Yooka-Laylee Joins The Battle In Brawlout On Nintendo Switch

Fun while it lasted, but as soon as Smash hits store shelves, R.I.P. Brawlout.

i kinda like Brawlhalla better. so i'm good on smash bros clones

This game is sooo much better after they updated and patched it. It should honestly be re-reviewed. It's a pretty darn good game now, they adredded most of my issues with the launch version

It's the closest thing we'll ever get to Banjo-Kazooie in Smash.

We just need Hat Kid next.

I didn't play much of this, it was annoying to play and it was annoying to unlock anything, needless to say, I prefer smash and will be playing ultimate 999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999x the amount I played this.

Is it just me or did anyone else’s heart stop when seeing the words Yooka-Laylee and smash and think for a second they were in smash
Until you saw the word brawlout

Actually if Yooka-Laylee wanted to get into smash this is their chance

@N00BiSH Yet it's neither Banjo-Kazooie...nor Smash.

@Not_Soos Hence "The Closest."

@Nintenrocket I wouldn't say my heart stopped, I was more perplexed than anything, but my initial thought process was the same as yours.

If this game had a few more prominent indie faces like Shovel Knight, Shantae, and CommanderVideo, I would probably buy this game. As it stands, the Yooka-Laylee inclusion does make for a more exciting package as I quite enjoyed the game despite its mixed reception and myriad of quality of life issues. I also just think Yooka and Laylee are very well-designed characters. However, it's not enough for me to want to buy the game, especially, as others have said, with Smash Bros. on the horizon.

Smash Ultimate isn't here yet so it's great to have a good alternative until the ultimate showdown. I welcome Yooka-Laylee to Brawlout. Hopefully next they bring in Shovel Knight and Meat Boy to the roster as well.

Bubsy please

The game is alright, but my biggest gripe is how annoying unlocking the clone characters are.

@Not_Soos Shovel Knight is appearing in Blade Strangers, another fighting game.

This game looks ok, but by time I finish my backlog, Pokemon and Smash will be out and any Smash clone will then be irrelevant to me.

I'll be getting all the fighting I need from Blade Strangers, provided it doesn't turn out to be bad, and Smash Ultimate. When this game seems unpolished to me.

On a side note, do we know when Rivals of Aether is due out on Switch? I'd like to get my hands on that as well.

@Smigit I just think it would be nice to see a lot of these major faces in the video game indie-stry (ya see what I did there? ) collectively appear in a single fighting game--an "Indie Smash Bros.," if you will. I'm not actually sure what Blade Strangers is, but Shovel Knight alone as a guest character doesn't make me terribly excited.

@Not_Soos YL was actually quite brilliant, at least in terms of what it was intent to be. All the more negative press I saw complained that it basically didn’t differentiate itself from BK, or the complaints were things that were just as applicable to BK (and collectathons in general) Which is fine, the genre has its warts, but considering it was promised to be a spiritual successor to BK it’s sorta silly to then complain when it’s so similar to BK. I hope YL becomes a franchise of its own (it could use some polish but that comes with time), I smiled from beginning to end with that game as I felt like a kid again. I even 100%ed it twice.

Then again... the minecart minigames weren’t even fun for a moment (and Rextro’s later minigames). I get that it was the point, they literally acknowledge in game that they aren’t fun, but if you reach the imminent where you have to acknowledge that, then you don’t need to include it. I really hope we get a sequel, but those two parts can stay home.

Added clarity: minecart levels aren’t inherently bad, look at Tropical Freeze for how to make incredibly fun ones. But if we’re trying to make the controls more clunky for the sake of nostalgia... we’ll that’s my own gripe, the game was a solid 9/10 for me.

I’d get this game... except I’m getting Smash later this year so why bother? For a sec I thought this was about Smash (like a couple others here) and wasn’t sure if I was excited or disappointed (loved YL but there’s many characters I’d like first)... I’d still like it if we could get BK in Smash, Microsoft even said they’d be cool with that...

