#yooka laylee and the impossible lair

[crabsinvideogames]

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

[deadlydetectives]

Spindash Kyoko music and level aesthetic.

[botebot-10]

GUYS I JUST ***DESTROYED*** YOOKA IMPOSSIBLE LAIR'S GASPING GLADE GROWN STAGE!!

I ZIPPED PAST THE LEVEL LIKE IT WAS NOTHIN!!!

[g4zdtechtv]

THE PILE PRESENTS: Xplay 2.0 - What's Playing On This Station Soon? | 12/23/21

Time to get your Ragnarocks off.

(4GTV - STREAM WHAT YOU PLAY! CLICK HERE!)

[corvarrow]

2024 Books/Games Wrap up and 2025 Art Goals

Aaand its time once again for the stuff lists! I honestly don't think I'm gonna add anything else to the Books Read or Games Played lists this year so I may as well post now. Overall: productive year! Last year's list is here for reference.

Things I’ve read since Jan 2024

Heaven Official's Blessing 1 by MXTX

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Death in the Dark Woods by Annelise Ryan

Long Exposure vol 2 (Graphic Novel)

Heaven Official's Blessing 2 by MXTX

Heaven Official's Blessing 3 by MXTX

Heaven Official's Blessing 4 by MXTX

Heaven Official's Blessing 5 by MXTX

Heaven Official's Blessing 6 by MXTX

Heaven Official's Blessing 7 by MXTX

Heaven Official's Blessing 8 by MXTX

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

Haunted Hallways anthology (Outland Entertainment)

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Dead Detectives Society anthology (Monstrous Books)

Animus Mundi anthology (Outland Entertainment)

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #1 by MXTX

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #2 by MXTX

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #3 by MXTX

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #4 by MXTX

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation #5 by MXTX

To Root Somewhere Beautiful anthology (Outland Entertainment)

SCP Foundation: Red/Yellow/Black Journals (Parabooks) (These are basically a selection of about 100 SCP articles published into 3 books with a lot of nice illustrations)

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

Dragons Rising by Alisha Klapheke

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

Delicious in Dungeon manga 1-14 by Ryoko Kui (full series)

Comments: Yeah...there was definitely a theme here. My favorite book this year was the entire TGCF/Heaven Official's Blessing series. The characters are all SO good, though Xie Lian is my favorite <333

Also this is the first time I've read any of Brandon Sanderson's stuff... overall I think they're pretty good! ALTHOUGH, I will say, I started with Yumi and the Nightmare Painter because I knew it was a standalone book and that was almost a mistake. For whatever reason he uses so many parentheses right off the bat - that's fine in a text post but in a novel I actually find that Quite Annoying so I almost gave up on it early. Glad I didn't though! Ended up liking it and was inspired to try some of his other books, which I enjoyed even more.

Currently Reading: Godkiller by Hannah Kaner. I don't think this is a very long book but I don't have the bandwidth required to finish it in the next couple days

2025 Book Goals: If you can believe it I have more danmei novels waiting in the wings lol. I am probably going to also read more Brandon Sanderson books but he has so many that I've just been checking them out at the library. I'm at the mercy of "whenever it comes in", and just read whatever in between.

—

2024 Video Games:

Super Mario Wonder

Baldur's Gate 3 (and it only took 171 hours)

Iron Lung

Logiart Grimoire

Monster Prom

POOLS

Atomic Heart

Dredge

Trombone Champ (can't believe this has an endgame state lmao)

Dave the Diver

Last Call BBS

Animal Well

Still Wakes the Deep

Crow Country

Nancy Drew and the White Wolf of Icicle Creek (played before a LONG time ago)

Raging Loop (DNF - Visual Novel - got about 7 hours in before deciding it wasn't for me)

Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor

Pseudoregalia

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

Escape Simulator

Strange Horticulture

Mouthwashing

Comments: This was an interesting year for me because I finally burned myself out on FF14, which left me open to start playing other games instead. I had gotten to the point where I was going for Triple Triad/Jellytoast mount so I was working on getting cards, and I actually got most of them. HOWEVER, I then got roadblocked by Eureka and Bozja. You have to do their storylines to unlock the NPCs for cards. Now, Eureka you CAN mostly do solo, its a miserable grindfest even if you do manage to get in a party, but you can still solo if no one is around, and the story quests don't require other players, so I got through Euraka. Bozja...no. No not really. The story quests have events that do require other players, and I found it really intimidating aaand my FC didn't want to help x_x So I finally just stopped and started playing BG3. I do want to play Dawntrail at some point but I just got so tired. (and yeah for the record I don't have any dedicated groups to play games with so I do mostly play solo games... FF14 is very solo friendly actually, if you're willing to sometimes put up with roulette queueing, just not some of the side content lol)

ANYWAY. Getting through a "large RPG" was one of my video game goals from last year so I accomplished that with BG3...then I started really getting through my backlog! Obviously I like a lot of different genres. If I had to pick a favorite I would say....🤔 Maybe Still Wakes the Deep storywise, but I'll pick Escape Simulator for gameplay because it's REALLY fun. Puzzle rooms are absolutely my jam. Mouthwashing was also very good, storywise. I am not going to label that one "fun" though. LOL.

Game that I wish I could like more...Animal Well. I didn't know this in advance but this is a very pixel hunt & ARG heavy game as well as being a metroidvania. I LOVE metroidvanias, on the other hand pixel hunts & ARGs are not for me at all. You cannot get to the "true" ending of this game without messing around with all that, and the regular end is like, nothing. Metroidvanias are usually pretty light on story as the format is challenging, but this may as well not have a story at all. So, that's irritating. On the other hand, the game is freaking gorgeous, and is one of the most eerie games I have played in a long time. Love the atmosphere, wasn't thrilled about the other stuff (to those that like it though, you would probably love this!)

Currently Playing: Undecided. Right now I'm thinking either Signalis or Sorry We're Closed. But I also have a lot of Nancy Drew games I picked up from a sale so maybe one of those first instead.

2025 Game Goals: I am tempted to say I'd like to do another "Large RPG" game since I still have several in my backlog, but honestly I would like to continue just knocking smaller games out of the general backlog as its been very satisfying.

---

Other 2025 Goals/Art Goals

So this was an interesting year because I ended up doing a 365 landscape drawing challenge in my hobonichi journal...trying to keep up with this has been the ultimate test and has been really draining my brain since like June. However, I am almost done. My ability to doodle random landscape in pen has definitely improved. Am I doing another yearly challenge next year? ....No. Absolutely not lmao. Break now.

Anyway some general goals are:

Finish at least 1 sketchbook

Do/Post more finished pieces

These are copied from last year though I would like to note that I ended up doing all those refs this year instead. Which is fine! They were very badly needed and I'm really happy about them. However my brain has been so drained otherwise I didn't really do much regular finished pieces and now I feel out of practice. 🤔 Ideally I'd like to work on figuring out a coloring process that works for me since it has legitimately always been a problem. But, I think that's also going to be driven a bit by 'what kind of look am I going for', which I have an idea (I love really interesting lighting), so I think I have to explore how to get to That.

3. Finish designing a sona

I got partway through this this year and got sidetracked. It also occurred to me that I could make more than one 🤔 I really want to update my icon art (and like... make some banners) so I kind of need to finish this thought.

[benevolenterrancy]

my brother and I finished playing Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, and that lead to him deciding i Needed To draw a picture of Banjo and Kazooie

[highly-radioactive-nerd]

Picked Up Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair because it was 90% (50% off because of a sale, plus an additional 40% because I bought Yooka Laylee) because I liked Yooka Laylee, even if it was super uneven. I heard the sequel, which is a 2.5d platformer rather than 3d, was a bit more polished, and im definitely seeing it.

I love the oddball sense of humor and style, all the weird side characters, so I'm happy to see them back. You're helping a new character, Queen Phoebee, reclaim her kingdom from Capital B, the capitalist Bee man from the first game. I like Capital B, I think he'd fit right In with Grunty and K Rool. He's the worst.

