Current Events > A Hat In Time is what Yooka-Laylee tried and failed to be.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I know they were both crowd funded indie games so I wonder of AHIT just had a way bigger budget or just had far more creative and talented people working on it.

Yeah I agree, yooka laylee sucked

So sad banjo never became a major Nintendo series

Legit has one of the scariest levels in a non-horror game after Earthbound.

hat in time isn't really based on any specific game, it generally takes art cues from wind waker and a lot of its structure is based on mario sunshine, but it's not nearly the "sequel you've waited 20 years for" thing yooka-laylee wanted to be

I agree

YookaLaylee posted...

I agree

My condolences...

Illuminoius posted...

hat in time isn't really based on any specific game, it generally takes art cues from wind waker and a lot of its structure is based on mario sunshine, but it's not nearly the "sequel you've waited 20 years for" thing yooka-laylee wanted to be

Yeah. A Hat in Time wasn't seen as a successor to something like Banjo, so when it kind of blew the lower expectations away.

I think Yooka-Layla still wasn't bad. It was a step down because people wanted it to be Banjo-Kazooie, but I think it had everything it needed to be really good in a sequel. Impossible Lair is also pretty good, but it went in a totally different direction.

Buggy?

AHIT felt like We want to make a great collectathon platformer in 2017.

Yooka-Laylee felt like

Okay we have the Banjo-Kazooie esque main character, the gibberishly dialogue and the first level music sounds like those games. Thats enough to get em, were all done!
But sir, dont we have an entire game to make?
fuck.

Illuminoius posted...

hat in time isn't really based on any specific game, it generally takes art cues from wind waker and a lot of its structure is based on mario sunshine, but it's not nearly the "sequel you've waited 20 years for" thing yooka-laylee wanted to be

The atmosphere with the characters is also very paper marioish imo. It outright uses the Shadow Queen's dialogue box for the Snatcher

The devs of AHIT are probably more talented.

And yeah, I enjoyed what I played of Yooka-Laylee but didn't come close to the games it was trying to replicate. A Hat in Time is better especially since it tries its own style at a classic platformer instead of trying to 1:1 recreate an exact style.

BakonBitz posted...

it tries its own style at a classic platformer instead of trying to 1:1 recreate an exact style

My thing is id be completely fine with Yooka-Laylee being Banjo-Threeie in all but name IF they actually did it well. It shouldve been everything the first two games were and so much more, instead it had less features, detail, personality and scope than a game released 20 years earlier on vastly inferior hardware.

EffectAndCause posted...

My thing is id be completely fine with Yooka-Laylee being Banjo-Threeie in all but name IF they actually did it well. It shouldve been everything the first two games were and so much more, instead it had less features, detail, personality and scope than a game released 20 years earlier on vastly inferior hardware.

Yeah that's true. The first level wasn't a great first impression because it literally looked like assets pasted together, as opposed to Mumbo's Mountain and Mayahem Temple where they looked carefully crafted to seem like real places. Well, real in the context of the game, lol. I didn't like that each level had the same NPCs as well.

And the fact that your abilities had an energy bar that quickly depleted and needed to recharge, its like they said Hey lets make using the character less fun for no reason.

Along with the weird world expansion gimmick where you unlocked bigger versions of the same world. Why the Hell didnt they instead make those completely new worlds to add SOME variety if they were gonna copy/paste the same enemies in every world.

Did the worlds in Yooka Laylee get any better after the second? I thought the first world was, well, not great but enough to keep me interested in the game. Then the second world felt so empty, large, and dull that I dropped the game hard.

I thought A Hat in Time was fun but felt like (less than) half a game when it released, the latter couple stages were very underbaked, and even with the dlc it still felt too short

really shows the benefits of having a decent budget

sutree posted...

Did the worlds in Yooka Laylee get any better after the second?

Nope, they actually got worse.

The snow level was empty and lifeless and had that bullshit isometric view cave that cheaply padded out the level with pagies that had zero creativity.

The swamp level was so bad and boring that I simply gave up on it and went to the casino level just because I was tired of playing that level (a first in platformer history).

And they somehow managed to make a casino level be equally boring and lifeless when casino themes are usually a treasure trove of ideas. So at that point I gave up on the game for good.

TheGoldenEel posted...

I thought A Hat in Time was fun but felt like (less than) half a game when it released, the latter couple stages were very underbaked, and even with the dlc it still felt too short

really shows the benefits of having a decent budget

I agree, I enjoyed the game a lot, but some of the levels aren't so great. The game nailed movement and charm so it still won my heart.

It's probably a bit overrated as there are so few platformers available on PC.

yooka laylee is just fucking bad. the 2D game was supposed to be good tho

EffectAndCause posted...

Along with the weird world expansion gimmick where you unlocked bigger versions of the same world. Why the Hell didnt they instead make those completely new worlds to add SOME variety if they were gonna copy/paste the same enemies in every world.

