Video Game / Yooka-Laylee

If any of this looks familiar, it's supposed to.^note From middle going clockwise: Yooka the Chameleon and Laylee the Bat, Trowzer the Snake, Rextro Sixtyfourus, Dr. Puzz, Kartos, Dr. Quack, and Capital B with two Corplet Grunts

Yooka-Laylee (working title: Project Ukulele) is a 3D "Collect-a-Thon" Platform Game that serves as a Creator-Driven Successor to the Banjo-Kazooie series. The title was developed by Playtonic Games, a group of former key personnel from Rare — specifically, the same people behind such games as Donkey Kong Country and the aforementioned Banjo-Kazooie. The game released on April 11, 2017 for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. A Nintendo Switch version would release several months later on December 14, 2017.

After a book they found is sucked up by the evil Hivory Towers Corporation, best friends Yooka the chameleon and Laylee the bat enter their headquarters and find themselves fighting their way through the vast company grounds and the levels they contain in order to reassemble the book's lost pages. The game intentionally shares many gameplay elements with the Banjo-Kazooie series, but the most notable difference is that its collectible Plot Coupon, Pagies, can not only be used to unlock more worlds and thus reach the Final Boss, but also expand each world; thus making them bigger and adding new challenges, which in turn grants access to even more collectibles, including other Pagies.

Just like similar instances of creators effectively reviving their old series due to another corporation holding the rights, Yooka-Laylee was crowdfunded through Kickstarter. The campaign was launched on May 1, 2015, reaching its target goal (and, in fact, it exceeding it) on the same day. The campaign ended the following month with a total of £2,090,084 (not including PayPal donations). A teaser Vine can be seen here.

The official website for Playtonic Games is here.

Yooka and Laylee are also Guest Fighters in the games Brawlout and Mighty Fight Federation while they feature as a playable duo for a free DLC in Volta-X.

On June 7, 2019, a new 2½D installment, entitled Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (this time evoking the aforementioned Donkey Kong Country series), was announced. The trailer can be viewed here. An extended gameplay demonstration can be viewed here.

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Tropes relating to this game include:

