‘Banjo-Kazooie’ successor ‘Yooka-Laylee’ launches in spring 2017

By Danny Cowan Published June 6, 2016

Playtonic Games has confirmed a 2017 launch for Yooka-Laylee, a crowdfunded 3D platformer developed by the creative minds behind such classics as Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country.

Pitched as “a love letter to classic platformer-adventure games,” Yooka-Laylee will premiere for the PlayStation 4 next spring.

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Patterned specifically after the Nintendo 64 classic Banjo-Kazooie, Yooka-Laylee is a team-based 3D platformer in which a pair of unlikely heroes must use their unique abilities to traverse difficult terrain, defeat enemies, and gather collectibles in order to unlock new levels.

Yooka-Laylee reunites Banjo-Kazooie programmer Chris Sutherland, character designer Steve Mayles, and environment artist Steven Hurst for the first time since the Nintendo 64 era. Yooka-Laylee also marks the return of Donkey Kong Country sound designer David Wise and Banjo-Kazooie composer Grant Kirkhope

Along with Yooka-Laylee‘s open-world single-player campaign, creator Playtonic Games notes that players can expect “unique boss fights, mine cart challenges, retro-tastic Arcade games, quiz shows, co-op and 8 unique multiplayer games.”

“Yooka-Laylee is a love letter to classic platformer-adventure games, from a team of veterans responsible for some of the genre’s most iconic games,” Playtonic communications director Andy Robinson explains. “You can expect huge, beautiful worlds to explore, quirky characters to meet (and beat) and a vault-load of shiny collectibles to horde along the way. Oh, and a whole load of word puns.”

Initially revealed via a Kickstarter campaign in 2015, Yooka-Laylee went on to earn over £2 million (equivalent to nearly $3 million) in crowdsourced funding from more than 72,000 backers who pledged their support. Publisher Team17 hopes to deliver a retail version in addition to a cross-platform digital release.

Though this week’s announcement focuses on an upcoming PlayStation 4 release, Yooka-Laylee is also coming to the Xbox One and Wii U in addition to Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms. Multi-platform release dates have not yet been revealed.

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