While Yooka-Laylee wasn’t perfect it seems that those who have played through it have had a relatively enjoyable experience. Playtonic is aware of the criticisms levelled at the game from reviewers and have previously said that they are releasing a patch which should address some of the main issues. Game Informer caught up with Andy Robinson, writer and communications director at Playtonic Games, to get his thoughts and it’s a very interesting read. You can check out the full interview here, but I’ve included a few choice extracts for you to read, below.
What has the feedback looked like from your end?
It seems to confirm that we delivered what we promised to our fans and backers. It’s difficult to please everybody all the time of course, but the comments we’ve seen – good and bad, and there were a lot of really positive reviews – suggest that fans of golden age 3D platformers will enjoy Yooka-Laylee a lot. Of course, we take all constructive criticism on board, which is why we’ve already released a patch to further improve things like performance and polish, and we’re continuing to do that behind the scenes.
Did you expect it to be as critically divisive as it was? Why do you think it ended up like that?
We did – but perhaps not quite as broad as it ended up! We set out to make a ’90s- inspired platformer for fans who missed the experience those games offered; an open-world style of platforming where the adventure is just as important as the jumping about. We had a clear mandate for Yooka-Laylee via our Kickstarter and while that wasn’t a blueprint that would necessarily appeal to everyone, it’s pleasing to see so many people enjoying Yooka-Laylee as much as we did making it. It’s been a big maiden success for us and we’re excited for the future.
Good for them, now Switch release date please?
They better get it out soon or they might have to compete with Mario Odyssey.
I’m hoping for sometime this summer.
I got my refund from them initiated, so now I wish them all the best as I have no qualms with being an early backer.
I’m sorry… but requesting a refund would mean the exact opposite of having “no qualms with being an early backer”. You decided you didn’t want to support them monetarily anymore and pulled your support making you no longer a backer in any way.
Personal mini rant here, but I really dislike the way that people look at KickStarter as consumers. It’s not a place for people to buy something early, it’s an investment platform. Instead of shares in a company you are investing in goods so it only seems like you are simply buying something early. Sometimes you win and get you were hoping for and sometimes you lose and the whole thing goes kaput. If you tried to do full fledged investing you wouldn’t get the option of a refund for a bad investment. While it’s certainly a nice thing when a KickStarter project let’s people request refunds if something doesn’t turn out quite right like Playtonic did when they canceled the Wii U version of the game it really bugs me when people start demanding refunds for the other reasons I’ve seen thrown about.
Now, I don’t know your reasons for pulling support, but the fact that you are doing so now and not back when the Wii U refunds were an option makes me think it might be for one of those other reasons.
I don’t think your mini rant is entirely fair. While it’s certainly true that, on paper, this is an investment and not just a preorder, that’s not how sellers treat it either. For some time now and in many different categories, kickstarter is treated on both sides of the transaction as a conduit for pre-sales. Really, what you’re suggesting, is that the backer should assume all of the risk of putting the product to market, and have FEWER rights and powers on the product than the random customer who picks up Mighty No. 9 at Fred Meyer.
” pulled your support making you no longer a backer in any way.”
Well, not entirely. They held his (or her?) money for that entire length of time. That’s all they need from all their backers to bring the product to market. When banks do it, they get more than their money back. This person did it for free so they’re providing a better deal than traditional lending options.
I requested it as soon as they announced it, it took them months to process. In that span of time since being an early backer they had my funds, did as they pleased, and released their game. I got no return on investment.
Seriously? Its people that pull their support money like it’s a pre order that piss me off
And it’s companies that don’t deliver a product for my chosen system that really piss me off.
Good riddance don’t need your kind around here anyway.
The ones that ACTUALLY support third parties early on? I know, everyone on here only cares about first party anyway.
Really looking forward to it but I must say that it pisses me off that they still haven’t announced a release date for Switch. Really frustrating.
But it has Animals being beaten up, I thought you didn’t like violence on Animals?
Hypocrite!
Animal on animal violence is not problematic. #AnimalLivesMatter
It’s problematic when a fat white Italian plumber does it.
Can we…. step back from the animal on animal references… it just… doesn’t sound right. :p
I think some criticisms of this game were overblown. Especially ones that attack mechanics that are straight out of Banjo Kazooie, the whole basis for the project. On the other hand, I’ve heard some very legitimate gripes. Playtonic haven’t specifically mentioned any of these criticisms except for performance issues. We’ll see how far they are willing to go to improve the game after launch.
