Yooka-Laylee
Skip · Action · 2017
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
SKIP IT.
The value isn't there at $19.99.
- Length
- 15.4h
- Value
- $1.30/hr
- Reviews
- 75% positive
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Minimum on the Steam store: 8 GB of memory, NVidia GTS450 / AMD Radeon 6850HD, 9 GB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
Yooka-Laylee is an all-new open-world platformer from genre veterans Playtonic! Explore huge, beautiful worlds, meet an unforgettable cast of characters and horde a vault-load of collectibles as buddy-duo Yooka and Laylee embark on an epic adventure to thwart corporate creep Capital B!
What drives the score
How to read this
Every input gets a grade, S to D, read from the buyer's side. The score is multiplicative, so an input only counts as raising when it sits near the top of its own scale. Anything with real room left is holding the score back, because that room is the gap to 100. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. The exact weights stay secret.
The value story
It has never been cheaper than $3.99. That was November 2022. 87 discounts in the 10 years on record. They run about 80 percent off, roughly 5 weeks apart.
On value it sits in the top 28 percent of its genre. It is pricier than 94 percent of its genre. The games it most resembles do better on the same math. A Hat in Time ($29.99, scores 70) and Pumpkin Jack ($29.99, scores 53) both outscore it.
Steam's global achievement data says about 9 percent of players ever finish it. On a 15.4-hour game, that is a lot of paid-for hours most people never see. This site sampled 590 of its Steam-purchase reviews; 8 were written by buyers who refunded it, sampled from reviews written March 2020 to September 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 47 percent of the 314 reviews written there were positive, against 75 percent overall, and those are 11 percent of everything written about it.
Valve rates it Steam Deck Verified, so it runs on the handheld without fiddling.
The drop-off
72% start to 9% finishMost players never reach the end. On a 15.4-hour game, that's a lot you pay for and may never use. Steam global achievements
Players
14 players at peak in the last day.
The chart appears once this game has been counted more than once.Player counts via SteamSpy.
What players say
I quit the game in the beginning of the second world, because the controls and the camera are unbearable to enjoy playing the game. One major problem is aiming at the target, which is hideously inaccurate. There are quests where you have to shoot moving objects in order to complete the quest and proceed in the game. With the hideous aiming, this is really infuriating. Another major problem is the camera, which...
Genuinely hate the level of tedium this game presents. Collectathon, sure. But Yikes... I keep trying to enjoy this game, I really do, but the open design coupled with the deep necessity of buying upgrades is SO exhausting. I don't mind doubling-back in platformers once I have an upgrade, but the open design leaves me feeling frustrated when I encounter something that "needs an upgrade" I don't have.
When the bear and bird duo disappeared out of relevancy after being too lazy and building vehicles, this game appeared to bring that kind of 3D platforming nostalgia back. This time, a chameleon and bat go collect magical pages in bizarre and atmospheric worlds to stop a capitalist bee from using books to make a major profit. Compared to the series they are based on, they have a lot more freedom with their movement...
Player reviews from Steam: the most helpful all-time, plus the newest that clear the same quality bar, with the hours each player had put in when they wrote it. The mix of Recommended and Not recommended follows the game's Steam ratio. Rotates daily. Opinions are theirs.
Cite this score
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Yooka-Laylee scores 40/100 on the BANG Score (a skip). The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/360830/yooka-layleeThe BANG Score is one number for value, 0 to 100: price against how it reviews and how long it was built to be. It answers the money question and stops there; whether the game is for you is still your call.
Reviews set the ceiling and price moves you inside it, so a cheap game that reviews badly cannot climb. Ratings from few reviewers are shrunk toward the middle, so 100 percent from nine people does not outrank 96 percent from ninety thousand. Length comes from HowLongToBeat where it can be matched, measured against a per-genre floor so a five-hour narrative game is judged against other narrative games rather than against a sixty-hour RPG. Where no verified length exists the score says so and carries a dock, because the biggest input is then a guess. The full method, including where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Sep 16, price as of Sep 24.
A number here look wrong? Tell me what it got wrong and I will look at the inputs behind it.