COLOGNE, Germany—It's midnight and my friends and I, intent on staying up all night, have just downed our fifth Coca-Cola of the evening. Laid out in front of us, between a pile of unwashed sleeping bags and half-eaten chocolate bars, are four Nintendo 64 controllers and a copy of GoldenEye and Banjo-Kazooie. Brushing the sleep from my eyes, I pick up Banjo-Kazooie, slide it into the cartridge slot, and stare in awe at a blocky banjo-playing bear. Having never played on a Nintendo 64 before (I was very much a PC gamer), the bright and colourful Banjo-Kazooie was a revelation. And though it would sometimes get swapped out for sporadic bouts of Golden Gun mode, for the next 12 hours, Banjo-Kazooie was all that mattered.

The tiny booths in the back halls of Gamescom's Koelnmesse might not be as cosy as my living room floor, but there's no denying it: Yooka-Laylee is one heck of a nostalgia play, and 12-year-old me couldn't be happier.

Indeed, squint hard enough, and you might just mistake Yooka-Laylee for Banjo-Kazooie. Led by a team of ex-developers from Rare—creator of the Banjo-Kazooie series amongst others—Yooka-Laylee is an unashamed love letter to the colourful '90s platformer. The titular Yooka and Laylee, a lizard and a bat, can double-jump, float, roll, and swim much like their '90s counterparts. The levels they explore, while larger and more like the open worlds of modern games, are similar, too, being made up of intricately designed platforms that shine a vibrant green where most games are content with being a dull brown.













Yooka-Laylee goes further still. Everything, from the smooshy textures on rocks, to the high-pitched gibberish and tongue-in-cheek dialogue that's spoken by the game's cast of supporting characters (including a sad cloud named Nimbo and a snake named Trowzer—yes, they went there) has that '90s feel. Even the game's font has been specially created to resemble the Comic Sans-like text that featured so heavily on the N64. Collectibles, a mainstay of '90s platformers, are here, too. Quills gently guide you around each level, butterflies that you suck up with Yooka's tongue restore health and boost a power meter that allows you to perform special moves, and Paiges unlock new areas. Other items allow you to buy new abilities or alter the game in weird and wonderful ways.

You might find a mad scientist with tentacles for arms that turns you into a plant and sends you off on a side quest to pollinate some frisky female plants. Or a skeleton trapped in a cooking pot that needs protection from hungry monsters. Or a Donkey Kong-style mine cart ride that sends you trundling across the peaks of a mountain. The freedom to explore—to jump, glide, and fall onto the extremities of a level—is what keeps Yooka-Laylee from being a simple retread. For every '90s platforming cliche that's been lovingly recreated, there's a modern touch to balance it out. These are intricate, twisting levels that have been expertly designed.

New abilities open up further paths of exploration, too. Swallow a few ice berries, for instance, and you're able to spit ice balls, which can then be used to freeze a river created by Nimbo and open up an ice-skating side race. You can also use potions called Play Tonics that are like cheat codes of old, letting you fly for longer, breathe underwater indefinitely, or just do something silly like enable Big Head mode. Outside of a few open-world oddities, it's rare that a modern game lets you off the leash to explore with this much freedom and with as little or as much challenge as you like.

A recent delay from October 2016 to Q1 2017 raised questions about the state of Yooka-Laylee, particularly as it started life as a Kickstarter campaign (see: Mighty No. 9). And while a half-hour session on a single level at Gamescom isn't enough to totally assuage those fears, it's clear that Playtonic has nailed the basics. Leaping around Yooka-Laylee's colourful world is smooth and responsive, while cute animations make each and every spin, glide, and roll rewarding. If, like me, you spent many a day of your misspent youth plodding around in platformers, Yooka-Laylee feels like home. Even the combat, which for now is just whipping your tail or throwing a slow-paced projectile, is oddly entertaining.

Given the development pedigree of Playtonic Games, perhaps we shouldn't have worried. Yooka-Laylee, even in its pre-alpha state, is a game many will worship for its wistfulness, its rose-tinted take on a genre killed by the cutting-edge shooter. Others will appreciate its ingenuity. Me? I'm just grateful to be reminded what it's like to be a kid again.

Yooka-Laylee is due for release on Windows PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 4, Wii U, and Xbox One in 2017.