[bbs-backlog-challenge]

Fin or Bin: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

Only a couple of days ago, I finished playing Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. It didn’t get a backlog entry because I rented it and therefore it technically- technically- was never actually on my backlog. I guess the dice saw fit to punish me for my loophole, because immediately afterwards I rolled Impossible Lair, a game so DKC-coded you could asset flip the two and be none the wiser.

The similarities to DKCR in particular are a banana-skin away from just outright plagiarism, right down to actually having barrel cannons the player character(s) stick their heads out of after two seconds of waiting. TF has winged bananas who leave a trail behind them, collecting all of which grants a bonus; so too do YL have winged quills who behave in an identical fashion. It’s uncanny, and I certainly would be uncomfortable sitting next to these guys during an exam.

If you copy a great game though, you surely will make a great game, and copying only takes you so far. Playtonic prove they still have what it takes with the level design, one standout moment involving a level themed around water fountains that had multiple alternate routes that were just out of my reach, revealing after I had completed it that it was possible to play the same level again but with an alteration- in this case, an icy blast that froze all the water- and explore those other paths. The overworld too is more than just a level hub but a level of its own, requiring exploration and puzzle-solving to open up the way to the next stage.

Fin or Bin:

So here’s a controversial take- I think I actually prefer Impossible Lair to Tropical Freeze. DKCR/TF were great games, but I had my problems with them- and it just so happens that YLIL fixes those specific issues. Exploration was largely optional in TropicalReturns, the absolutely dire puzzle rooms actively discouraging it and the reward of a puzzle piece being equally lackluster. In YLIL these are functionally replaced with the TWIT coins, which are necessary for level progression, giving an actual incentive to find them all. I still prefer the DKC123 formula over either alternative presented here, but for my money YLIL lands a lot closer to what I'm looking for. It's basically the same game as Tropical Freeze, so why not Finish this one too?

(Steam)

[rosecandyart]

Mario Wonder thoughts:

DAISY DAISY DAISY DAISY DAISY ELEPHANT DAISY DAISY DAISY DAISY

The Yoshis look so funny in this game

Wario? Waluigi? FUCK YOU, NABBIT!

DAISY

Badges are sooooo cool, it's just like A Hat in Time and Yooka-Laylee: The Impossible Lair hehehhe

POOR YOSHI CARRYING ELEPHANT MARIO BAHAHHA

The elephants are super cute, fuck you

FUCKING BUBBLES

FIRE DAISY IS REAL

SPHERICAL

Blue toad lives :)

I stg, if Peachette is back

We technically got online play!

Prince Florian is a certified distinguished little guy and I love him

D A I S Y

[shieldsurf]

anyways here's the christmas games haul

playstation: live a live, tunic, transistor

steam: omori, wobbledogs

nintendo switch: yooka laylee and the impossible lair, sonic mania, cuphead + dlc, chicory: a colorful tale, pikuniku, dicey dungeons

im pretty sure all but 3 or 4 of these were <$5

[indietourney]

(apologies for the slightly late reveal, Freedom Planet 2 has had me absolutely entranced and I'm loving every second of it X) )

Peek-a-boo! Who's there? Here's Bracket 11, "Jump Up, Super Stars!", springing into action! 

Tourists have long been perplexed as to the conception and logic behind this realm's architecture. Sky-high towers, floating platforms, unfriendly triangles, and loose change hovering in the sky. Well... ask any citizen of the place and they'd let you into all the secrets and motivations! By miracle, nearly every person living here is blessed with the power of high jumps, with bodily strength being a minuscule factor. How could this violation of gravity be possible!? No use questioning it, just enjoy the perks of being able to soar in a single bound, even you, my dear tourists! Now, who's up to jump their way to the castle in the distance and win a shiny Indie Artifact!?