#-N

• 100% Completion: The game has various collectibles to track: There are 145 Pagies, 1,110 quills (of which you basically need all to get all Pagies), six Power Batteries, six Butterfly Health Extenders, and five Mollycools. There are also a total of 16 tonics to collect (although you'll likely have all of them once you finish the rest of the collectibles) and lastly, five well hidden "Pirate Treasures".
• Ability Required to Proceed: The game has various abilities, and you won't get far without them. Trowser, this game's move tutor, teaches you the most important abilities for free in the overworld, but all the other ones you have to pay with Quills.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The Space Plumbing is an unreasonably large area given that it only connects a series of outhouses.
• Actor Allusion: The Pagie that runs away from you in the Waterworks is apparently called "Crazy Kirkhope" according to a bit of dialogue when you catch him. Grant Kirkhope is the name of the series' (and Banjo's) chief composer
• Added Alliterative Appeal: Most worlds' names, as well as Capital B's Boss Subtitles.
• Adventure Duo: Yooka and Laylee. They are an inseparable duo when it comes to adventuring, and they are pretty much foils to one another as well - just like their antetypes Banjo and Kazooie.
• Alliterative Name: All the world names are alliterative: Tribalstack Tropics, Glitterglaze Glacier, Moodymaze Marsh, Capital Cashino, and Galleon Galaxy.
• Always Night: Moodymaze Marsh and Galleon Galaxy are set in perpetual darkness. At least for the latter, this is even taken literally, as you're in outer space, where it's always dark.
• Ambiguously Human: Schell the Spacewitch is the closest the game has to an actual human, yet the game mostly refers to her as "extraterrestrial".
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Collect all 145 Pagies, which means also collecting all 1010 quills, rewards you with some blue "pants" that are purely cosmetic.
• Animate Inanimate Object:
  • Many of the game's NPCs, in the fashion of the developers' pedigree, are sapient objects, such as Kartos the mine cart, Planker the sign post, Ollie the shopping cart, and Nimbo the cloud.
  • As with Banjo-Kazooie, this extends to collectibles as well (which tend to introduce themselves when you pick up the first one; many Pagies also have dialogue).
  • There's even an enemy that takes the propensity for sticking eyes on objects to make them come alive to the extreme, being a pair of googly eyes that takes over nearby objects to attack Yooka and Laylee.
• Animorphism: Downplayed; only one of the five transformations is an animal, Moodymaze Marsh's school of piranhas.
• Anthropomorphic Typography: Googly Eyes are evil pairs of eyeballs that attach themselves to various objects to bring those objects to life. In the hub world, you can find Googly Eyes that attach themselves to 3D letters.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • If you manage to beat Captial Cashinos' minecart section but die to I.N.E.P.T immediately afterwards, the game will let you start off there instead of forcing you to play the entire section again.
  • One of the tonics makes it so being around a collectible or power-up causes a whistling noise, which gets louder the closer you get. It even works if it's not visible and requires a different path.
  • Accessing the final boss merely requires collecting 100 Pagies over the course of the game, rather than spending a set number at once. This exception is likely to prevent the player from not having enough Pagies to unlock or expand every world.
• Aquatic Mook: Corplet Marines are the only aquatic enemy in the game. It is implied that they're actually from outer space, as they float in the air in Galleon Galaxy.
• Area of Effect: Laylee's "Sonic 'Splosion" ability hits enemies in a moderately wide radius around the duo. It doesn't use much of the Power Meter, but it does have a a significant charge-up time that leaves them vulnerable. Even so, if used carefully, it can be more effective at taking out groups of enemies than regular attacks.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Three out of the six main bosses have one: The Great Rampo's teeth, Trev the Tenteyecle's eyes, and Planette's glowing craters.
• Backtracking: Except for the last one, no world can be completed during the first playthrough, as at least for some Pagies you'll always need some abilities from later worlds.
• Bee Afraid:
  • The Big Bad, Capital B, is a giant bee, and all his attacks reflect that: Sometimes, he calls a whole swarm of bees upon you, others include throwing exploding hives. In the final part of the fight, you stand on a small honeycomb-like structure while he shoots stings at you.
  • There are two standard enemies, the Bizzy Bees and Corplet Drones, that resemble bees as well.
• Big Bad: Capital B, the CEO and proprietor of Hivory Towers.
• Bigger on the Inside: The Icymetric Palace. From the outside, it doesn't look big enough to host more than maybe a few rooms, but once inside the place is enormous. Most places in Galleon Galaxy qualify as well, especially the minigolf section.
• Bilingual Bonus: In an interview with Steve Mayles, he revealed why Yooka and Laylee are named after the ukelele (in addition to the Theme Naming with Banjo-Kazooie). According to a Hawaiian dictionary, "uku" means "a small brained person" and "lele" means "to fly" or "to get off a vehicle".
• Black Comedy: Many examples of this throughout the game include incidents such as accidentally blowing up an old sentient moon, causing his angry planet widow to seek revenge, and a shopping trolley who resigns himself to his fate (rusting underwater forever), to which Laylee essentially responds with a shrug.
• Body Horror: Dr. Puzz, as a result of a mishap with her D.N.Ray, grew some squid-like tentacles and is unable to breath overwater, although she otherwise appears human.
