This month (August) was Yooka Laylee and the Impossible Lair, another link moving along in our Donkey Kong Country and Returns/Tropical Freeze lineage; we’ve been trying to see where this rabbit hole ends (as of 2025). In the end, this one was disappointing for a few reasons, but has a lot of promise, especially if you appreciate the collectable structure of the game (which requires with its gating, often for us, at least, that you spend time grinding for the game’s currencies). We discuss the 2.5d “unity” feel of the game, the various gating and currency systems, the level design, and others features in relation to Yoshi’s Island (last month’s game), as well as others talked about previously on the podcast.

This one is very well produced, has good music, and evidence that suggests it was a labour of love for the developers.

All of that is to say that it could be a fan favourite for those that do appreciate the Retro Studios Donkey Kong games, and/or those that really have a lot of time to devote to its systems and level/currency grind; it just didn’t really do enough for us.

We’ve got the usual suspects in the liner notes, and look out at the end of September for our take on Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance — another bit of lineage tracing to look the console origins of the action RPG.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit supercombotech.substack.com