Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (Xbox One/SX)

This great 2D platformer delivers a crowd-pleasing adventure regardless of when you started enjoying the genre.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair is a game for those who adore the genre and want something bright, colourful and full of self-referential puns to end a long day at work. However, you have to be able to overlook some game design and quality-of-life flaws that can make the game frustratingly hard.

The Impossible Lair is definitely a better attempt at capturing the magic of platformers than Yooka-Laylee's first crack at it, but it's still not remarkable. If you're itching to return to a bygone era, then The Impossible Lair might scratch it. Just don't expect much beyond that.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair lacks most of the original game's charm, and its final gauntlet is more tedious than taxing.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair brings the dynamic duo down to a 2.5D perspective to deliver one of the best platformers we’ve seen in years.

It's a distillation and a simplification, but it's effective. Then, as its grand finale -- a necessary conclusion that looms over the whole game -- it turns uncharacteristically punitive. It's rewarding, that much is undeniable. But it also leaves you feeling like all those hours spent beekeeping never really prepared you for the final challenge.

If you enjoyed the first game, or are a fan of platformers and collectathons in general, you should absolutely pick up this game.