• Boss Banter: All boss enemies just won't stop taunting you during battle, although the bosses of Capital Cashino and Galleon Galaxy take it a bit more seriously.
• Bottomless Pit: The first two worlds are surrounded by them, but after that they become a rarity - only a few subareas of the hub world and Galleon Galaxy still have them. In the hub, falling into one just resets you to your last entry door with full health, and not even the usual death jingle plays.
• Bubblegloop Swamp: Moodymaze Marsh, which is an Expy of the Trope Namer in Banjo-Kazooie.
• The Cameo: Shovel Knight appears as an NPC in two levels.
• Casino Park: Capital Cashino is as close to a Las Vegas casino as it can reasonably be in a platforming game. There are slot machines, roulette tables, card games, a separate currency just for this level and even the level layout forgoes straight lines and clear pathways, just as a real casino.
• Character Customization: Play Tonics can be collected and used to enhance the duo's skills in multiple ways, such as decreasing the amount of power the Reptile Roll uses or allowing Yooka to grab Quills with a tongue lash. You can only equip one at a time, however.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Blasto just seems to be a minor character related to two Pagies, until He just randomly shows up after the final boss fight and finishes off the main antagonists for good.
• Checkpoint Starvation:
  • Zig-zagged. If the duo die or fall into a bottomless pit, they will respawn back at the last entrance/exit they came from. While this is helpful in certain areas and spots, it's far less helpful in long and challenging platforming sections, especially if you were almost close to getting past that section.
  • The final bossfight is one long and arduous sequence against Capital B with no checkpoints and many short cutscenes scattered in between. If you die, it's all the way back to the beginning.
• The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Lampshaded before the Final Boss when Capital B uses one of Vendi’s tonics to grow in size. Yooka immediately notes that said tonic wasn’t available for them to use.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Capital B, the game's Big Bad. Many of his taunts reflect his - at least moral - corruption, for instance when he thanks the heroes for killing some of the mooks, as now they're off the paycheck list.
• Cruelty Is the Only Option: A sentient moon and planet in Galleon Galaxy are reminiscent of the ice cube couple in Banjo-Tooie, in that you have to kill both of them violently in order to receive a Pagie.
• Deadpan Snarker: Laylee, who rarely has a kind word to say in the duo's conversations with the game's various NPCs.
• Deus ex Machina: Zig-zagged. During the final boss fight, Blasto shows up out of nowhere after the Capital B boss fight to put an end to the encounter. However, the fight was all but over when he arrived.
• Disc-One Nuke: Once Laylee learns the Glide ability after the first world, the game breaks wide open - many challenges can just circumvented or outright nullified by precise platforming around it with the help of the longer air time the move provides.
• Double Jump: From the get-go, Yooka and Laylee have the option to jump again in midair. This facilitates many platforming challenges.
• The Dragon: Dr. Quack is the second in command to Capital B.
• Edible Ammunition: The game world is full of bushes with various berries that can be eaten by Yooka to spit fire or shoot ice and grenades, respectively.
• Evil All Along: Schell the Space Witch seemed to have a good reason to destroy the sinister looking spaceship above Galleon Galaxy. In reality, she just wanted an easy opportunity to assault the mostly peaceful Blamphibians.
• Expansion Pack World: A literal case; the player can use Pagies to expand preexisting worlds.
• Expy:
  • Yooka is one for Banjo, as the first-named protagonist who the player controls directly, while Laylee is one for Kazooie, as the second-named protagonist who rides on the first and provides many of the duo's abilities.
  • Pagies for Jiggies, as the game's main collectible MacGuffin.
  • Trowzer for Bottles the mole, as the NPC who teaches the protagonist duo their special moves.
  • The Ghost Writers play the same role that Jinjos played, as collectible NPCs. Appearance-wise, they greatly resemble the ghosts of Luigi's Mansion.
  • Capital B. is reminiscent of Gruntilda, as the powerful Big Bad who taunts the protagonists as they explore his lair.
  • Dr. Puzz is reminiscent of Mumbo Jumbo, as someone who is able to transform the duo into useful alternate forms.
  • The Mollycools fulfill the same role as the Mumbo Tokens and Glowbos from Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie, being the item needed to activate the transformations.
• Falling Damage: Happens quite fast and can easily remove more than half your live, especially in the rather vertical first world Tribalstack Tropics. Luckily, there is a tonic which removes fall damage entirely.
• Fantastic Racism: The flowers in the first world refuse to talk to Yooka and Laylee until they turn into a flower.
• Fartillery: One move sees Yooka farting out an air-tight bubble that fully envelops himself and Laylee, and gives the duo access to their on-land moveset underwater.
• Flame Spewer Obstacle: In Hogswitch Hollow, there is a segment that includes flame grill platforms that regularly spew flames. Yooka must time his jumps to reach the fire Yooka form, at which point he is immune to fire.
• Floating Continent: A few bits and pieces of their world appears to be floating.
• Follow the Money: Quills are often used to direct the player; at one point the pair accidentally stumble into an employee's only area with the excuse that they were just following the Quills.
