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About
Yooka-Laylee is an upcoming platformer video game in development by the studio Playtonic Games. The project, run by former developers of the Banjo-Kazooie series, became the fastest video game to reach $1 million in pledges on Kickstarter in May 2015.
History
In 1998, the video game development company Rare released the game Banjo-Kazooie for the Nintendo 64.[1] Several sequels for the game were subsequently released until 2008, when the final game Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts was released for the Xbox 360. In February 2015, several former Rare employees formed the video game studio PlaytonicGames and announced plans to develop a “spiritual successor” to Banjo-Kazooie. On February 16th, the @PlaytonicGames Twitter feed replied to YouTuber Jon Jafari that he would be voicing a character in the upcoming game (shown below).
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On April 30th, Rare announced that the game would be titled Yooka-Laylee. On the following day, a Kickstarter[3] campaign for the game was launched, which accumulated upwards of £1 million in funds in the first 24 hours, becoming the fastest video game in Kickstarter history to pass US$1 million. The game has an expected release date of October 2016.
JonTron Termination
In February of 2015, Playtonic invited famous YouTuber and notable fan JonTron to do some voice-acting for a minor role in the game. However, on March 23rd, 2017, Playtonic[7] announced that they had removed JonTron’s voice acting following his recent controversial comments on race in his Destiny Debate.
Online Presence
The same day the game was announced, the /r/YookaLaylee[5] subreddit was launched for discussions about the game. Also on April 30th, 2015, YouTuber GameXplain uploaded a video containing commentary about the game’s characters and gameplay (shown below).
Fan Art
As of May 2015, the keyword “Yooka-Laylee” yields over 270 search results on DeviantArt.[6]
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Reception
Early reviews of Yooka-Laylee were mixed. Some praised the game for its tone and faithful recreation of the Nintendo 64 aesthetic. The Escapist,[8] in a 4.5/5 review, wrote that it was visually very pleasing and its humor was in line with its predecessor, Banjo-Kazooie. Still, others knocked it for its technical issues and dated gameplay. Polygon,[9] in a 5.5/10 review, knocked it for its laborious challenges and “busy-work” feel. As of April 4th, 2017, the game has a score of 72/100 on Metacritic.[10]
Search Interest
References
[1]Wikipedia – Banjo-Kazooie
[2]Wikipedia Yooka-Laylee
[3]Kickstarter – Yooka-Laylee – A 3D Platformer Rare-vival!
[4]Playtonic Games – Introducing Yooka-Laylee
[5]Reddit – /r/YookaLaylee
[6]DeviantArt – Search: Yooka-Laylee
[7]Playtonic – Playtonic removes controversial YouTuber JonTron from Yooka-Laylee
[8]The Escapist – Yooka-Laylee Review – Banjo-Threeie
[9]Polygon – Yooka-Laylee review
[10]Metacritic – Yooka-Laylee