Electronic Super Joy (1 & 2)

Yooka-Laylee (+ Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair)

Woodle Tree (series)

Umihara Kawase (series)

Another bracket jumps into the fray, but what will our next set of contestants come prepared with? Find out tomorrow! ^^ [Contestants Revealed: 64/96] [Next Reveal: Traveling Companions]

[athetos]

I know what super Mario bros wonder slightly reminds me of now - yooka-laylee and the impossible lair. By changing the environment on the level entrance on the world map, you could play a variation of the level with different elements, like the areas are flooded, or a chase sequence, or wind gimmicks, etc. and I loved it. The wonder flower looks like a very silly and fun take on that concept and idk it just looks so fresh and enjoyable… I can’t wait

[lapismaid]

i have a bunch of games i've started/gotten near done on and need to go and actually uh Finish

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

Pizza Tower (mid World 3, was going for completion as i went but might have to just bite the bullet and beat the game "normally" first)

Sonic Frontiers

7th Dragon (DS)

Etrian Odyssey 2 HD (mid 3rd stratum)

Etrian Odyssey 3 HD (have played original before but this game fucking rules. also want to get 100%)

Resident Evil 2 Remake (at the final area)

Super Sami Roll

Yooka-Laylee & the Impossible Lair

Tears of the Kingdom (just doing loose ends at this point)

Pikmin 4 (in the "postgame")

Metroid Prime Remastered (again played the original before but god The Gramfics.....)

i need to clear off at least Some of these before i actually consider adding more to the backlog.....

...or i could do Another Fucking Dark Souls 2 playthrough either one works really

[botebot-10]

Its a good time to be a 2.5D platformer enjoyer!

[pixies-and-poets]

Donkey kong tropical freeze is such a bad game, it's not even really about playing or having fun, it's just strictly super technical and all about inhumanly perfect timing. It seems like a game designed for a cpu that has all the perfect inputs already programmed into it. Playing it as a human player is like... oh, sorry, but you didn't wait until literally the very last frame to jump off the last platform, so now your jump won't be able to cover the distance to the next platform. Sorry, try the last 2 minutes of gameplay you just did all over again! Like what kind of weird ass game devs think that's what makes a game good? Instead of filling a game with nothing but ridiculously challenging platforming that demands inhuman precision, just find ways to make it creative and interesting. I swear so many professional game devs come off like those stupid kids in mario maker who just make stupidly impossible levels where theres some secret shortcut only they know about like "hehe nobody will beat MY level" and its embarrassing. Whatever happened to the old donkey kong style of game where I remember swimming around as a cool swordfish and not worrying about my every input at rapid speed like I'm playing dance dance revolution on expert, but just exploring and enjoying the music and collecting bananas and having fun? The elitist direction of this series is so depressing.

This ask made my eyes bulge when I first saw the preview, but... while I don't necessarily agree with you, I'm gonna meet you where you are.

Tropical Freeze is a game that I think I respect more than I actually enjoy. Its music is incredible, its enemy team is about as fun as can be without actually being Kremlings, its levels are beautiful and you can play as Dixie again, AND Cranky (and now Funky). I don't know if you thought I'd find this ask insulting but I've only ever played the game twice to my memory, and I don't have a huge amount of personal attachment to it. Once, as co-op when the game was brand new, and again when it came out on Switch I did Funky Mode. Whereas I play the original SNES trilogy at least once a year. (edit: actually I'm pretty sure I've done Funky Mode twice)

Because it's been so long since I did the "normal" game, and because I played co-op, I don't have a strong remembrance of how difficult it actually is. But I do remember it being quite hard for us both. If I'm good at any games in the world, I'm fucking good at the old DKCs. I used to speedrun them, I grew up with and was molded by them. And while Retro Studio's work is built off of them, there's a slightly different feel and weight to its demands that are just different enough that I can no longer innately be an expert. (Side note, if you want a game that actually feels more similar to the old games, check out Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair!! It's great!)

So I get where you're coming from, I really do. I think TF is a masterpiece. I say that, anyway, so... Why do I never feel the urge to replay it? But honestly I think that's down to how the game feels overall, its length and level design, its overlong bosses, and not due to its difficulty, which is neither here nor there for me. ...and the fucking rocket barrel levels, I kind of hate them.