@Not_Soos Blade Strangers looks to have a bunch of other cameos, mainly Nicalis published titles like Cave Story etc. if you want a indie game beat em up it may fill the void if it proves to be ok. It’s not out yet though.

@Banjos_Backpack as stated, the Rextro games and minecart challenges are the things I think it did wrong. The worlds didn’t feel any bigger than BT which is one of my favorite games of all time (I replay it every couple years, 100% every time). It feels like exactly where BT left off in terms of experience, other than having less worlds than I wanted (but given the studio was just starting off, that part didn’t surprise me). If you look at the community reaction though, people’s opinions are all over the place. There’s people like you who consider it a flop and people like me who found it incredibly fun. I’d have played it more if I had the Switch version (for portability) but given I was a backer I just wanted my copy ASAP. I was quite happy and will stand by my love of it. Opinions are opinions though.

@Banjos_Backpack yeah well as I did admit, it wasn’t as polished as it could be but once again... I think that’s due to Playtonic just starting out and it didn’t hurt my opinion of the game. Then again, it was like the fourth or fifth game I Kickstarted and the previous titles... well, one was Mighty No. 9 (sadly I’m in the group that felt that didn’t live up to expectations), a lesser known title called Nefarious (which wasn’t horrible but ended up feeling like a flash game to me which was disappointing), and Shantae Half Genie Hero (which I loved but honestly Wayforward didn’t need KS, they were an established studio). I might be missing a game (hence why I said YL was fourth or fifth) but point is, I started to get skeptical by the time YL came out so having lower expectations might factor in how much I enjoyed it... but I was also starved for the genre, collectathons have become rare (no pun intended) and as many times as I’ve replayed BK, BT, and DK64 (to me the purest collectathons we’ve had) I just wanted something new, those games were my childhood. The only times I felt truly frustrated in YL was in the Rextro games (and the first couple I actually enjoyed) and the minecart (that boss did make me rage a bit), outside of those I enjoyed the adventure enough to play through twice.

As for Playtonics future... well, I’m hopeful, assuming the negative press of YL didn’t hurt them too much. I’ve no doubt they can improve on the game and I feel they focused on developing a BK-esque world more than the gameplay, now that its established they can iron out the bugs and actually take the genre forward, assuming they continue with it. It was very much a risky project in the first place as today’s gamers (aside from the older nostalgic ones) aren’t clamoring for collectathons, the more common opinion I hear on them is that they’re tedious and repetitive, lack depth. And yeah, in a way it can get mindless but I feel their strength was always making colorful worlds full of interesting characters, a bit of childlike wonder... in Rare’s case factor in a bit of schoolboy humor. And personally I tend to get small serotonin boosts as I fill my collections of fairly meaningless trinkets. I mean Odyssey actually leaned towards that, the way they handled Moons ended up being more like a collectathon, just strewing them everywhere, so maybe the genre is starting to see a revival, but I doubt it’ll ever be mainstream (among gamers) again, it was popular in early 3D days because it was the easiest way for developers and players to explore 3D worlds when starting out. But that’s off topic, point is Playtonic definitely can (and probably would) improve things given more time to continue the franchise. KS is great because these people wouldn’t have been able to give us a BK style experience without it (and whatever shell of Rare that remains sure as heck won’t ever). Downside being they had a fixed budget and that’s why KS can be hit or miss, having a limited budget means the game can only go so far before they have to release what they’ve got (or risk years of trying to draw out development while they try to find more ways to fund the project). But heck, without KS these studios wouldn’t be able to make ANYTHING. I’m just getting tired of studios who CAN afford a normal development cycle turning to KS, I put up with it with Shantae and a couple board game expansions but I mostly try to avoid supporting that...

^ what

Uhm trailer looks pretty neat, I would maybe pick this one up as Smash hasn't done much for me since Melee. Yeah one of those guys.

Sometimes I hate the gaming community. I’ve just recently been playing Yooka Laylee... and I think it is awesome. The closest thing we’ve gotten to Banjo Kazooie in modern form. A better effort than what Microsoft and modern Rare did.... from and indie studio!!

