Yooka-Laylee (lost build of unreleased Wii U port of platformer; 2015-2016)

Screenshot from the trailer.

Status: Lost

Yooka-Laylee is a platformer game that was released for Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation 4, Microsoft Xbox One, Apple Mac OS, PC, and Linux. A Wii U port of the game was also being developed, but was cancelled.

Announcement and Development

In September 2012, a group of former Rare employees announced that they want to make a spiritual successor to Banjo-Kazooie. On April 30, 2015, Playtonic Games announced Project Ukulele (later renamed to Yooka-Laylee). On April 10 2015, it was announced that a Kickstarter page for the game would be started. On April 30 2015, Project Ukulele was renamed to Yooka-Laylee, and the 2 main characters of the game were revealed. On May 1, 2015, the game's Kickstarter was launched. It passed and surpassed its goal in less than 30 minutes. On June 16, 2015, the Kickstarter was closed with 73,206 backers and the project raised £2,090,104.

Cancellation

On December 13, 2016, it was announced that the Wii U port of the game was cancelled because of unforeseen technical difficulties and in order to make a Switch version of the game. Anyone that pre-ordered the Wii U version on Kickstarter could exchange it for a port of the game on a different system, or alternatively, upgrade to a copy of the game for the Switch. A refund could also be requested. On April 11, 2017, Yooka-Laylee was officially released to the public. On December 14th of the same year, the Switch version of the game was released.

Videos

Yooka-Laylee Wii U trailer.

Yooka-Laylee Gamescom 2016 Wii U trailer.