Every article tag can be clicked to get a list of all articles in that category. Every article tag also has an RSS feed! You can customize an RSS feed too!
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.
Yooka-Laylee [GOG, Steam], the 3D platformer from Playtonic Games has been released with day-1 Linux support, here's some initial thoughts.

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

Disclosure: My key was provided by GOG. The developer and publisher didn't respond to my key requests before release.

Yooka-Laylee is the 3D platformer throwback to games like Banjo-Kazooie that was funded thanks to Kickstarter back in 2015. It's actually made by some of the original team from game developer Rare, who created some really great games.

I can confirm that it does seem to work fine on Linux and I haven't encountered any obvious issues so far. I tested it with the Steam Controller with the SC Controller driver/UI and apart from the mouse pointer staying on the screen it felt really great.

You're initially greeted with what seems like an unskippable cut-scene, nothing I pressed could move me through it any quicker or skip it at all. The characters aren't voiced, so instead they just make babbling noises in place of real words as the speech bubbles fill the screen. Thankfully, general in-game speech can be sped up and skipped, just not cut-scenes it seems.

The evil "Capital B" has stolen all the books, including one of yours. The pages of your book fly out and spread themselves across the lands. The majority of the game seems like it revolves around collecting pages from the book to progress to each new section. To unlock new worlds, you need to collect pages, or "Pagies", which allow you to unlock Tomes. These Tomes can be expanded to make their worlds bigger by spending additional Pagies on them.

It certainly seems like an exciting 3D platformer, with vibrant colours, a big world to explore and so far I've had zero issues with it.

Expect some more thorough thoughts when I've had time to play, since I did not get any advance on this. So far, so good. It seems like a game that would have fit perfectly on the Nintendo 64 and I'm loving it. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
12 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
39 comments
Page: «3/4»
  Go to:

UnholyVision Apr 12, 2017
Quoting: HihiDanniThe controller issues sound weird.

Come to think of it, my DualShock 4 no longer seems to be reliably picked up by Rocket League, and Steam might have something to do with it. They introduced official DualShock 4 support in an update which seems to have disabled the generic joystick support by default. If I enable DualShock 4 support and connect my controller Steam outright crashes. So I have to use the generic support for now, which seems buggy for some reason?
Well at least I know now that Steam controller works. Tried it a few minutes ago and it just worked. (I am not using the SC driver. Only through Steams setup). It's sad to see only it works, out of the three controllers I have. =/

The PS, Xbox, and generic configuration settings enabled in big picture mode have always gave me problems. In fact I have the same issue you have with Rocket League if I have any of those enabled. R-L just will not find my controller with those enabled, but turning them off and my PS3 or 360 controller just works with no issues.
syxbit Apr 12, 2017
Quoting: cRaZy-bisCuiT
Quoting: syxbitI kickstarted this. I originally paid for a Steam key, but then switched for a PS4 key. Mostly because Unity has a bad reputation on Linux, because I figured this sort of game was best played on a console/TV, and because I prefer my PS4 controller over my Steam controller.
I'm starting to regret my decision. Maybe I'll pick it up for cheap in a future Humble Bundle.
What is wrong about playing with the PS4 Controller on PC with Steam and Linux? This game might have some issues with that on launch day but generally spoken that works very well. My PC is connected to two screens and to the TV which I use for Controller games.

You have to remember this Kickstarter was 2 years ago. I don't think the ps4 controller worked well with Steam Linux back then.
flesk Apr 12, 2017
View PC info
  • Contributing Editor
I'm not sure if it's a coincidence or unrelated, but since I upgraded to Mint 18 with KDE Plasma 5 earlier this year 3d games are unplayable for me, including HM Spiffing, Cradle and this one. No matter whether I play with integrated graphics or Nvidia, the games just crawl to a near halt after seconds of playing, so I figure it might be CPU related. I haven't played much at all this year though, so it's not a big deal, but I'd been looking forward to playing this one (I'm a backer). I had zero issues with the Toybox, but that was before the upgrade. Granted, my laptop is getting very old now too, so maybe I just need a new one.
eldersnake Apr 12, 2017
What a gorgeous and fun little game!

Maybe it seems sad, but the kid in me is pretty delighted with this. Lol.

It's working well for me with Mesa 17-git, AMD 380X GPU. Also my XBox 360 controller works just fine too, though I do use the steam-xpad module (installed from AUR on Arch) instead of the default one, if that makes any difference.
lvlark Apr 12, 2017
Quoting: eldersnakeWhat a gorgeous and fun little game!

Maybe it seems sad, but the kid in me is pretty delighted with this. Lol.

It's not just the kid in me. The adult in me likes to unwind, and games that aren't about 'preventing the end of the world and the destruction of all that is good' are a welcome addition there. So this one's definitely on my radar.
Arehandoro Apr 12, 2017
Still hesitating whether I should play this on the PC or on the Switch, which I guess seems a bit more reasonable to play in... and by the time I can dedicate it any time at all will be on both platforms.
Nezchan Apr 12, 2017
I've only played through the start of the first world so far, but my 360 controller functions just fine with it. The only slowdown I've had is stuttering on the loading screen, but I'm fine with that. Everything in-world runs smoothly, in fact a bit more smoothly than I'm used to. And that's on a several-years-old machine, so current hardware should handle it just fine.

The voices though, those are the most annoying crap ever. I knew they would be from the trailers, but wow that unskippable cutscene at the start killed me. A lot of people in the Steam forum (when not interminably whining over JonTron) seem to think it's fine because Banjo-Kazooie did it, but I suspect they've got a bad case of nostalgia glasses.

I was amused that the book-stealing machine's name can be abbreviated to N64.


Last edited by Nezchan on 12 April 2017 at 1:18 pm UTC
Guest Apr 12, 2017
View video on youtube.com

Interesting review (contains swearies). I might skip this one for now, perhaps pick it up on sale. Some of the reviews coming out from trusted game journalists aren't the most encouraging. But It's easy to get excited with nostalgia and colorful modern graphics, especially if your platform doesnt have many titles like these. Glad they supported SteamOS/Linux though.


Last edited by on 12 April 2017 at 4:23 pm UTC
Naib Apr 12, 2017
View PC info
  • Supporter Plus
Well had a chance to play this for an hour today.. correction, my 6yo daughter did, she would not let me have the controller (except when it was tricky)

Once the libudev tweak is done the game launches just fine with a controller. The game was nice and smooth via steam link and no need to configure the controller.

The game is a nice open-ish world platform game with mini puzzles (got beaten in some damn race).

I haven't tried the arcade section yet.
It's a nice fun platformer and seems good for kids or general time wasting
DMJC Apr 12, 2017
From the makers of Banjo Kazooie comes... Don't sue us Microsoft Banjo Kazooie. And everyone is happy to see it get made :)
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.