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

By Danny Cowan 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.

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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Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga isn’t just for kids

Promotional art of Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga.

Before Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, I had fallen out of love with TT Games and WB Games' Lego titles. The Lego Star Wars, Batman, and Indiana Jones series helped make me passionate about video games as a kid as I spent endless fun (and sometimes frustrating) hours playing them with my brother.
Over time though, I aged out of the series and grew more disappointed with the basic open-world formula the series settled on after great games like Lego City Undercover. I was no longer smitten with one of the series that helped cement my love of video games. That’s why The Skywalker Saga’s bold new direction excites me.
It not only revisits the films behind some of my favorite Lego games, but builds on top of them with more expansive hub worlds, mission variety, and deeper gameplay than previous Lego action games. While The Skywalker Saga’s multiple delays and development issues concerned me, my hands-on with an early build of the game managed to engross me just like the original Lego Star Wars did 17 years ago.
A New Hope for the series
My demo took me through the first 90 minutes of A New Hope, one of the nine Star Wars films represented within The Skywalker Saga. Like every Lego game before it, this segment of the game followed the events of the film it was based on. It features full voice acting (from soundalikes, not the film cast), though I appreciated the inclusion of a “mumble mode” that makes the characters grunt and pantomime as they did in early Lego games.
LEGO® Star Wars™: The Skywalker Saga - Gameplay Overview
TT Games also experiments with the iconic opening of A New Hope. Many jokes are present to keep kids entertained, but it also intertwines with the end of Rogue One. The first character I played as was actually Princess Leia, who has the Death Star plans and is trying to escape Darth Vader as he boards the Tantive IV. Somehow, this Lego game made this oft-adapted and parodied plot beat feel fresh.
This mission also served as a tutorial and a demonstration of how The Skywalker Saga differs from previous Lego games. Yes, there are still combat, exploration, and puzzles, but those are deeper than before. A cover-based system has been implemented to make shootouts more involving. Meanwhile, players can now string together melee combos with different moves and counter enemies' attacks, making melee battles more enjoyable than before. Character classes and abilities also ensure fights in this game are more than simple button-mashing affairs.
Missions often give players multiple options to complete objectives, whether that’s because of a specific Lego build players can create or the abilities of their playable character. It’s no Devil May Cry, but these deeper gameplay systems made sure my eyes didn’t gloss over out of boredom within the first hour, something I can’t say for the last couple of Lego games I played.
The Skywalker Saga made a strong first impression on me and excited me to see how the rest of A New Hope would unfold. I was able to play as Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, meet Obi-Wan Kenobi, recruit Han and Chewbacca, and explore the Death Star before my demo ended. While this is the second time TT Games is adapting this material, it feels completely new because of the revamped approach to storytelling, level design, and gameplay design.
All grown up
During my demo, I only scratched the surface of what the game had to offer. The Skywalker Saga seems to be the most densely packed Lego game yet, as all nine mainline Star Wars films have been recreated here. Not only are there linear levels based on the main plot points and set pieces of each film, but there are large hubs on planets and areas in space that players can explore and complete side missions within.
As players complete the stories of more films and gain access to more characters, ships, and planets, the amount of options players will have at their disposal will only continue to grow. The Skywalker Saga also has a progression system to back that amount of content up ,as missions reward players with Kyber Bricks that players use to unlock and enhance abilities on skill trees.

Yes, this game has skill trees to complement the aforementioned classes -- which include Jedi, Smugglers, and Protocol Droids -- and their abilities, which is useful during and outside of combat. Systems like this bring TT Games’ Lego series more up to par with its action game peers and make it feel like the franchise has finally grown up. As The Skywalker Saga will be the first Lego game in years to appeal to those with nostalgia for the series' earliest game, it's a relief to see that it won't disappoint.
Of course, The Skywalker Saga still will be approachable enough for kids thanks to its visuals, humor, and approachable gameplay basics, but it finally doesn’t seem like that’s coming at the sacrifice of engaging gameplay for older players. While I thought I had aged out of ever liking a Lego game again, this demo of The Skywalker Saga revealed that I could still love these games -- they just had to catch up to me first.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will be released for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch on April 5, 2022.

Gaming

Hogwarts Legacy set for a holiday 2022 release window

A wizard wearing the sorting hat.

After over a year of silence surrounding a new RPG set in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Avalanche Software and WB Games finally revealed more about Hogwarts Legacy in a State of Play presentation. Most importantly, we learned that the game would finally be released this holiday season, though the game doesn't have an exact date yet.
Hogwarts Legacy | State of Play | March 17, 2022 [ENGLISH]
Players control a fully customizable character who's coming to Hogwarts for the first time as a fifth-year student in the late 1800s. After getting assigned to a house, players will have to attend various classes and explore the giant campus that is Hogwarts. They will then have to use the skills they learned to explore the wider Wizarding World and work with Professor Figg to deal with a Goblin rebellion and uncover the mysteries of ancient magic.
Obviously, the game features a robust spellcasting system for combat. The player will be able to upgrade their talents and other skills with experience gained while completing games and augment their abilities with potions. There's also magical gear that can be bought, crafted, and upgraded, as well as companions that can accompany the player on their journey.
While the idea of a big-budget Harry Potter game seems like a slam dunk on paper, enthusiasm for the title is mixed. That's due to the series' controversial creator J.K. Rowling, who has repeatedly been called out in recent years for transphobic comments. That's putting a damper on the game's pending release, as the controversy has closely followed the game's hype cycle.
For those still planning to pick the game up, it's clear that Avalanche went all out in making the most thorough and detailed Harry Potter game ever. And while Hogwarts Legacy got its own Sony State of Play stream, it isn't a PlayStation exclusive. Harry Potter fans can expect the game to launch on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S sometime during the holiday 2022 season.

Gaming

Exoprimal looks like a Dino Crisis spiritual successor

A group of players fights a T-Rex in Exoprimal.

The first reveal of the March 9 State of Play event was Exoprimal, a new sci-fi shooter from Capcom. Those with knowledge of obscure game series will recognize that this game serves as a spiritual successor of sorts to Dino Crisis, an old dinosaur-ridden survival horror series from Capcom.
In the reveal trailer for Exoprimal, we see a squad of five soldiers in high-tech, Anthem-like armor fight hordes of dinosaurs rushing out of portals. They all team up to take on a giant T. Rex at the end of the trailer.
Exoprimal - State of Play March 2022 Reveal Trailer | PS5, PS4
A press release following its announcement revealed a lot more about the game. Exoprimal is set in the year 2040, when dinosaurs are appearing in portals around the world and destroying major cities. In response, a tech company called Aibius Corporation is deploying "Exofighters" to quell these incursions. There are a variety of Exosuit classes that fill traditional RPG roles like the tank or healer.
Exoprimal's flagship game mode is Dino Survival, where two teams of five fight to complete objectives before the other. Of course, various dinosaurs will try their best to impede each team's progress. Capcom describes Exoprimal as "purely focused around multiplayer," but is still promising to interweave an engaging narrative throughout the experience.

Despite its similarities to Dino Crisis, Capcom did not mention that series in this announcement. It's possible Dino Crisis was too obscure for Capcom to connect this new game to that franchise. Alternatively, Exoprimal might just be different enough with its cooperative sci-fi shooter gameplay that Capcom was more comfortable leaving it in spiritual successor territory.
Despite appearing in a PlayStation presentation, it isn't exclusive to those consoles. Exoprimal will be released for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in 2023.