I love this game. Playtonic definitely made something special here. It’s going to be hard to look at other platformers without wondering why they didn’t ape more of the concepts from The Impossible Lair. Not to mention the soundtrack by Grant Kirkhope and David Wise – which is probably one of my favorite soundtracks of the year. While I hope they give the 3D platformer another fair shake, I will be more than happy if Playtonic does more sidescrolling platformers in the future because The Impossible Lair is impossibly good.

Yooka-Laylee and The Impossible Lair manages to surpass its predecessor in almost every aspect. The change to the two dimensions has been great.

Yooka-Laylee smartly ditches 3D to instead focus on perfecting 2D platforming. [Issue#184, p.77]

It’s challenging, humorous, beautifully designed and offers a surprising amount of variety. However you feel about the insurmountable challenge of its final level, there’s still plenty to enjoy outside of that. If you enjoy platforming games, you’ll find a lot to love here. And did I mention how cute Yooka and Laylee are?

Yooka-Laylee finally succeeds in bringing the platformer to the next level. With an original structure, made of puzzle and reverse narration, this new episode brings a fresh OST and some great ideas, while being sometimes too difficult or unprecise. A really good game for nostalgics and newcommers.

If there’s one gripe to be had, which could be said of the original Yooka-Laylee from 2017 is that some of the stages feel overly large to traverse – which can adversely affect the pacing. That said, that’s only a minor gripe as Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair succeeds in delivering a fun, challenging, and rewarding old-school romp. By incorporating some of the classic 2D design of previous generations this once N64 throwback has matured and grown into its own slice of platforming gold.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair neatly captures the essence of Yooka-Laylee and reimagines it as a new type of game. It's a distillation and a simplification, but it's effective. Then, as its grand finale -- a necessary conclusion that looms over the whole game -- it turns uncharacteristically punitive. It's rewarding, that much is undeniable. But it also leaves you feeling like all those hours spent beekeeping never really prepared you for the final challenge. Those bees just afford more leeway over the course of a very long struggle. It's kind of a buzzkill.