FIRST PLAY YOOKA LAYLEE

Once upon a time, video games were a very different beast. They were bright and colourful, and starred wise-cracking animals instead of grizzled anti-heroes with a frown lines as deep as the Grand Canyon. Yooka-laylee harks back to those days with rib-tickling panache, which is no surprise given the team behind it made many of the games it so cheerfully riffs off.

You see, Playtonic Games is stuffed full of former Rare staffers who worked for that much-loved developer during its imperial phase on the Nintendo 64. Most importantly, they had a big hand in making Banjo-kazooie the smash hit it was almost 20 years ago. Now they’re back with another platforming romp featuring a new adorable critter coupling. From what we’ve played so far, it’s shaping up very nicely.

Originally Kickstarter-funded, the game sees you jump, race and smash your way across several worlds in order to collect ‘Pagies’: golden book pages that unlock even more larks to get involved with. From the very off, it feels like a love letter to Super Mario 64, Spyro the Dragon and all those other chirpy collectathons that proved the foundation of many a happy childhood.

Of course, to stand alongside the games it so adoringly pays tribute to, it’ll need to succeed on its own merits rather than those borrowed from others. After a couple of hours spent messing around with giant arcade machines, carnival-style shooting galleries and an odd spot of gardening, this game certainly has the potential to be a modern kind of classic.