QCF: Yooka-Replaylee

n an age where we can still get sequels or remakes for IPs that have been dormant for decades, like Pocky & Rocky, Joe & Mac, Snow Bros., or the anomaly that keeps coming back, Bubsy, there’s a certain Bear and Bird duo that hasn’t been active since their weird build-a-car stint that was exclusive to the Xbox 360. The furry pair have left a near-indomitable mark on the 3D Platformer genre, so much so that a big chunk of the development team that worked on the property went on to pitch a spiritual successor through the crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, and were able to successfully release an entirely new property, Yooka-Laylee.

Despite getting enough traction to release an arguably more beloved side-scrolling sequel that paid homage to another classic from their old stomping grounds, Donkey Kong Country, the response to the original Yooka-Laylee was a bit more polarized than anticipated. I, for one, enjoyed it for what it was, but also felt like it didn’t quite add up to the sum of its parts, especially when the core idea seemed to revolve around the idea that “bigger means better.” As time went on, though, every attempt to revisit the game after my first run of it gradually soured me more and more with each return to it—the juice it promised just didn’t have the shelf-life I thought it would.

Yooka-Replaylee, swings back hard on this oversight by unfolding the dense origami-like world design of the original into a more fleshed-out version that unlocks all of the expansive nooks and crannies into a more seamless, open-world experience, and that’s just one of many upgrades and improvements to be found in this revamped take of the 3D platformer throwback.

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QCF: Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX

here are so many forgotten classics that somehow still get overlooked after all of this time, and are honestly just ripe for the remake treatment. I mean, sure there are a few classic titles that undoubtedly deserve a new coat of paint, but personally, I get all the more excited over the obscure games with sleeper followings that get chosen for an HD resurrection.

SEGA’s abandoned Simian Martial-Artist, Alex Kidd, is one such prime candidate, as the forgotten mascot has only managed the occasional cameo or two over the past thirty years, and has only now been granted the opportunity to be relevant again with a remake of his very first outing, Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX. Now the Master System exclusive wasn’t a mechanical marvel by any means, exuding just enough charm to offset its finicky physics and platforming flaws—making the concept of a remake that could improve upon its issues all the more exciting.

In some unfortunate twist of fate, however, the folks behind the remake, Merge Games and Jankenteam, have somehow produced a version of the game that’s genetically inferior to the 1986 original—and I couldn’t have been more disappointed in my experience with it as a result.

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