It’s got amazing things, level design, music, characters. To be honest, if it wasn’t for a simple character swap it would be Banjo Threeie.

But yet, the community bashed Playtonics effort.... so I will say the following .... [removed] community. This game was amazing and it filled my teenagers desire for a Banjo sequel.

Bring on Yooka Laylee 2

@fafonio I’ve held out for physical and I’m looking forward to it. Glad to hear others aren’t so down on it.

Will also pick up brawlout now as it’s not full price physical

Brawlout is 11.99 on Switch eshop right now thats a great price for a game this good.

@DownRightSam did the update fix that much?
Because the cpu was waaaaaay to hard to beat.
& the system for unlocking new characters is so slow going and actually SUPER CRAP.
No fun to play at all

Well then. That does it. I'll have to get this game eventually.

@Banjos_Backpack fully agree, fingers crossed, they had to establish a new world but they did that and now they can focus on moving forward. And given the ending, it seems likely they at least have ideas for a sequel. KS actually has the other disadvantage you touched on - having to be transparent with fans through the development. And the reason this is bad is... well, when I was in college they always told us gamers don’t necessarily know what they want or what would make a good game - they might know but they also might have different ideas of what they think will work compared to what will work (doesn’t mean studios should ever ignore fans), and being forced to continually have updates, treading on eggshells to make sure the audience is happy on how it looks at any given moment... it interrupts the natural development cycle where they try stuff and learn something isn’t going to work. Instead they try something, realize it isn’t working, but crap they showed it to everyone so they can’t cut it out so let’s just force it in as best we can and keep moving forward so we have another thing to show next month. It’s just not how games naturally develop.

I didn’t fully consider the number of games starting to revive the old genres but that’s a good point, and I never even considered just how much Odyssey really did borrow from collectathons... and the thing I like to praise Odyssey most for is it had a ridiculous amount of things to collect but they all boiled down to TWO things: moons and coins. That’s it. Instead of DK64 having bananas and golden bananas and banana fairies and banana medals and keys and blueprints and crowns and a Nintendo coin and a Rare coin and to some degree regular banana coins and now do it all again with 4 more characters... look, I love DK64 too as I’ve made clear but I’m aware of the things it’s criticized for, and the beauty of Odyssey is it shows we don’t need a complex network of collectibles to be a good collectathon, just have them not too spread out and have ways in game figure out where you’re missing stuff (purple coins sometimes got a little irritating for 100% but it was minor). I still wish for real Odyssey DLC just because I want more and there was nothing quite like it. Not that I’m saying YL needs to cut down to 2 types of collectibles to be good either though, as BK and BT did fine and they competed with DK64 there (minus having 5 different characters). My point is mainly that the solution isn’t always “add more different things” which is an easy mistake the genre makes, it’s more nuanced than that, there’s a lot of factors and Odyssey was similar to these older collectathons yet very different at the same time.

And I do wanna say... Rextro is redeemable, maybe not in this game but in a sequel if the minigames were less tedious... BT had amazing minigames (that mostly could be played multiplayer), the problem wasn’t having minigames based off existing games/genres, it was that they were ridiculous to control and had too high of goals. I wanna say Kartos is less redeemable, but given Tropical Freeze’s minecart levels, YL2 could make the minecart levels fun if it tried. Instead of focusing on making fun of how bad they are/were, just make them fun... heck, you can still pretend they aren’t fun as long as they ARE fun, Kazooie complained about every minigame despite them being fun, the characters can be like, “Not another minecart challenge,” while the challenge itself is enjoyable to the player. And if they can’t figure out how to do it, cut it out then, because heck, I didn’t LOVE the minecart levels in original DKC (or necessarily in DK64) but they were not nearly as bad as Kartos’s challenges, if anything kills my desire to replay YL a third time in the near future it’ll be the memories of that minecart boss because that was just BS and at least could’ve benefited from some checkpoints...