• Frigid Water Is Harmless: Yooka the chameleon can swim in the Glitterglaze Lake in the Glitterglaze Glacier level with no ill effects despite being a cold-blooded animal.
• Fun with Acronyms:
  • Trowzers Worldwide Incredible Traders Co. Ltd.
  • Amazing Rextro's Software Entertainment.
  • Trowzer's Really Ace Software Handbook.
• Furry Confusion:
  • Capital B, a giant human-sized anthropomorphic bee, appears in the same game as both the Corplet Drones, which are much smaller bee enemies that are still sentient creatures, and swarms of regular insect-sized bees that he uses as ammo during the final boss battle.
  • At one point near the end of the game, Dr. Quack calls for someone to fetch him his duck down pillow. Don't question it.
• Gag Nose: Laylee, whose nose would make most clowns jealous.
• Gangplank Galleon: Galleon Galaxy is a pirate ship level set in an ocean of space.
• Genre Throwback: While 3D Platformers have been around in recent years, this is one of the first straight examples of a "Collect-A-Thon" 3D Platformer since the N64/PS1 days.
• Goodies in the Toilets: It is a game in the spirit of older Rare games, after all. In Galleon Galaxy, there is a bunch of outhouses scattered around on a planet. They can be opened and some of them contain single quills.
• Grail in the Garbage: The Plot Coupons are Pagies, pages from a magical book. Many NPCs consider the Pagies garbage, and are willing to let Yooka and Laylee have the Pagies because they want nothing to do with them. For example, one Pagie is swirling around in a whirlwind in Tribalstack Tropics. One NPC demands Yooka and Laylee to clean up the "garbage" before his wife gets home and sees it.
• Greater-Scope Villain: While Capital B is the Big Bad, he's still subservient to a group of V.I.L.E board members headed by the company's chairman of the board. These villains only show up in one scene in a video-conference call and don't have any legible lines, but Dr. Quack is their agent, not Capital B's, and is watching him on their behalf to ensure he sticks to their plan.
• Grimy Water: Both Moodymaze Marsh and Galleon Galaxy consist of small island inside a big pool of tainted water (green-brownish in the Marsh, deep blue in the Galaxy). Contact with that water hurts you.
• Ground Pound: One of the earliest skills Yooka can learn is slamming into the ground after jumping. One tonic amplifies its impact with a small shock wave around it.
• Guide Dang It!: As a deliberate homage to the Collectathon Platformers of the 90s, the puzzles in Yooka-Laylee can vary from "challenging" to "how the heck was I supposed to figure this out?!"
  • Finding all of the Golden Quills in each world is needed to achieve one of that world's 25 Pagies. But finding those Golden Quills can be a proper nightmare, and the only help the game offers is the "Hunter" tonic, which causes a rather annoying whistling to be heard if you're getting close to one of the last 30 Quills in the world. Tribalstack Tropics is a particularly egregious example; there is one single Quill hidden around a corner after a lengthy platforming section, too far away for the Hunter tonic to alert you.
  • The second world, Glitterglaze Glacier, has three of these in a row if you expand the world to add the "Icysymmetric Castle" zone, all of which are accessed via the underwater doorway.
    • Firstly, you have to get through a maze. Which door will lead to the next room instead of sending you back to the start can only be determined with the Sonar Shot. The game tells you that, but only with a rather cryptic message
    • Secondly, you reach a Pagie in a frozen cage and are told to use the nearby sunlight to melt it free. A crystal block can be used to focus the sunlight into a beam of heat, but there's no way to position the crystal's beam so that it touches the cage. You need to use Camo Cloak and stand in the sun-ray; this will cause Yooka to shoot a laser from his tail that can be used to thaw the cage. This use of Camo Cloak comes out of nowhere and never appears again.
    • Finally, you reach one of the game's more infamous puzzles; Tubbz the living Hot Tub, who complains that he can't make bubbles due to having a "gas problem". There's nothing in the room, nothing related to him in the palace outside that one room, and nobody you can turn to for advice. What you need to do is unlock the "Bubble Buddy" ability and then "half" use it; pressing the button just long enough to make the bubble start to appear, but not holding it until the bubble fully materializes. Once Yooka has used the move to create 3-5 bubbles, Tubbz spontaneously triggers his own bubbles in reply, and he gives you his Pagie in gratitude.
  • Getting the pirate treasure is a pain in the ass, as nothing in this game (other than the achievement) hints at its existence. Not only they're very well hidden in every level, but the game doesn't show how many you've collected in the menu.
• Hailfire Peaks: Galleon Galaxy is set in a lagoon with tropical islands, complete with a lighthouse. However, the level has a Raygun Gothic theme where different islands are treated as different planets and the characters in the level all act as though they were living in deep space. Activities include jumping from asteroid to asteroid, turning into a "starship" that is really just an old timey galleon, and participating in an "intergalactic" war.
• Head Pet: Laylee rides on Yooka's head instead of in a backpack.
• Heart Container: Butterfly Extenders permanently increase the life energy of the duo, and there is one per level.
• High-Altitude Battle: In one phase during the final bossfight, Capital B shoots homing stings at you and you have to fly up and around him so the stings hit him instead.
• Homing Projectile: Corplet Drones and Capital B shoot homing stings at you. While for the former, walking away a bit is sufficient to keep them off bay, the latter will chase you relentlessly until it hits you.
