Playtonic Games took the internet by storm with its Kickstarter campaign for Yooka-Laylee. Now Playtonic is at it again, this time with the trailer reveal of Yooka-Laylee’s multiplayer mode.
Yooka-Laylee is a throwback to mascot-platformer, collectathon games such as Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64. Some of these games include a fun little multiplayer mode that consists of gamers gathering around a television with their friends to play short and enjoyable mini-games. Playtonic is using this formula as the basis for Yooka-Laylee’s multiplayer.
Yooka-Laylee’s multiplayer trailer features the character Rextro, an intentionally polygonal Tyrannosaurus who flickers as if he were rendered on an old cathode ray tube television, talking to the audience about the mini-games he claims to have made for multiplayer. Rextro promises eight multiplayer games (each with its own in-game arcade cabinet) that you can play locally with up to four friends. Alternatively, players can play these mini-games alone for a high-score challenge.
Several mini-games appear in the trailer. Glaciators is one of the more prominent games shown off and will task players with pummeling their opponents in a frozen arena to collect and steal quills. Gun-let Run, another game showcased in the trailer, will have players shooting enemies on a track while dodging obstacles.
The official Kickstarter page contains some information on a secondary co-op mode not mentioned in the trailer. In this mode, one player will take control of “the Bee Team” to help grab quills, store butterflies, and even stop traps. Furthermore, the wording on the page implies that both the competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes will be local only.
On a side note, rumors persist that players can find special coins in the single-player mode and use them on arcade cabinets to power them up and potentially find secret Pagies, the main collectable in Yooka-Laylee.
Yooka-Laylee is scheduled to release on April 11th for the PC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch.