Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

It has some odd difficulty spikes here and there, but good and fun enough to finish. But definitely not a must play for 2D platformer game fans. I also never got a good feel for the controls like I normally do with 2D platformers. At some moments Yooka just feels really slippery and is sliding all over the place, while at others moments you can barely get him to move because you haven't build up enough momentum. So if you, like me, liked the 3D game and thought this would be a good follow up, I would tell you to lower your expectations somewhat. And here is where I would have normally ended my review if it wasn't for that last level. I haven't beaten it yet at the time of writing this review, but I know I can. But do I want to? No not really, because it's just not fun. The last level is just a giant endurance round that really overstays its welcome. It does have some checkpoints, but if you mess up too much, then you might as well start over from the beginning. Ik like challenge in my games, but there is a fine line between challenging and annoying. For me, this falls too much into the annoying side of things. There are some games out there that kick your ass but …

Mid af

The poor man's donkey kong country returns. Jk, in all seriousness this is a great game. If you love DKC then you'll love this.

I can’t bee-lieve we have a spiritual companion to the Donkey Kong Country games made by those very devs, but I’m glad it exists. The eponymous level is certainly tough, but playing through the game honed my skills so I could bee-t it with some hits to spare. Overall, the game has certainly earned a bee-plus rating! Did I meet the pun quota yet?

The levels are well designed with their adaptive difficulty to get the 5 coins in addition to "beating" the level. The level modifiers are also great (each level has a variation that can suffer big changes) Also, the overworld is entertaining since there are puzzles and secrets to discover. The humour is there but sometimes it gets weird or too much in your face. The music is also amazing. If you enjoyed Donkey Country Tropical Freeze (the only DK game I played prior to writing this review), I think you will enjoy this game.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for this flavor of platformer. Something about jumping in midair in the middle of a roll never gets old no matter how many times I do it. I wish there were more games like this.