by Danreb VictorioSuper Yooka-Laylee Kart was easily one of the standouts from this year’s Day of the Devs presentation after Summer Game Fest, but after we spent some time with it, it’s hard to gauge whether this game will appeal to anybody but Yooka-Laylee‘s biggest fans.
I actually watched the presentation with some of the Day of the Devs staff, and one thing someone noted was that a number of members of the Playtonic staff were on the Rareware team that worked on Diddy Kong Racing. That’s a heck of a pedigree, especially considering we’re talking about a game that I thought was better than Mario Kart 64, but the problem is there’s really only one thing that made Super Yooka-Laylee Kart similar to Diddy Kong Racing that I noticed in the time spent with it.
Both Diddy Kong Racing and Super Yooka-Laylee Kart feature zippers on every track that’ll give you a boost, benefiting those who memorize each one. Beyond that, though, that’s about it.
If there’s any game to compare this to, it’s Super Mario Kart or Mario Kart: Super Circuit, and it’s more so the former. Though they claim it’s a 3D kart racer at heart, it just feels like classic Super Mario Kart, where you actually control the angle of the screen and the ability for your character to jump and then drift. When playing with an analog stick for movement, which you have to do here, it takes a long time to get used to it. Luckily, the CPU we were playing with was a bit forgiving, and I actually found myself winning my first race despite being back in last place for a while.
Part of the reason why I struggled was because there were times where I couldn’t tell if I was supposed to turn left or right. There wasn’t a map on the screen or any UI element that mentioned who the racers ahead or in front of me were, nor could I even tell how far apart every competitor was. Of course, it’s still in early development, and I was assured that the team is working on it.
Mascot kart racing fans are all to familiar about the benefits you get when being in last place, and while I didn’t play long enough to know the items and power-ups the game had available, the marketing manager who was playing with me mentioned that the game features a rage system that’ll cause havoc in each race’s finals laps as it’ll be built throughout the race every time rivals attack and positions in the race shift. Again, I didn’t get to see this first-hand, but this is definitely something that sounds interesting.
Speaking of interesting, Playtonic also promises a deep story campaign that’ll have a bevy of things to do, though the attendant I was playing with told me “it might not be what I think.” I’m not expecting the Adventure Mode from Diddy Kong Racing, but anything similar is a win in my book.
Super Yooka-Laylee Kart has no release date yet and is currently only slated for a PC release, and that’s totally fine for now because the game definitely does feel a bit rough. While I’d love for them to go fully 3D ala modern-day Mario Kart, I think we’d be best served to wait it out.