Based on the reviews I read, that was the main complaint. I haven’t played the game yet, but apparently Playtonic succeeded in what they set out to do. They made a perfect recreation of a 90’s 3D platformer. The problem is that 90’s 3D platformers honestly had quite a few issues compared to the games of today. The idea sounded good to everyone on paper, but it seems like a lot of people forgot to take off their nostalgia glasses; and, as usual, people didn’t actually know what they wanted until they got the game.
To be fair, how many 3D (NON-LINEAR) platforms have we had since Super Mario Sunshine, when you talk about the games of today?
Heck, how many 3D platforms have we had period apart from Mario Galaxy and 3D Land/World.
-Mario – Galaxy was explorative in some parts, while 3D Land/World were completely linear.
-Donkey Kong – No 3D since DK64
-LOZ – Not a platformer
-Metroid – Other M was a disgrace. Apart from that game, Samus is either 2D or FPS.
-PokePark – Mainly focused on minigames.
-Wario World – Just one game.
-Sonic – Games are usually linear, but the decline in quality and roster is a different topic.
-Mega Man – Mainly 2D; Nothing after Legends 2.
-Crash – Activision happened. Skylander.
-Spyro – Activision happened. Skylander.
-Rayman – Rayman 4 was abandoned in favor of the Rabbids, plus Rayman Origins reverted everything back to 2D.
-Banjo-Kazooie – Nuts & Bolts happened; cue Yooka-Laylee kickstarter.
-Conker – Tasteless
-Jak & Daxter – Sony exclusive
-Ratchet & Clank – Sony exclusive
-Pac-Man World – Nothing after World 3, unless you count the Ghostly Adventures tie-ins
-Licensed games – You name a quality game on par with DuckTales and Battle for Bikini Bottom.
Hidden Gems/Other 3D:
-Gex
-Chameleon Twist
-Tonic Trouble
-Glover
-Super Magnetic Neo
-Billy Hatcher
-Scaler
-Blinx
-Voodoo Vince
-Ty the Tasmanian Tiger
-Torq
-Whiplash
-Dr. Muto
-Kao the Kangaroo
-Asterix & Obelix: XXL / Asterix at the Olympic Games
-A Hat in Time
-FreezeME
-Epic Mickey
The issues I was referring to, the ones I read about, are issues that aren’t exclusive to platformers. They can actually be found in quite a few early 3D games. This includes camera control and character movement problems among other things.
I think it was rightly assumed that controls and camera issues from the ’90s would be fixed. You shouldn’t be putting in technical issues that were caused by technical limitations in the ’90s into a modern rendition of a ’90s game. I’m still excited for the game, but I think that’s just Playtonic covering for their mistakes. There’s no reason you can’t remake the exact Banjo-Kazooie game with better graphics and smoother controls and camera. It would still be a ’90s-inspired platformer on modern platforms.
If they think that poor cameras and controls are a core characteristic of ’90s platformers, that’s a serious misstep on their part. Those were not intentional, they were technical ISSUES. I beat Banjo again last year and, with the understanding that it was a game from the ’90s, had no issues with the outdated camera and controls and thoroughly enjoyed just as much. A modern version of that game SHOULD fix those issues. Rare added dual analog to Jet Force Gemini in a Rare Replay patch because those controls were unbearably outdated.
Well it has a 84% Positive rating on Steam. With the latest patch in place it can be only a success on the Nintendo Switch.
Unfortunately reviewers have mistreated it but I think it will sell good anyway.
I’m not much interested on it, but I didn’t liked Banjo Kazooie too back in time.
It actually really saddened me to see all the negative reviews the game got. Given, I haven’t quite finished the game yet, but I’ve loved it so far. Sure, it’s a carbon copy of Banjo Kazooie, but that’s EXACTLY what people were asking for. That was its purpose all along.
If they left the issues that 90s games had with stuff like shitty camera controls, I would not be happy with the game either. If these are actual issues, looks like I will be holding off on Yooka Laylee til the Switch release after all. By then, they should have many of those issues fixed as there is no reason for those to be issues today as they were hardware limitations back then.