gerrythedon

Playtonic Games has announced Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, an eye-hurtingly colourful, all-new entry in the developer's indie 'Rare revival' platforming series. Team 17 will once again be partnering up with the studio to publish the game, which is due out later this year.

In the new Yooka-Laylee, you'll once again combine the titular chameleon and bat's respective abilities to tackle a series of challenging 2.5D levels in a fresh adventure, wherein you'll also explore and solve puzzles in a pretty and picturesque 3D overworld.

Ultimately, Yooka and Laylee will need to work together to rescue Queen Phoebee's Royal Beettalion Guard from each of the game's levels, while readying themselves to face Capital B's "most dastardly" challenge yet: the Impossible Lair itself.

Team 17 and Playtonic have more info planned for E3, but until then, you can check out the debut trailer for Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair - coming to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC in 2019 - in the debut trailer below.



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gerrythedon

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The Questyen

So the premise of this game is that you are trying to beat the "Impossible Lair". You can play it right from the start of the game but it is a 30 minute no checkpoint/no tonic gauntlet that is insanely difficult. So you are supposed to play through the levels of the game and as you go you are unlocking bees that each one you unlock gives you another bee shield that lets you take another hit in the "Impossible Lair". There are 48 total bees to unlock by playing the game. I unlocked all the bees and have now played the "Impossible Lair" three times and haven't gotten higher than 40% of the way through even with 48 extra hits to take.

This is a giant jump in difficulty from the rest of the game. Even on the later levels I died maybe 5-6 times going through them.

Adam Tyner

The Impossible Lair is soon to be less impossible! Update coming on 4/14.

Decker

Yay! That game is TOUGH

Adam Tyner

Yeah. It’s also bizarre that the game would put so much emphasis on collecting tonics and tonic slots, only to decide “no, you can’t use any of that on the last level”.

I hit the 43% completion mark on the titular lair, but the length of the level (around 20 minutes for a complete run?) and the lack of checkpoints wasn’t something I was willing to power through. Too much else to watch and play.

I was hoping they’d add checkpoints remembering how many bees I’d had, and sure enough! It’s painful to be that close to the end of a game and just have to walk away, and I’m glad that won’t be the case here after all.

The Questyen

I sold my copy after 100% completing the whole game other than that stupid Impossible Lair. I'll probably pick it up again just to finish it off. If it wasn't for the Lair it would ended up fairly high on my 20 favorite games of the year.

Adam Tyner

Good news: the Not So Impossible Lair update is up now.
Bad news: after playing around an hour and a half this morning, it still seems to be too impossible for me. I inched a little further -- 47%! -- but I can't really imagine making it all the way.

Adam Tyner

Okay, I’d written this off as far beyond my capabilities, but I couldn’t stomach the thought of letting the Lair beat me, so I kept at it. And kept at it.

At my 49th attempt — inflated by some pre-patch runs, quite a few aborted attempts, and some stabs at the second stage — I completed the first stage with 42 bees left. (My goal was to have lost 10 or fewer.)

Around attempt #60, I finished stage 2 with 26 bees. I would’ve loved to have had more, but I figure more than half the bees for the (reportedly easier) second half of the Lair would be enough.

I haven’t given stage 3 a serious attempt yet, but even in my exploratory runs, I’m one jump away from the boss door.

So, I’m feeling pretty good about being able to button up this one before the weekend’s out.

Adam Tyner

I did it! It only took a few runs to get stage 3 to a point I was happy with. Finished it with 15 bees, which...I could've done better, but my goal was to have at least 12 bees, so 15 seemed like a good stopping place. After that, I managed to take out B and complete the escape sequence on my first try. I did lose all my bees by the halfway point, and there was one nailbiter where I was dead certain I wouldn't be able to get Laylee back, but...whew! It's nuts how much of a cakewalk the back half is comparatively. Knocked out all the achievements. Ready to delete this off my Xbox and never think about it again.

joeblow69

Picked this up today since it was on sale on PS4 for $6 ... man, I have never died so many times in the first five levels of a game EVER. I'm still fighting with the controls, they just feel off to me. I'm bummed, it looked cute! Too frustrating for me though.