It’s beyond mystifying to me that some folks from Rare left that studio and created a new studio, called Playtonic Games, just to make a spiritual successor to “Banjo-Kazooie.” And once they did, the crowdfunded “Yooka-Laylee” came and went without a real dent in the world.

Eight years later, the devs went back and remade it again? Or remastered it? Astonishing, the decision making on hand here.

But despite questioning the motives (or how the studio can make any money with this game plan in place), they’re offering the cleverly-titled “Yooka-RePlaylee” for a mere $20. And I can happily report that despite how sketchy this all sounds: the game is great! It turned out really swell, and this is the definitive way to play this game now. Any other version should be null and void, but instead of a simple patch or upgrade, it is its own release. Again, strange, but what are ya gonna do?

I remember liking but not loving the weird little platformer Playtonic put out. It was very rough around the edges, not fully complete, but had heart. And now this “new game” is much more polished, but still a little rough in certain places. Still, it’s far more complete and thought out almost a decade later. With that much hindsight, you’d certainly hope so.

I don’t know the impetus for sinking so much time and resources in doing such a re-push, but it released at a horrible time in the gaming calendar. This time of year is brutal, savage even, but carving out a few hours to re-play this turned out to be a total delight.

The main reason to check it out is not the updated graphics (although those are nice), the tweaked controls, or the re-balanced gameplay (you have everything unlocked from the start). It’s all of the new stuff they added into the levels which makes playing it feel so much more alive and complete.

There are new currencies to purchase cosmetics and items, and they’ve added tons of quality of life improvements that make the original seem quaint in comparison (fast traveling, map, tracking objectives, new tonics). From top to bottom, the creators found new and smart ways to touch up seemingly every aspect of the original game — minus the Grant Kirkhope score, which sounds just as good as ever.

What I do remember from the original were bad implementations of the powers Yooka and Laylee got (meters and UI were yucky — those are gone now). I also remember each of the main five levels of the game getting progressively worse and emptier. This time it’s reversed; every level gets better and better than the previous one.

The overall package is a blast from the past for nostalgic people like me, but it’s still not to the quality of a Nintendo platformer. For instance, lots of levels rely on entering a pipe or giant open door, but there’s no indicator other than a gaping black hole just sitting off to the side. There’s also no real reason to engage in the combat which is just spinning around until things are dead. No punching, no jumping on heads, and less of an emphasis on licking up powers like ice breath or fire breath. Lotta breath going on here.

I had a great time revisiting (or visiting?) this one. Trouser Snake, Shovel Knight, the sexy lady vending machine, and Capital B all remain great characters. I love the pirate + space themed level, the ability to turn into a pirate ship, and the casino level where you can become a helicopter and reign down fire on enemies from above.

If this had been released in May or June of this year, it would have been a bigger hit, but alas, this property seems doomed to suffer the same fate as Croc or Toomba or Klonoa or Gex or Aero the Acro-Bat or…

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“Yooka-RePlaylee” is available now on Xbox, PlayStation, PC, and Switch.

Image Credit: “Yooka-RePlaylee,” Playtonic Games