The Yooka-Laylee duology are a series of throwback platformers, harkening to the days of the Nintendo 64 and PSOne mascot titles. Originally released for the 8th-generation of consoles, Playtonic announced last year that a remake of the first game was in the works. Known as Yooka-Replaylee, the current-gen remake/remaster has now gotten an official release date – set to launch early next month.
Making the announcement via a Release Date Trailer, the team at Playtonic officially confirmed that “Yooka-Replaylee leaps into action on October 9th, 2025.”
Launching across all current-gen systems (including the Switch 2), this ‘reimagined’ release brings with it “double the content, a bunch of thoughtful upgrades and loads of brand-new surprises,” including but not limited to:
- Art and animations overhaul
- Improvements to existing in-game challenges and many entirely new challenges
- New collectible currency
- A brand-new world map and challenges tracker
- New, game-changing tonics
- A new tweaked move set
- Orchestral arrangement of the original soundtrack
Despite the pretty substantial overhaul to many of its mechanics, Playtonic have confirmed that current owners of the original Yooka-Laylee can purchase Replaylee for a discounted cost – setting you back $20.99 instead of the full $29.99 (30% off). It is worth noting however that said upgrades are only available within each respective console ecosystem; meaning Switch to Switch 2, PS4 to PS5 etc…
The original Yooka-Laylee showed a ton of promise when it arrived back in 2017. Unfortunately, the game wound up feeling somewhat incomplete – especially compared to 3D collectathon platformers of old. That said, with the excellent Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair now also under their belt, Playtonic looks set to give the 3D collectathon another go.
KitGuru says: What did you think of the original Yooka-Laylee? Are you looking forward to this reimagining? What were the first game’s biggest issues? Let us know down below.