#trowzer

Now I would say it's unnecessary to remake something that's only 7 years old, but I'm fine since I did enjoy this game and it's the closest we've gotten to a remake or proper sequel to Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie.

[C] 'APNSD' Style: Yooka Laylee + Trowzer by Mast3r-Rainb0w

It’s Yooka Laylee and Trowzer in the “A Pup Named Scooby Doo” art style.

My honest opinion when it comes to the A Hat in Time vs Yooka Laylee debate (years after the release of both games and having completed both games multiple times).

I know it’s not a popular stance to have, but personally, while I really like both games, I feel like A Hat in Time is just not as good as Yooka Laylee.

For one thing, A Hat in Time is way too short (particularly if your copy of the game doesn’t have the DLC) and too easy (even with the challenge mode DLC). Yooka Laylee had plenty of content and a lot of challenge to finding every collectible and completing the various tasks. 

The fact that Yooka Laylee had some challenge seems to be the thing that the game’s detractors appear to dislike the most apparently, but I’ll address that later.

Yooka Laylee also accomplished the impressive task of simultaneously recapturing the magic of games like Banjo Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64 while also maintaining an identity of its own with its own unique mechanics. A Hat in Time was kind of schizophrenic in it’s game design. Did the game wanted to be the next Mario Sunshine? Psychonauts? Spyro? Sly Cooper? The gameplay was all over the place. This combined with the game’s short length resulted in A Hat in Time not really having a consistent gameplay identity of its own.

There are other, relatively minor, things that factor into why I personally think Yooka Laylee is superior to A Hat in Time, but those are the primary reasons.

I also want to point out that while I understand why some may prefer A Hat in Time over Yooka Laylee, I do not see the logic behind saying A Hat in Time is “What Yooka Laylee should be” or stating that Yooka Laylee is a bad game. That’s mostly because the majority of critiques towards Yooka Laylee don’t really hold up to much scrutiny. 

A lot of the criticism thrown Yooka Laylee’s way seem to stem from issues that were largely fixed with the pre-release patch, borderline misinformation like how Yooka Laylee has almost three times the amount of collectibles/content compared to A Hat in Time and yet is somehow considered the “empty one” of the two, or just simply not understanding what a collect-a-thon platformer should be.

The fact that people complain that it’s too hard to find some of the collectables in Yooka Laylee does not show me that the game is flawed. It shows me that the game successfully challenged the player. The main crux of platformers like Banjo, DK64, and Yooka is having the player figure out how to navigate every level and complete various tasks in order to get each collectible.

Saying that games like Yooka Laylee and Donkey Kong 64 need features like a map screen/mini map showing where the player needs to go is like saying that beat-em-up action games should have a feature where an A.I. takes control of the player character and does the fighting for you or that a puzzle solving game that just gives you the answer to each puzzle with the press of a button. Way to miss the point by a country mile everyone.

Look, it’s one thing to simply find a game like Yooka Laylee to be not your personal cup of tea. But to say the game is outdated and that the “medium of gaming has evolved beyond the late 1990′s”, your head must be so far up your own ass, you’re getting a second helping of your last meal, alongside your own words.