It's so-so.
For context, Banjo Kazooie 1 is probably my all time favorite game but I don't have much love for any of the other Rare platformers (Tooie was just too large, Donkey Kong 64 I enjoyed as a Blockbuster rental, and I never got far in Conker). There's just something about BK that just had the perfect mix of everything for me: great levels, incredibly catchy music (still hum it to this day), fun overworld to explore, satisfying sound effects, and very solid gameplay.
Looka Laylee started out great, the basic movement and gameplay feels really good, the graphics are bright and colorful, and the music is solid (it's basically just more Banjo music, so it doesn't end up being as catchy IMO). And the first level was very solid too, it was a good size (not too huge like Tooie), it was very open and easy to navigate and the Pagies were fun to find.
But after that I started to like it less. The snow level was the kind of stuff I didn't like in Tooie, with a less intuitive layout that takes a while to get your bearings. And it has a lot of objectives that aren't clear right away (snowmen needing hats, but not seeing any hats anywhere near, stuff like that), or were just more annoying than they were fun (a castle you need to memorize which doors go where, and a cave with very difficult traversal that I think I might need to come back to with a later power). The only other level I've gotten to is the Swamp, which isn't bad, but thematically I don't like it nearly as much as the Swamp or the Halloween levels in BK, which it took a lot of inspiration from).
And the overworld in the game hasn't been the easiest to navigate. The newest patch was suppose to add signs or something to help guide you better which might fix my complaint, but at release it was just kind of confusing, where I didn't know which level I had to find in order to get the power I needed to continue. And the level entrances are just in random places with their theme being lazily added to a small area around them (some snow next to the snow level, pillars or plants next to the aztec level, pumpkins or something next to the swamp.
I stopped playing when I heard the patch was being worked on and I'm sure I'll get back to it eventually, but it wasn't the triumphant return to Banjo Kazooie 1 that I was hoping for (I didn't have any expectations that it would be as amazing as BK, but I hoped it would get closer than it did).