• Honest John: Yooka and Laylee treat Trowzer as such.
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: In Galleon Galaxy, when you beat the Frog's strongest man competition, he'll exclaim "Good Blazing Blamphibian!"
• Hub World: Capital B's lair, Hivory Towers, serves as the hub world, just as Grunty's lair served as the hub world in Banjo-Kazooie. Also like the latter game, Capital B taunts the heroes as they explore the hub world.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Yooka may not be Godzilla, but he's larger than Laylee.
• Idle Animation: One of them has a bored Laylee biting down on Yooka's frills, much to his displeasure. In an unusual variation of this trope, you can press the control pad buttons at any time to trigger the animations.
• Informed Species: Yooka is supposed to be a chameleon, but it can be hard to tell just by looking at him and the fact that he's mostly called "lizard." His invisibility ability makes it clearer, though.
• Intercom Villainy: While traversing Hivory Towers, Capital B occasionally makes himself known by taunting you in typical corporal speak.
• Invisible Wall: They're hard enough to get to that you're not likely to run into any of them until you unlock the flight ability, but invisible walls and ceilings are present in every outdoor area. Also, they are prominently used in the "Icymetric Palace" area as part of its distinctive faux-isometric design.
• Irony: Dr. Quack tries to obtain the magical book by using a machine to suck up every book in the world... not knowing that the magic book was in the creek right outside the building.
• Joke Item: The five ultra-rare Pirate Treasures don't do anything in-game except for some new dialogue. This was likely intentional and meant to reference the infamous Stop'n'Swap items in Banjo-Kazooie, which likewise don't do anything, albeit for different reasons.
• Jungle Japes: The Tribalstack Tropics, which is the first level. The lush greenery aside, it also features a big Maya-inspired pyramid at its center.
• Kaizo Trap: It's possible to fall into the poisonous water in the final boss fight after defeating the boss, which still hurts you despite the cutscene starting. Though if you're still alive, you can at least move back to solid land.
• Last Lousy Point: Given the large number of collectibles, it can be easy to overlook one or two minor items and end up having to go over the large levels with a fine-toothed comb to track down the last thing you need. The tonic that helps you search for rare items attempts to avert this, as it will begin whistling for the last 30 quills in a world.
• Live Item: Just like in the spiritual predecessor, practically all items are alive and talk when you collect them first.
• Mad Scientist: Dr. Quack, Capital B's right-hand man (well, disembodied duck head in a jar), and Dr. Puzz, a friendly example who offers Yooka and Laylee transformations through her D.N.Ray.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Laylee has three separate moves she can unlock that make use of her bat-like ability to wield echolocations. "Sonar Shot" is a sonic screech that can stun enemies or wake up totems to reveal invisible objects. "Sonar Splosion" is a sonic burst attack that can wipe out groups of enemies at once. "Sonar Shield" has her create a forcefield of sonic energy that makes her and Yooka invulnerable.
• Medium Awareness: Everyone knows they're in a video game.
  Laylee: (on learning to crouch) A tutorial classic!
  Yooka: (on a race with Nimble) Cloud-based gaming! How next-gen!
• Mine Cart Madness: Kartos the mine cart is host to a series of auto-scrolling obstacle courses wherein you must collect a certain number of gems to receive a Pagie.
• Missing Secret: There is one Pirate Treasure well hidden in every level of the game. Collecting them all yields you... nothing, if you play the Switch version of the game (the other versions at least yield you an achievement).
• Mistaken for Servant: In every level, Planker mistakes Yooka and Laylee for some type of hired help that he was expecting: garbage men, gardeners, etc. The pair try to set things straight, but he just interrupts them and tells them to shut up and get to work already.
• Morphic Resonance: All transformations retain Yooka and Laylee's Green-Purple color scheme and their eyes. The helicopter form even retains Laylee's bat ears.
• Multipurpose Tongue: As a chameleon, Yooka has one. He can use it as a grapple, or to grab objects, anything from butterflies to cannonballs.
• Name and Name: Just like Banjo-Kazooie, the main characters have their name spelled out and mentioned in the game's title.
• Needle in a Stack of Needles:
  • Played with. Capital B and Dr. Quack's Evil Plan is to use a machine to suck up all the books in the world, supposedly to "leave [them] as the only player in the market." However, their bigger goal is to obtain one particular book, which is magical. They use the book-sucking machine knowing that it will suck up the one book along with all the others.
  • Played straight later on. In Icymetric Palace, there's a room containing several duplicates of a Rextro Play Coin. Only one of them is real, the rest will injure Yooka.
• The '90s: Subtly an homage to the decade. For instance, Trowzer owns a bulky mobile phone from the era.
• Non-Standard Game Over: Without glitches it's only really possible in Galleon Galaxy, but you can reach the end of the map on two occasions: Either by taking the ship transformation to the far edge of the map, or by carefully platforming up the giant red asteroid. Upon reaching an invisible barrier, you just die directly.
• Not Quite Flight: Like Kazooie before her, Laylee has a "glide" capability use her wings to lower Yooka to a soft landing or cross large chasms but not lift him to greater heights. However, an upgrade later in the game also allows actual flight.