@Vlad it was a huge patch. They got rid of the random pinatas/loot box for character unlocks. You just choose which character to unlock now in whatever order you want.

They tweaked and balanced a lot and made single player and multi more enjoyable.

Here's the patch notes.
http://www.brawlout.com/brawlout-nintendo-switch-patch-notes-1-3-0/

That is awesome! Though I kinda wished for Yooka-Laylee to be in Smash Bros. =/

@Aozz101x Rivals of Aether has Ori so automatically superior.

@RichardZ sorry, i have no preference.
if you're saying that "Rivals of Aether" is the superior of smash clones. i'll be willing to try it.
Edit: ah, $15? Pretty Positive? not bad. i'll add it on the wishlist.

@Aozz101x was just a joke cause Ori is an awsome game. But From what I have heard Rivals of Aether is better.

@RichardZ Oh, no hard feeling. thanks for recommending!

It's too bad Brawlout might as well not even exist with the new Super Smash Bros right around the corner.

@DownRightSam I can't help but to have a feeling of "too little too late" when it comes to the recent improvements to Brawlout. If the game was like that back when it released I would have definitely bought it, but at this point with the new Smash Bros coming out this year my interest in Brawlout is no longer there. I might pick it up if they make it really cheap on sale, but only out of curiosity.

If this is the Smash for indies, why not?

Yooka-Laylee, Juan from Guacamelee, and Hyper Light Drifter are cool characters. They just need more of them, more of the biggest indie characters anyway, and I hope they will add more in updates, mainly because the main cast of original characters is rather boring. If the cast gets bigger with more interesting characters, it could live next to Smash Ultimate.

@Banjos_Backpack jaja no... I didn’t even read your comment before my post. I’m reacting because I heard so many bad things about the game. I was hyped for it but waited years for the switch version. I downloaded it last week (because of backlog) .... and I found the game absolutely charming and a true Banjo sequel.
Obviously the limitations from being an indie studio shows. But I mean, it’s way better than Nuts and Bolts.

I’m happy with this spiritual successor and I’m looking forward for a sequel.

If this is the only kind of Banjo game I’m gonna get in my lifetime..... I’ll take 10 sequels please.

Its a really good game. Its a shame theres unlockables that were tournament only, as I’m part of the adult working world and missed many of those. Its also a chore to unlock all the characters and stages, even if you know the little exploits. I’ve never been a huge Smash player, so this was a nice cheaper alternative for me. It’s impressive and polished enough for its price. If only I had waited for the physical version... but at the end of the day I helped pay some hard working indie devs’ paychecks. I’m excited about Yooka-Layley. I’ve held out for a physical Switch version... is that ever coming? I keep seeing it practically given away on PSN but I never buy it, wanting the Nintendo version. Knowing my luck I’ll get it digitally then see it boxed a month later. Lol

They have this, but no Switch port of Yooka Laylee? sad.

@mikegamer what are you talking about? YL is on switch

@VR32X it’s due next month.... I’m waiting too.

@SKTTR I think they confirmed before Yooka Laylee being added that more were coming (multiple) So i guess more still to come...

I’m hoping they are more guest appearances.... even characters from the guest games already featured would do.

In fighting games the more the merrier for me.

Ordered this when I saw this announcement of this it tip me over edge and physical was £23.

I’m building a nice physical collection just over 50 now.

@ShadJV Most people complain about Yooka-Laylee not because it's similar to Banjo-Kazooie but because it's a much worse game considering level design, characters/side quests, writing, gameplay, mini games...

Although not all Rare members are at Playtonic, I am sure that Playtonic can do much better than this. I can't wait to see what they do next. A new Banjo co-developed with Rare?

@Aozz101x How many fighting games like Smash are out there? Wow.

@fafonio Mind your language!

@fafonio Took them long enough

that yooka laylee level couldnt look more uninspired.

Doesn't look very fun if you ask me.
No interesting characters, no items, very basic stages.

If Shantae is ever added, I'll look into this. Until then...