After a long trek across PC, PlayStation and Xbox platforms, kickstarter-funded collectathon Yooka-Laylee has locked in a release date for Nintendo Switch. Scheduled for a December 14 launch, players are just two weeks away from being able to get their hands on its 3D platforming adventures.
Developer Playtonic Games made the announcement to kickstarter backers, explaining that the Switch version would support single-JoyCon gameplay and feature a custom achievement system—a great excuse to replay the game.
Since it came out in April, Yooka-Laylee has been updated with a couple of patches that add several gameplay improvements. Nintendo Switch owners can enjoy the new camera modes, enhanced controls and performance from the get go, as well as months of quality optimisation engineered by Nintendo, Unity and Playtonic.
Late last year, Playtonic said that the decision to cancel production of the Nintendo Wii U edition of Yooka-Laylee was made independently had nothing to do with creating a Switch port.
Speaking to Eurogamer, director Gavin Price revealed that bringing out Yooka-Laylee on Switch took longer as a result of switching game engines:
“It’s a new platform where we’re using a middleware engine, so it adds another link to the chain – especially when we’re the first game of this scale on this engine on this platform…There’s been lots of stuff to learn, especially when you’ve made decisions already for other versions of the game which you have to unbuild and then rebuild. We wanted it to be fantastic and to have achieved a really high optimisation level.”
If you haven’t tried out Yooka-Laylee but can’t fight your curiosity any longer, check out our Before You Buy.
Disclosure: Author supported Yooka-Laylee on kickstarter.
