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Yono and the Celestial Elephants (Switch): COMPLETED!

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I’ve had my eye on this for a while what with the cute elephant and the lovely looking world. Got round to it yesterday and completed it today, and it’s very nice indeed.

I won’t go into it too much, but it’s short and sweet, with some mostly simple puzzles and very simple combat, but sometimes you just want something low impact like that with really nice graphics and an unusual world to run round in for a bit.

Awww, lookit deh cute widdle heggogs

The post Yono and the Celestial Elephants (Switch): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Yooka-Laylee (Switch): COMPLETED!

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Yooka-Laylee, or Yooka hyphen hyphen Laylee if we are to take the logo as canon, is – in case you’re not aware – the most Banjo-Kazooie game since Banjo-Kazooie. This is, of course, completely intentional and the entire point of the game’s Kickstarter campaign. It’s also the reason I (eventually) bought it.

Many people have slated Yooka-Laylee for a number of reasons. It’s a relic of a past age of collect-em-up 3D platformers. It’s rather too close to the source material. It suffers from weird glitches and framerate issues. It’s just not very good. To all of these I mostly agree, except the last one. Because it’s very good.

This puzzle room took me ages to figure out. Hint: look at the floor tiles.

OK, so it isn’t as good as Banjo-Kazooie. But it is almost as much fun and certainly much more accessible. It looks and sounds how you remember that game did rather than actually how that game did. All the characters have Rare-Eyes. Everyone speaks in that grating nonsensetalk way. The music! Oh my, the glorious music. The casino level in particular is incredible, but more than just the compositions, it’s the way – like the older games – as you move around the levels the music changes with you. It becomes more sinister, more happy, more… dirty, depending where you go. It’s The Best Music.

But we don’t usually play games for the music (OutRun excepted). Thankfully, Yooka-Laylee is great other than that. Big worlds (that can be made bigger), funny characters and dialogue, and tough but fair challenges to get Pagies – the main collectable. I say main because this is Rare^H^H^H^HPlaytonic we’re talking about – there’s Pagies, quills, coins, tokens, ghosts, and all sorts to pick up.

It’s-a-me! Pachinki-o!

The freedom to the levels is clever too. You don’t have to 100% each to move on, and you can expand each in any order providing you have enough Pagies to do so. I was a little worried it was possible to do stuff out of order in such a way you were locked out of Pagies for progression, but it seems not. With 140 of these things in total (and 100, how many I got) needed to complete the game, it isn’t a short task either.

So, if you were a fan of Banjo-Kazooie, you need to get this. Don’t expect everything to have been 100% updated for the modern gamer, but be pleasantly surprised that it isn’t as old-hat as you were expecting.

He B dead

The post Yooka-Laylee (Switch): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Yoshi’s Crafted World (Switch): COMPLETED!

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One of the (few) complaints I’ve seen people level at Yoshi’s Crafted World is that it is too easy. That none of the levels are a challenge. That the bosses are all a breeze to take down. Indeed, I’ve reached the end and beaten the final boss and I’ve barely a scratch. But that’s not the point.

Like previous Yoshi games, it’s easy for anyone to “complete”. To get all the secrets – all the flowers, red coins, hidden souvenirs, finish each level with full health, find all the Poochies on the flip side, finish the extra levels unlocked after the final boss – to get all of that, requires a heroic effort.

I’ve not given this game such an effort yet. But I did enjoy my path to the end. I tried to 100% it on the way but after a couple of levels where I didn’t on my first try I thought I’d leave it and come back. It’s a beautiful looking game, and it does that great Nintendo thing of being crammed with a million different brilliant ideas (in most graphics and gameplay), rarely to ever re-use them. You can imagine an entire game based around the Rhinono level or the creepy teddies with axes level or the duelling boats level or the solar powered racers level, but here Nintendo throw it at you then discard it immediately. How do they come up with so many ideas?

Judging from some of the requirements to get 100% I’m not sure I’ll ever make it, but I’ll certainly try for a higher percentage than I’m currently at!

The post Yoshi’s Crafted World (Switch): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

23: Randy Pitchfork, £20

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Another episode? Why would we do that? You insist we pull another one out? What’s wrong with you? And other questions.

This episode, deKay, Zo, Kendrick and Toby chat about recent Sony announcements like their new film division and getting into bed with Microsoft, the Ouya (who?!) RIP, the next batch of announced Mega Drive Mini games, Steam Chat on iOS, the return of Judgment to stores in Japan, everyone’s favourite Gearbox “personality”, and some games:

  • Dauntless
  • Total War: Three Kingdoms
  • Ikaruga
  • Human Fall Flat
  • Time Crisis 4
  • Dragon’s Revenge
  • Demon’s Souls
  • Life is Strange 2
  • Gears of War Ultimate
  • Nier Automata
  • ToeJam & Earl: Panic on Funkotron
  • The Mystery of Woolley Mountain
  • Assassin’s Creed Origins

We also answer some listener questions and only get sidetracked a few times.

(Direct link here)

Golden Axe II (Switch): COMPLETED!

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I was pretty sure that Golden Axe II was a better game than Golden Axe I. And I’d remembered correctly – as it is. But it’s still almost exactly the same game only with more pink and purple, a better (for Gilius at least – I only ever play as him) special attack.

Both “tricks” from the previous game still happen here, and for this one Sega Mega Drive Classics actually has an achievement for doing it enough times:

A hole new world

The other trick is the “running headbutt” one, and that’s still alive and well here too. Some of the baddies have evolved to make it a little harder – the giant dog things with maces, for example, now try to Tiger Knee you mid-dash. I also found a new trick which I don’t think worked before:

Mmm, pink

The bosses were also quite a bit easier than the original game, especially the final boss who rarely actually hits you. The big headless knights can’t be beaten like their headed counterparts (headbutt or jump-slash), but if you walk diagonally into them you can axe them before they attack so they’re actually easier to dispatch.

Graphically, the game seems better looking but the giant turtle and eagle based levels are replaced with just normal paths and caves, and the previously mentioned pink and purple enemies are a bit garish. The music, as ever, is great though.

  • Fire in the disco
  • Magic frogs
  • Rock on, doggy
  • More pink

The post Golden Axe II (Switch): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.