I went into Yooka Replaylee with pretty modest expectations. I enjoyed the original, but I never felt it fully captured the magic of the collect-a-thons it set out to honor. This new “re-imagining” pitches itself as a second chance — and to my surprise, it actually earns that framing.

The biggest change hits you immediately: this is a much more confident, better-paced version of Yooka-Laylee. The newly added storybook presentation gives the retelling a playful tone, and the extra sequences sprinkled throughout help the adventure feel more cohesive instead of stitched together. I wouldn’t say the narrative suddenly becomes a selling point, but it’s charming in a way the original never quite managed.

What impressed me most was the gameplay overhaul. The movement feels tighter and much more expressive, with new combos that make traversing the worlds smoother and less frustrating. The camera — a notorious sore spot the first time around — has also been dramatically improved. It finally feels like the game is working with you instead of against you.

The expanded content is where the “Replaylee” name earns its keep. Levels have been reworked with new areas and retooled challenges, and the Pagie count has doubled. These aren’t just copy-paste tasks added for padding; a surprising number of them feel genuinely more polished or more interesting than before. The new currency, Q.U.I.D.S., also gives you extra incentives to poke around and take on side challenges, especially if you’re aiming for completion.

I also have to give credit to the adventurers’ notebook — it’s a small feature with a big impact. It makes tracking progress so much easier without removing the fun of actually exploring. The new fast-travel bookmarks are a blessing for anyone who remembers spending too long backtracking in the original.

The Rextro side-game expansion is a fun novelty. I don’t think it transforms the experience, but jumping into isometric levels for rewards is a neat break in pacing. The updated tonics system is also much better, letting you stack enhancements and even change up your character’s look. It’s the kind of playful customization the original always needed more of.

And of course, the soundtrack deserves its own praise. Hearing Wise, Kirkhope, and Burke’s music fully orchestrated is a treat — it lifts every world and makes the game feel far more magical than I expected.

All that said, this still isn’t the peak of the modern 3D platformer revival. If someone asked me whether they should play A Hat in Time or this first, I’d still point them to A Hat in Time every time. It’s tighter, more inventive, and just more consistent overall.

But here’s the thing: Yooka Replaylee is absolutely worth playing if you have that old-school collect-a-thon itch. It’s playful, generous with content, and finally polished in the ways the original needed. It doesn’t dethrone the best in the genre, but it comfortably sits as a genuinely fun, much-improved alternative — one that finally lives up to the spirit of the games it set out to emulate.

If you loved classic Rare-style platformers, this is the version of Yooka-Laylee that actually scratches the itch.