O-Z

• Obviously Evil: If his pointy nose, large pointy eyebrows, obese physique and hunched posture, complete lack of a dental plan and name hasn't tipped you off already, Capital B is the bad guy.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Trowzer and Vendi appear in at least five different locations in the hub world each and at least once in each world, but they never seem to move from one place to another.
• Oh, Crap!: Capital B and Dr. Quack don't take the realization lightly when they face Blasto mere seconds away from explosion.
• Our Founder: A giant golden statue of Capital B is located in Hivory Towers.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: The Ghost Writers are the spirits of the scribes who created the book worlds that Yooka and Laylee inhabit. They are now cursed to endlessly wander their creations in search of salvation.
• Oxygenated Underwater Bubbles: Taken to new heights with one of Yooka's moves, an oxygenated underwater fart that fully envelopes himself and Laylee, and gives the duo access to their on-land moveset underwater.
• Oxygen Meter: The underwater breathing capacity is displayed with six blue bubbles. When you run out of them, you gradually lose health until you resurface or die.
• Pass Through the Rings: A common task sees the pair having to traverse through a series of rings to get a Pagie; with a strict time-limit or resetting if the pair hit the floor.
• Pickup Hierachy:
  • Primary: Pagies. They are the PlotCoupons used to unlock new worlds and the final boss fight.
  • Secondary: Butterfly Boosters, Power Extenders, and Mollycools. There is usually only one per level and their effects are really useful, albeit not necessary to beat the game.
  • Tertiary: Quills. There are 200 in each world and 10 in the hub world, and only around 400 are needed to unlock every one of Trowzer's moves - however, getting all in one world nets you another Pagie.
  • Extra: Pirate Treasures, ultra-rare collectibles that are not even hinted at before you collect them.
• Piranha Problem: The transformation for Moodymaze Marsh is a shoal of piranha.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Yooka and Laylee, who share the Bat Ship Crazy as their home, but have no seen love interest to one another.
• Pop Quiz: Not once, not twice, but three times you are challenged by Dr. Quack to his Quack-Fire Quiz. You have to answer up to ten questions right (although you can skip a question if you answer the previous one in a maximum of three seconds) and you cannot make more than two mistakes, otherwise it's back to the beginning.
• Portal Endpoint Resemblance: Each of the portal books that leads to a different world is located in a room themed after the book's world. For example, the entrance to Glitterglaze Glacier is in a room filled with snow and crystals, while the entrance to Moodymaze Marsh is found in an area overgrown with swamp plants.
• Precursors: The Ghost Writers are the ones who created the various book worlds of Yooka-Laylee.
• Production Throwback: Overlapping with Stealth Pun. The art design for the keys in Glitterglaze Glacier are inspired by the Ice Key, an item from Banjo-Kazooie's Stop-n-Swop quest.
• Punny Name: A lot of the characters names are pun related.
  • Just say the title aloud. (It's supposed to sound like "ukulele".) Also see Bilingual Bonus above.
  • Their home is named Bat Ship Crazy.
  • The villain is named Capital B, who is a greedy corporate executive who happens to be a bee. His lair is called Hivory Towers, a play on the term ivory tower.
• Racing Minigame: Nimble the cloud challenges you to two races in Tribalstack Tropics and to one in Galleon Galaxy. If you win, you get one Pagie for each race.
• Raygun Gothic: Galleon Galaxy combines a rollicking space adventure and a Gangplank Galleon setting.
• Retraux:
  • Each world hides at least one secret arcade game run by Rextro Sixtyfourus, with game designs evocative of 80s and 90s arcade-style games. Rextro himself looks like he came out of an N64 game.
  • The first post-£1M stretch goal of the Kickstarter campaign included an "N64 shader" to give the game some retro flavoring. This was eventually released as the 64-bit Tonic, which changes the entire graphical style to look like it was rendered with much fewer polygons and even includes a CRT-like scanline filter.
  • The whole game is a Genre Throwback to the old Collect-A-Thon platformers of the N64 era of old.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter: Both protagonists are pretty adorable, especially Laylee the bat.
• Scary Stinging Swarm: One of Capital B.'s attacks is unleashing a swarm of small bees upon you. You need to use the Sonar Beam to drive them away before they can sting you.
• Scenery Porn: The world of Yooka-Laylee is extremely lush.
• Sequel Hook: Ignoring the frequent jokes about sequels the characters make, during the final cutscene, Capital B alludes to a group called V.I.L.E who he is working for, but Dr. Quack tells him not to say any more. Then Blasto comes in and accidentally seals the pair of them in a book world, leaving this particular thread unresolved.
  • Not to mention the pirate treasure, which has no use in this game and it's heavily implied to be the equivalent to Stop 'n' Swop.
• Sequence Breaking:
  • While each "puzzle" is clearly designed to take advantage of one or two unlockable skills, you're not punished for finding creative solutions. Once you unlock the ability to fly, much of the trickier platforming can be ignored too.
  • Even before that, it's possible to get some of the more difficult-to-get Pagies, or even just skip sections that otherwise require later abilities through some creative platforming.
• Sequential Boss: All boss fights except the first two have multiple phases that play out vastly differently. For instance, Trev the Tenteycle floods the stage with water after a while, I.N.E.P.T. goes from being chased by you to chasing you, and Capital B. has at least four different phases.
• Shockwave Stomp:
  • Several bosses send out waves of energy when their attacks hit the floor. Taken to the extreme in the later sections of the final boss where you must dodge four waves of energy at the same time.
  • One of Vendi's tonics turns Yooka's Ground Pound into this, allowing the duo to take out multiple enemies at once.