They had the right idea with revisiting the idea in Impossible Lair but actually making it so levels get altered. Not just expanded, altered. Allowed for different traversal methods and for a 3D game, could use it to hide collectibiles in clever ways.

With rumors of a Yooka-Laylee sequel being out there, here's hoping they take the criticisms of the first game to heart and adapt some of the ideas that they had with Impossible Lair. Also better level designs and move integration.

I haven't even bothered to sail the seas for yooka laylee because it just feels like an uninspired mess trying to cater to nostalgia

a hat in time in the other hand was great, has an AMAZING soundtrack, and the worlds have this weird paper mario feel to it, it even has a train mystery killer stage like TTYD had

Yooka Laylee lacks level design. Like, some of the challenges and minigames are fun, but it's like, someone just made a big open space and just placed set-pieces at random. Compare Banjo-Kazooie's ice world to Yooka-Laylee's.

The "expand the stage" gimmick was a neat idea, but ultimately didn't add anything worthwhile imo. It probably would've been better to just take a more organic approach and gate off portions of the worlds by putting in obstacles you need later abilities to cross. From what I remember, the devs idea was that a new player might find the full size stages overwhelming, so this was a way to start off with something more manageable. But I think if you have that problem to begin with, that's a problem with the design and not the size.

I've always said this about yooka laylee: IT NEEDED MORE PLAYTESTING. The minigames are not fun. At all. They are janky, awkward, and rage inducing. The retro minigames that appear in each world are horrible. Especially the last two.

I dont think the game was as bad as a lot of people say it was, but I wouldn't give it more than a 6 out of 10. A genuine 6 out of 10, not gamers and their "everything less than 8 is unplayable" drivel.
The final level , the space level, was my favorite, but the ice and swamp level were so meh. I just found the combination of interstellar space and ocean themes quite interesting and I always like space levels.

I platinum the game, and I would consider replaying it someday in the future, but I will never go for 100% ever again. It's just an awful experience to go for 100%.

Hat in Time was definitely the superior game, however I played it on the switch which was easily the buggiest of the ports. I had a lot of issues with assets not loading properly.

GiftedACIII posted...

The atmosphere with the characters is also very paper marioish imo. It outright uses the Shadow Queen's dialogue box for the Snatcher

He even opens with the "Whee hee hee hee, fooooooooool!" That the black boxes in TTYD said.

Poi is a vastly better Mario 64 knockoff than either of those.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Poi is a vastly better Mario 64 knockoff than either of those.

I don't think people are comparing them to Super Mario 64.

Bandit_Keith posted...

I don't think people are comparing them to Super Mario 64.

Both of those games reek of "yeah, I played a lot of Mario 64".

Illuminoius posted...

hat in time isn't really based on any specific game, it generally takes art cues from wind waker and a lot of its structure is based on mario sunshine, but it's not nearly the "sequel you've waited 20 years for" thing yooka-laylee wanted to be

Theres even a FLUDD mod on Steam

Questionmarktarius posted...

Both of those games reek of "yeah, I played a lot of Mario 64".

It sounds like you havent even played AHIT, man.

wiiking96 posted...

It sounds like you havent even played AHIT, man.

Russian Mafia 64

Questionmarktarius posted...

Russian Mafia 64

They're only relevant in the tutorial world lol. And as the backstory for the final boss.
.
Anyway, one of the best aspects of the game is the music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_LJxT1BPm0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zb0MFTBD3s&list=PLvAEyhrvD3mGeGqBJr2FUacQewoop8frr&index=19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvbi6-BVy4g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwGnXPpbu4A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSSFtha4zIE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGaMIa7LYQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFGVmo_KxU0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg2utHOMapQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrzjCwHbwF0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHvhps47Lmc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwsaZqx7H2M

I can't even list all the bangers. Pascal Michael Stiefel is a genius.

hat in time being so kawaii helped greatly

Spidey5 posted...

I've always said this about yooka laylee: IT NEEDED MORE PLAYTESTING. The minigames are not fun. At all. They are janky, awkward, and rage inducing. The retro minigames that appear in each world are horrible. Especially the last two.

I dont think the game was as bad as a lot of people say it was, but I wouldn't give it more than a 6 out of 10. A genuine 6 out of 10, not gamers and their "everything less than 8 is unplayable" drivel.
The final level , the space level, was my favorite, but the ice and swamp level were so meh. I just found the combination of interstellar space and ocean themes quite interesting and I always like space levels.

I platinum the game, and I would consider replaying it someday in the future, but I will never go for 100% ever again. It's just an awful experience to go for 100%.

Hat in Time was definitely the superior game, however I played it on the switch which was easily the buggiest of the ports. I had a lot of issues with assets not loading properly.

He even opens with the "Whee hee hee hee, fooooooooool!" That the black boxes in TTYD said.

Mostly agree with this

would also add that the level expansions gimmick seemed cool but mostly just made it pointless to enter a level until you could fully expand it in the first place

they did the level modifications so much better in Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair, a genuinely great game