See, I do appreciate a good challenge and have played games since that I would consider far more demanding than TF. Of course many of them are indie games, or classic games. Tropical Freeze is pretty hard for a mainstream Nintendo game of the modern era, but lots of people out there love a good challenge and I think it's a good thing that Nintendo/Retro respect their players enough to issue one. Unfortunately, people who want to chill with the silly cartoon animals might end up being frustrated, BUT! That's what Funky Mode is for. It really was a genius idea. Funky Mode is like, so much more fun IMO, it really does replicate the feel I get with the original DKCs, allowing you to go faster and be more confident even if you're not that familiar with TF's level layouts. Even then, it's not totally easy- you still have to be somewhat careful and pay attention, but you can get through the game a lot faster.

And I do want to say, while TF may be the most difficult DKC game, the originals were no walk in the park either. I don't know your experience with how much you've played them, but like I said, for ME they seem easy- after all these years- but I've been around streaming communities, and communities that specifically like to do challenges and casual races, for a long time now. I've seen so many people struggle getting through DKC, DKC2 or DKC3 for the first time. I've seen people give up on doing it without save states. I've seen extremely skilled gamers get frustrated when attempting speed or challenge runs, which granted is a special case, but they have hours and hours of practice and the game meets them there and still kicks them. The DKC series has always been on the harder side, compared to something like Mario which would be the average. I know someone who, like me, has DKC2 as his favorite game ever... but still struggles while playing it. So your description of the older games seems a little rose-tinted. Maybe the early levels were all fun times collecting bananas, but tell me how much peace and vibes you really had in Snow Barrel Blast or Poison Pond or Lightning Lookout or Koindozer Klamber or Parrot Chute Panic or Toxic Tower or- (and that's not even to mention lost world levels)

TF has become a fan darling, but it's ok to not like it. That said, I think its Switch release crafted it into an ideal: a legit challenge for those who want one, and a different mode for those who just want to storm through and yet without it being a totally babymode no-brainer experience. I would like to see any future games offer a balance similar to this, if we ever get them.

....they really do gotta bring Enguarde back though, that's the important thing. I'm not kidding.

[game-boy-pocket]

Thoughts on Yooka Laylee? I didn’t think it was amazing but it’s also one of the few games I’ve Platinum’d so I must like it more than I think

It missed the mark in many ways but shined in many others. Unfortunately I think it missed the mark in more important areas than unimportant ones.

Level design was just way too big making them more difficult to navigate. Collectibles were kind of thoughtlessly placed instead of being used to lead the player to areas of interest. I think a good portion of the NPCs weren't very good, there was some jank in the mini games and several of the mechanics and hit detection, and the enemy variety was very bad, it was mostly just reskinned corplets, those annoying eyeball things, and those annoying flying bee thigs and maybe one exclusive enemy. Also idk what they were thinking with the Dr. Quack quizzes. They put no effort into the presentation of the quiz sections when Gruntilda put on this whole trivia show with an audience and the like, and even Dr. Quacks questions were pretty shitty.

But I don't think it's all bad... Yooka and Laylee feel great to control and unlike BK where it feels like Kazooie is 10x more important than Banjo, it kind of feels like Yooka and Laylee are equally important, the writing is very much on point, and while not all the NPCs are good, there's still a lot of good ones, I love the more important characters and some of the other minor NPCs. I think the energy bar is a lot more elegant than ammunition, I just wish it filled up faster. Music was great as expected with Grank Kirkhope and David Wise on board, and the writing was perfectly in line with what I want out of a Rare platformer. Very cynical but playfully tongue in cheek without a ton of self deprecation.

In the long run, I liked Yooka Laylee a lot, I don't know if it's a game I would play almost every year like I would Banjo. But it's a game I would play more than once. I really hope they weren't too discouraged by their first failings and make another 3D platformer. Impossible Lair is fine but we don't need a Donkey Kong Successor. We still have Donkey Kong. We don't have Banjo.... it kinda sucks to see Playtonic twiddling their thumbs and turning into publishers who just kind of post memes on twitter. Really hope there's more coming from them besides cameos. I need that Diddy Kong Racing successor.