, teddy bears and other merchandisable fluff but one thing is for certain with the amount of money they are likely to make from their Kickstarter (likely in the millions) with still 46 days left it should be pretty spectacular gaming achievement.
Yooka-Laylee is expected to be released in October of 2016 for PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U but expect it to be delayed if the game becomes more ambitious than it currently stands. If you want to back the campaign and get the game on release the cheapest option is £10/£15 reward which gives a digital version for Steam/Consoles and gets your name in the credits.
King Toko 