E3 2019: New Yooka-Laylee Game Has A Donkey Kong Country Vibe

Update: As promised, Playtonic has revealed a new game: Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair. Whereas the original Yooka-Laylee was a take on the classic Banjo-Kazooie style, this appears to be more in the vein of Donkey Kong Country. Impossible Lair is a 2D platformer with a 3D overworld for you to navigate in between levels. You can check out the first trailer below.

Original Story: Yooka-Laylee developer Playtonic Games, a UK studio comprised of numerous former Rare developers, has been relatively quiet since launching the mascot-platformer back in 2017. It's been two years since Playtonic mentioned working on anything new, and while the independent studio is remaining quite tight-lipped, Playtonic did tease something slated for tomorrow, June 7 ahead of E3.

The tease is nothing substantial. It's a short, 30-second video of various comments aimed at the indie studio with a similar message: what is Playtonic working on next. Halfway through the clip, a myriad of emoji eyes fills the screen before fading to black. Playtonic isn't saying anything, other than something of some sort is coming from the studio on Friday, June 7.

This tease suggests Playtonic will unveil something new before the chaos that is E3. This year's E3 started a little earlier than normal, with Google leading with its Stadia Connect Event. Similarly, EA Play will be held on Saturday, June 8 just before E3. The main show starts with Xbox on June 9 at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST (6 AM AET on June 10).

Yooka-Laylee launched in April 2017 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. In December of the same year, the bat-chameleon duo made their way to the Nintendo Switch. The mascot-platformer has surpassed more than 1 million sales since then. In our Yooka-Laylee review, we said, "If you’re looking for a faithful return to the Banjo-Kazooie formula, Yooka-Laylee certainly delivers--from the font to the music to the wealth of collectibles, it’s worthy of the title of spiritual successor."