Yooka-Laylee Sequel Shows Off Its Transforming Levels In New Trailer

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is shaping up to be a far different title than its predecessor, and we're not just talking about the shift away from 3D platforming.

Playtonic and Team17 published a new trailer for the game today (thanks, Eurogamer), showing off what are called "Alternate Level States." These are essentially Impossible Lair's levels transformed, adding snow and ice to the otherwise warm, colorful scenes found in Buzzsaw Falls, and funneling powerful gusts of wind into the vertical platforming portions of Urban Uprise, for example. They're unlocked by solving puzzles or completing certain actions in the game's overworld, and appear to add an extra bit of challenge for those who've run through the levels in their normal states.

You can see what Impossible Lair's Alternate Level States look like in this trailer.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a new direction for the series, which leaned heavily on the Banjo-Kazooie 3D platforming formula for its first entry. Playtonic, a company largely comprised of former Rare employees, is now cooking up a dish using that studio's tried-and-true Donkey Kong Country recipe, creating something that looks more comparable to Tropical Freeze than Yooka-Laylee or any of the Banjo-Kazooie titles.

On one hand, it's slightly sad; 3D platformers have been a dying breed for a while now, and there are plenty of challenging side-scrollers out there for those who enjoy them. On the other hand, though, the Donkey Kong Country series was something special, and there may be no better developer right now — aside from Rare itself — to emulate that kind of game than Playtonic.

We should be getting Impossible Lair sometime before the year is over, though we don't have a specific release date for the title at this time. But those on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch can all expect to get a version of the game when it does arrive.