• Shout-Out:
  • The first time the protagonists come across a talking minecart named "Kartos," upon hearing his name, Laylee asks "[let] me guess... the god of ore?" Kartos then responds saying he has no idea what she's talking about. The sequence that follows with Kartos is an obvious callback to the minecart sequences seen in Donkey Kong Country, which the same developers worked on over years 20 years prior.
  • The achievement for beating one of Rextro's minigames for the first time is "When I'm 64". The achievement picture also displays Rextro with the famous "A Winner is you" message.
  • The achievement for finding all the Ghost Writers is "Grabbed the Ghouls".
  • The achievement for collecting your first 200 Quills is called "License to Quill".
  • One of the random bits of Capital B's dialogue talks about a reptile that's obsessed with collecting gems.
  • Some of the books in the Archive read 50 Shaders of Gaming and Jet Packs and Butlers.
  • The text for the Reptile Rush move reads "Ssspindash just like ssspeedy gaming icon Trowzer!"
  • Brrreeze Blok's Boss Subtitle is "Bookend in Bernie"
  • One of the answers to Dr. Quack’s question about Puzz’s transformations is “A reasonably priced car”
  • There's an area in Capital Cashino called the "Wager Laser", which may be one to the DJ group ''Major Lazer".
  • Laylee tells Yooka to "Use the Force" during one of the quests in Galleon Galaxy.
  • Several notable shout outs to the Banjo series pop up, including:
    • The pre-battle dialogue before Glitterglaze Glacier's boss is more or less the same exchange from Lord Woo Fak Fak's pre-battle dialogue in Banjo-Tooie.
    • Also in Glitterglaze Glacier, after expanding the world, two ice keys appear in the stage. Yooka makes a note of both and how two of them is much better than one.
    • Also in Glitterglaze Glacier, there are several snowmen missing their hats. One of them is a snow witch who speaks in rhyme and wears a very familiar-looking scarf...
    • In Capital Cashino, Capital B appears to give Pagies to the duo under a Paper-Thin Disguise, much like Grunty appeared to tell Banjo and Kazooie's fortune in Witchyworld in Banjo-Tooie.
    • In Shipwreck Creek, you meet Blasto, who is a cannon. After expanding Tribalstack Tropics, you meet his relative, Blastooie.
    • Trev the Tenteyecle, boss of Moodymaze Marsh, will randomly say "Come 'n' 'ave a go if ya think you're 'ard enough!!", a phrase often associated with Mumbo Jumbo, most notably in the theme tune of Mayahem Temple.
    • The first time you transform in Tribalstack Tropics, Dr. Puzz remarks she meant to turn you into a T. rex, referencing the morph for Terrydactyland in Banjo-Tooie, not to mention Mumbo's attempt at turning you into one in the first game.
• Silliness Switch: The secret Helium Play-Tonic makes all characters sound like they inhaled the noble gas.
• Skippable Boss: Unless you're going for 100% Completion, all worlds' bosses are entirely skippable since you don't need all Pagies to get to the end.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: Glitterglaze Glacier which has the standard icy cave and palace. In this world, you will encounter slopes that are so slippery that you cannot ascend them with Reptile Roll, unless you're covered in sticky honey first.
• Smug Snake: Trowzer, quite literally, described by the developers as a "smug serpent salesman".
• Sssssnaketalk: Trowzer, but he is obviously a snake.
• Space Zone: Galleon Galaxy, which combines this with Gangplank Galleon.
• Speaking Simlish: Being a throwback to old Rare games, the characters speak through subtitled gibberish.
• Space Is an Ocean: Inverted in Galleon Galaxy. It's a Gangplank Galleon-themed level, set on a body of water, dotted with islands that have a lot of space-themed elements, including characters who dress and act like they're in a Raygun Gothic Space Opera. For example, you can transform into a galleon, but it's called a spaceship. Islands that are a short swim away are treated as separate planets.
• Stylistic Suck:
  • Rextro is not only modeled to look like a character from a Nintendo 64 game, but he's even animated in the same rigid style of the older Rare games for authenticity.
  • The "Yooka-Laylee Rap" is just as intentionally cheesy as its predecessor.
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: The third clue in the "Knights of Hamalot" quest is "Near this world's ramp-pro, search the tomb underneath." Yooka lampshades the fact that it could've ended with "below" for the sake of rhyming. If you take to the knight again, he'll again miss the rhyme and become angry at himself.
• Super Drowning Skills: The transformations Flower, Snowplough, and Chopper immediately end as soon as you get submerged water. Most mooks don't even have a collision with water - when they fall into it, they just keep on falling until they're out of sight and despawn.
• Take That!:
  • In the E3 2016 trailer, The Stinger has Laylee complain about the trailer lacking the "brown" level, and Yooka tells them that they still have a few months of work left. Laylee then states that by then there'll probably be "car sections".
  • The Toybox is hosted by a Kinect-like-headed robot named Inept, who also appears in the full game as a type of mook.
    • Also appearing in the full game is a boss fight based off the aforementioned mooks, called I.N.E.P.T. It not only has poor hearing, as it misunderstands innocent comments as insults, but one "insult" mentions its inefficient tracking.
  • One loading screen tip complains that "If cartridges were popular, this level would have loaded by now!"
  • As the duo try to get Rextro up to speed with more modern gaming conventions, if they talk to him before finding his token in the casino stage, he'll note how his notes on modern game design suggest replacing the in game token with paying real-world money to access the mini game. Laylee immediately shoots this idea down before he even finishes the sentence.
  • One conversation the duo can have with Rextro is them talking about how the reviewers will likely have a 'fun' time with his games. Rextro responds by noting how he already paid off the important reviewers already.
  • This conversation, which occurs when buying the Slurp State move from Trowzer in Glitterglaze Glacier:

Trowzer: Thissss next move is banned in three different modern game genresssss...

Laylee: Is it the quality assurance move?

Trowzer: Of co%3rse not.

• "Test Your Strength" Game: Galleon Galaxy has one of these, where the grand prize is a Pagie. In order to ring the bell, Yooka must first swallow a cannonball to make him metallic. Then, he and Laylee must jump from a high-enough height and land on the target before the effect wears off.
• Theme Tune Rap: One of the surpassed stretch goals is the "Yooka-Laylee Rap", a rap song/video composed by Grant Kirkhope in the style of the "DK Rap" of Donkey Kong 64.
• Toilet Humor: There is some in Galleon Galaxy, around a series of outhouses.
  • In one of them, one unknown character is trapped because the toilet is clogged. He fears that he might have to use a Pagie to clean his... well, whatever he's doing, it's accompanied by loud farting noises. After you saved him and receive the (clean) Pagie, Laylee asks whether they can use the outhouse soon, to which the current occupant remarks that he wouldn't use it in quite some time, and he's never coming out either.
  • In another outhouse, you can open it with any attack, only to spot a random enemy sitting on the toilet.
• Toppled Statue: Downplayed. The first thing you see upon entering Hivory Towers proper is a massive golden statue of Capital B. It's possible to climb up to the top of it and break off the nose using Buddy Slam. There's an Achievement/Trophy for doing this, as well as a power-up hidden within.
• Tropical Island Adventure: Galleon Galaxy mixes this with Space Zone.
• The Unfought: While you challenge Dr. Quack in a series of quiz minigames, you never outright fight him, although it is revealed late in the game that he is actually higher up in the ranks than the game's main antagonist Capital B.
• Unusual Euphemism: After Yooka and Laylee whale on Capital B for a bit during his boss battle (in which you'll most likely be attacking his crotch since that's always the part that's facing you when he falls over), he groans, "Ouch, right in my stocks and shares!".
• Variable Mix: Just like Banjo-Kazooie, as you move through the world, the music will go through different arrangements depending on where you are.
• Video Game Flight: One of the last abilities to be unlocked is "Flappy Flight", which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, allowing Laylee to freely fly around, carrying Yooka beneath her. You can take off from anywhere, and its drain on the Power Meter is surprisingly slow. Its main limitation is the fact that having to carry Yooka's weight makes Laylee's flight rather clumsy and slow, limiting its usefulness in certain kinds of challenges. Nonetheless, it's often the fastest and easiest way to move about the levels due to being able to bypass many types of obstacles, and in the case of Pagies where the intended challenge in collecting them is simply a matter of getting to where they are, this can make them effortless to collect.
• Widely-Spaced Jail Bars: Pagies are trapped in cages where they could easily fit through. This is lampshaded multiple times: Laylee asks one Pagie in Tribalstack Tropes whether it just couldn't fit through the bars - the Pagie vehemently declines until the cage finally opens. In Galleon Galaxy, one cage doesn't open at all, and at last the Pagie does escape through the bars, driving Laylee furious.
• Windmill Scenery: In Galleon Galaxy's minigolf section, there is a big windmill that Yooka and Laylee have to put a ball through - although there is a hidden switch with enables you to stop the windmill as well.
• Xylophones for Walking Bones: The living skeleton Clara's Speaking Simlish sounds like a marimba.

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